How the country’s largest lender performs speaks volumes about the health of the overall economy. To that effect, State Bank of India (SBI’s) second quarter results had some good news and a lot of bad omens.

The banking behemoth reported a welcome drop in its bad loan ratios and a sharp fall in fresh slippages sequentially, which suggests the economy is on the mend, with corporate deleveraging under way. SBI’s gross non-performing assets (NPAs) slipped to 9.83% for the second quarter from 9.97% in the previous quarter.

City-based equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd has tied up with Reliance Industries, Reliance Private Client, Yes Bank and Let’s Venture to cash in on India’s burgeoning fintech ecosystem, OurCrowd chief executive officer Jon Medved said. “We think that India is highly under-invested and it’s going to be an explosive market over the next couple of decades,” Medved said. OurCrowd enables start-ups to connect with prospective investors and is currently distributing its products to high-networth clients of Reliance Private Client.

Owing to a slow pick-up in rural markets following the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) and inventory correction made by the companies after supplying a record number of vehicles since July, the passenger vehicle segment reported a marginal decline in October. This is the first time that the car market witnessed a decline in dispatches since June when carmarkers did not push inventory into dealerships before the introduction of the GST. Carmarkers also had a high base in the corresponding period since both Navratri and Diwali were in the same month last year. According to the latest data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) for October, the passenger car segment witnessed a 5.3% Y-o-Y decline in volumes to 1,84,666 units, while the same for the utility vehicles space increased 12.45% Y-o-Y to 79,323 units.

Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) on Friday reported a 25% year-on-year rise in its standalone net profit to Rs 1,332 crore for the three months ended September 30, 2017. The net profit was higher than analysts’ estimates, and was driven by impressive tractor sales during the quarter. Net sales for the country’s largest tractor manufacturer surged 14% to Rs 12,182.07 crore while the operating margin expanded. The company reported EBITDA of Rs 1,729.26 crore, up 45.5%, while the EBITDA margin was up by 310 basis points to 14.2%. Pawan Goenka, managing director, told analysts in a conference call, “Margins have risen due to a favourable model mix in the quarter and because we have passed on commodity price increases to customers by way of increase in prices. We also cleared out all the inventory with a BS III (Bharat Stage 3) or GST impact out in the last quarter.”

A special CBI court here has acquitted two persons in a corruption case, citing lack of evidence and the prosecution’s failure to prove the charges. Special judge P S Tarare recently acquitted a former convener of the Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA), Ashok Singh, and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) executive Shishir Kumar Dubey. The CBI had filed the charge sheet against Singh, who was then Chief Regional Manager at HPCL’s Vashi Regional Office, and station manager Dubey for allegedly manipulating petrol pump meter readings and misappropriating funds between 2004 and 2007.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is set to hold a meeting of its executive committee on November 16 to discuss the way forward in the matter of road developers that have been listed as defaulters and barred from bidding for further projects. According to sources, the NHAI is expected to invite the National Highways Builders Federation (NHBF) for the meeting to give them the opportunity to discuss the grievances of their members.

The government has approved a proposal made by an industry consortium led by tech major Microsoft to train chief information security officers (CISOs) and other information technology officers from the Centre, states, banks and public sector enterprises (PSUs) on cyber security-related challenges. Officials concerned with technology-related work in the defence ministry, army, air force and navy are also expected to participate in the programme. The programme — Cyber Surakshit Bharat — which will be held in participation with the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) has been approved by electronics and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, an official said.

US President Donald Trump will be pushing for India's membership to the 21 member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC ) early next week when Prime Minister Modi and President Trump will be at the APEC summit in Manila, according to Dennis Wilder, former high ranking CIA expert on China and who is currently professor of Asian Studies at the Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

In an exclusive interview with ANI, Wilder said, “This idea has been kicking around between the US, Japan, Australia and India for a while. I think President Trump and Prime Minister Modi have a very good relationship and when they meet in Manila they will discuss APEC.

Mumbai-based lender Axis Bank is set to raise Rs 11,626 crore ($1.8 billion) to further strengthen its capital base by selling shares and warrants to a group of investors, including Bain Capital and top Indian insurer Life Insurance Corp (LIC).

The private lender in a filing said its board had approved the sale of up to 172.63 million shares at Rs 525 each, and 45.36 million convertible warrants at Rs 565 each on a preferential basis.

CHENNAI: HDFC Bank has tweaked the requirement for its premium customers by mandating that they now keep Rs 1-lakh balance a month from the earlier requirement of Rs 1-lakh balance a quarter.

Changing the eligibility for its 'Classic' banking programme, HDFC Bank now mandates that customers would have to maintain the new minimum balance from December 9, according to mailers sent to customers.

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