The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed that external benchmark-linked loans be made optional for non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), while emphasising that usurious rates are not charged for small-ticket loans in the draft norms on interest rates on loans and advances.

The draft, which offers a harmonised framework for determining interest rates on loans across regulated entities, said floating-rate retail loans and floating-rate loans to micro.

The Department of Financial Services is weighing two options to ease the financial costs involving Unified Payments Interface (UPI): Restoring the merchant discount rate (MDR) for certain high-value transactions or merchants, or introducing a tiered incentive structure to phase out government support over the next few years, the Finance Ministry told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance.

Listed Tata Group companies have lost nearly Rs 44,000 crore in market capitalisation (market-cap) over the past two trading days following N Chandrasekaran’s decision on Wednesday not to seek reappointment as chairman of Tata Sons.

In the past two trading days, the combined market-cap of 26 Tata Group companies slipped by Rs 43,812 crore to Rs 27.04 trillion as of Thursday till 09:23 AM.

NB Holdings Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation (BoFA), will acquire a 49.9 per cent stake in Jio Credit, the lending arm of Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Financial Services (JFS), for ₹18,268.22 crore, or $1.9 billion, through a preferential allotment of equity shares and warrants, Jio Financial Services said in a filing with the stock exchanges. JFS and BofA signed a definitive agreement on Wednesday.

Tata group stocks traded in a narrow range on Thursday, August 13, with the majority eking out minute gains and only a handful trading with cuts, recovering from a knee-jerk reaction seen a day earlier following the announcement of Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran's resignation.

Investors also assessed the impact of Chandra's exit on the Tata group stocks ahead of the end of his term in February next year.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the 19 remaining states and Union territories to declare cancer a "notifiable disease" to ensure early detection and proper care of patients.

The top court's direction came after it was informed that 17 of the 36 states and UTs have so far notified cancer as a "notified disease" in light of the recommendations made in a parliamentary standing committee report.

Senior bureaucrat Deepti Gaur Mukerjee has been appointed as the new Higher Education Secretary, as part of a top-level bureaucratic reshuffle effected by the Centre on Monday.

She succeeds Vineet Joshi, who was appointed last month as the Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

The government has extended the PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-DRIVE) scheme by a year to March 31, 2028. The incentives for electric two-wheelers (e2Ws) have also been halved to ₹2,500 per kWh from ₹5,000 per kWh earlier.

The incentive will now be capped at ₹5,000 per e2W, compared with ₹10,000 per vehicle in FY25. It will be available for electric two-wheelers with an ex-factory price of up to ₹1.5 lakh.

Gautam Adani won dismissal of US securities fraud charges, ending a blockbuster case that threatened the expansion of the Indian billionaire’s giant conglomerate.

US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn, New York, on Monday dismissed conspiracy, securities and wire fraud charges against Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani.

India’s waning appeal among foreign investors means short-term measures to attract capital are unlikely to stem the rupee’s weakness, former central bank Governor Duvvuri Subbarao said, adding to calls from other economists for deeper structural reforms.

Subbarao, who was head of the Reserve Bank of India between 2008 and 2013.

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