By the time this issue reaches your hands, the new government would have taken over. Which are the burning issues in the infrastructure space that have to be tackled on an urgent basis?

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has stated that the Insurance Repository System was launched on September 16, 2013 with the objective to provide policy holders a facility to keep insurance policies in electronic form and to undertake changes, modifications and revisions in the insurance policy with speed and accuracy in order to bring about efficiency, transparency and cost reduction in the issuance and maintenance of insurance policies.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) decided to exclude lending by insurance firms to housing finance companies as exposure to the finance sector. In a statement, the insurance regulatory body said these loans would be henceforth treated as funding to the hous

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) clarified that the prospective bank licensee must set up a non-operative financial holding company (NOFHC). Further, the central bank said if any individual belonging to the promoter group chooses to become a promoter of the NOFHC, he along with his relatives and along

Experts stress on the need for a coordinated effort from the government, Reserve Bank of India, Securities and Exchange Board of India and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to create a vibrant corporate bond market. Analysts point out that the exisiting primary issuance guidelines are constraining issuance of bonds in the debt market by corporates. Additionally, the corporate bond mar

Weak financial position of shipping companies may slowdown growth in the marine-hull segment of the insurance industry, reports indicate. Marine-hull insurance is purchased by port authorities, shipowners, shipbuilders, oil- and energy-sector companies, bankers and financiers of ships or vessels who have insurable interest

Finance Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) recently submitted a draft Indian Financial Code Bill which contains 450 clauses and six schedules. The code was submitted to give effect to its recommendations on the financial architecture of the country. Among various recommendations of the panel, the prominent one is the setting up of a Unified Financial Agency (UFA) by merging several regulators such as Sebi,

Reports suggest that the officials of labour ministry and the finance ministry may soon discuss the issue of allowing Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation to invest in infrastructure debt funds (IDF). Presently, EPFO is not allowed to invest a part of its Rs 5 lakh crore corpus in the IDF. It is learnt that the organisation, through the labour ministry, has already begu

Recently, banks and financial institutions have evinced interest in setting up Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF) structures. However, doubts linger as to how many of them will be able to raise any capital from these proposed IDFs from domestic or foreign institutional investors. The acceptability of these IDFs in the capital markets is yet to take off. Sumantra Das discusses issues related to IDFs and how far it will work as a catalyst for infrastructure finance.