The debt-to-GDP ratio of India is low, even in comparison of its G7 counterparts except Canada and Germany.
Cut in Repo Rate by 25 bps
The repo rate reduced by 25 basis points (bps) to 6.25 per cent by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of RBI.
It was recording the first-grade cut since almost five years.
The rate of deposit facility (SDF) is at 6 per cent.
The Bank Rate and the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate stands at 6.50 per cent.
The last time the central bank lowered repo rate was in the month of May 2020 when it reduced the rates by 40 basis points to 4 per cent.
Grameen Credit Score
Grameen Credit Score is an infrastructure that would be built on the lines of credit needs of SHG (Self Help Group) members and those living in rural areas.
A framework of Grameen Credit Score will be formed in Public Sector Banks.
When women belonging to self-help groups credit score are publicized, they can easily obtain additional loans in the banks.
The intended purpose of the latter is to enhance the repayment arts and curb fraud by giving better appraisals of borrowers living in rural locations.
It will enhance the microfinance, improve financial inclusion, and favour industries such as agriculture, rural development, and MSMEs.
Duty Free Life-Saving Drugs
In the Budget, 36 medicines and drugs that can save a life are proposed to be included in the list of medicines that will fully be exempted of Basic Customs Duty.
It is also proposed that the Budget will bring 6 lifesaving medicines into a list that would draw concessional custom duty of 5 percent.
The above will also be respectively exempted with Full exemption and concessional duty on the bulk drugs to be used in the manufacturing process.
The Budget seeks to include 37 additional medicines and 13 new patient assistance programmes to the list.
2047 pharma exports of India
Exports of India pharmaceutical industry are estimated to be at 350 billion by 2047.
It would be an estimated 10-15 folds growth level at present.
India is ranked at number 11 in value of pharmaceutical export and India has the potential to help it to be one of the top five countries by 2047.
Pharma exports by the country are estimated to increase to around $65 billion by the year 2030, upwards of the current amount of around $27 billion.
The current exports of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) are at an amount of $50 billion.
It is expected that in 2047 it will amount to 80-90 billion dollars.
It is projected that currently valued exports on Indian biosimilar, owing to the large customer base in mature markets, will accrue exponentially fivefold to US$4.2 billion by 2030 and reach US 30-35 billion by 2047.
AFA International Transactions
RBI decided to mandate Additional Factor Authentication (AFA) to cross-border, “Card Not Present” (CNP) transactions.
AFA has already established its efficacy of curbing fraud in the domestic digital payment system.
So far, AFA had not been required at international level.
AFA will now be mandatory during registration, modification or deletion of a mandate.
In the new system, even Customers utilizing auto-debits will have to authorize the payment through an OTP or any other authentication technology that has to be prescribed by the bank.
NDS-OM platform
RBI will give non-bank brokers listed in the SEBI access to the Negotiated Dealing System-Order Matching (NDS-OM) electronic system.
NDS-OM (RBI run), is an execution less anonymous order matching system (secondary market trading) in government securities (G-Secs).
At present, the members of the NDS-OM system can include banks, primary dealers, insurance companies and mutual funds, which hold Subsidiary General Ledger (SGL) accounts with the RBI.
Palm oil import of India 2025
Imports of palm oil in India declined to their lowest levels in almost 14 years in January as the refiners shifted to soy oil that is cheaper.
January palm oil imports declined 45 percent in December to 275,241 metric tons on a low since March 2011.
Palm oil tends to be sold relatively cheap as compared to soy oil and sunflower oil.
In January soy oil imports rose 5.6 percent to 444,026 tons, the most in seven months, and sunflower oil imports rose 8.9 percent to 288,284 tons.
India is a net importer of palm oil and primarily sources palm oil products of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Indeed the importation of soy oil and sunflower oil in India is made in Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.
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