Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said there is an urgent need for coordinated action among nations to enable a swift economic recovery post the Covid-19 pandemic, and also to build resilience to future shocks.

Speaking at the G20 Emerging Market Economies (EMEs) meeting in Washington DC on Tuesday night, Sitharaman shared her insights on the economic outlook, risks, and near-term policy challenges such as food and energy security and the tightening of global financial conditions.

India risks a repeat of last summer’s power outages as soaring temperatures boost demand for coal that’s used to generate about 70 per cent of the country’s electricity.

The hottest March in more than a century has heralded an early start to summer, increasing power consumption by air conditioners and refrigerators.

India’s general government fiscal deficit (states and Centre combined) has been projected at 9.9 per cent of GDP for FY23 as rising energy and food prices will put renewed pressure on the fiscal gap, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its report.

With renewed uncertainty on the back of the Russia-Ukraine war, commodity markets have been disrupted fuelling inflation. Governments globally will have to shape their responses against the backdrop of increasing inflation, slowdown in growth, high debt and tightening credit conditions, the IMF said in its fiscal monitor report.

The latest norms concerning large exposures, additional disclosures, and lending to directors laid down by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) are in line with its stated objective of narrowing the regulatory arbitrage between banks and shadow banks, observed industry insiders, adding it would be broadly non-disruptive in nature for the sector.

On Tuesday, the central bank mandated exposure limits for NBFCs in the upper layer, in line with commercial banks, by capping their aggregate exposure towards one entity at 20 per cent of capital base, extendable by another 5 per cent with board approval.

India will provide an additional $500 million in financial assistance to Sri Lanka for it to buy fuel, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister told reporters on Wednesday, adding Bangladesh was also willing to postpone a $450 million in swap repayments.

"Assistance by the IMF will take about six months to come to us and it will come in tranches," Sri Lankan Foreign Minister GL Peiris (pictured) said. "During the intervening period, we need to find funds to keep our people supplied with essentials."

The rupee appreciated 19 paise to 76.31 against the US dollar in opening trade on Wednesday, tracking positive trends among Asian and emerging market currencies.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 76.41 against the American dollar, then gained further ground to quote at 76.31, registering a rise of 19 paise from the last close.

Shares of Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals (MRPL) hit over three-year high of Rs 65.45, after it rallied 13 per cent on the BSE in Wednesday’s trade, on the back of heavy volumes. The stock of state-owned refineries & marketing company surged 24 per cent in the past two trading days. Earlier, the stock quoted its highest level in March 2019.

In the past 12 trading days, the market price of MRPL has zoomed 58 per cent so far in April, as compared to 2.7 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. The trading volumes on the counter jumped nearly three-fold as around 49 million shares changed hands on the NSE and BSE.

Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) were up 3.5 per cent at Rs 2,730 in Wednesday's intra-day trade, surging as much as 7 per cent in the last two trading sessions, on expectations of healthy earnings. The stock of the Mukesh Ambani-led refineries & marketing company is now close to its record high of Rs 2,750 touched on October 19, 2021.

RIL's consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) is estimated to grow 66.3 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 38,824 crore, mainly led by oil-to-chemical (O2C) and digital service segments. On a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis, it is expected to grow 30.7 per cent led by O2C segment, ICICI Securities said in its result preview.

The first fatality after weeks of protests in Sri Lanka over food and fuel shortages intensified calls for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign, with a key opposition leader saying Rajapaksa was “responsible for every death.”

Officers fired live rounds Tuesday night in the central Rambukkana area after tear gas failed to dispel a group of protesters who had blocked a train track and tried to set fire to a diesel truck, the police media unit in capital Colombo said by phone. One person was killed in the clash, according to Agence France-Presse and several local media outlets.

A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Bombay High Court seeking the initiation of contempt of court proceedings against Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, state home minister Dilip Walse Patil, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, and others for allegedly passing remarks against the judiciary.

The petition filed by the Indian Bar Association claimed that the respondents holding ministerial positions have levelled several "false, scandalous and contemptuous" allegations against the judges of the High Court and the entire judicial system.

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