BQuick On Sept. 21: Top 10 Stories In Under 10 Minutes
Top news, must-read stories and columns—all served up in less than 10 minutes.
This is a roundup of the day’s top stories in brief.
1. India Hikes MSP For Six Rabi Crops Amid Parliament Protests
India has hiked minimum support prices for six rabi crops including wheat, chickpeas, and masoor dal.
Wheat MSP has been increased by Rs 50 per quintal to Rs 1,975 per quintal.
The move comes amid protests in Parliament over the passage of three farm bills, that farmer groups fear will pave the way for the government to pull back its minimum price guarantees and hurt the sector.
The government has however assured farmers that the MSP mechanism will continue and that the farm reform was the need of the hour.
Earlier in the day, eight Rajya Sabha members were suspended from the Parliament for protesting the three bills.
Following their suspension, opposition parties sat in protest in the Parliament premises.
There have been widespread protests by opposition parties and farmer groups in Punjab, Haryana and some other states.
2. SBI's Loan Restructuring Rules
State Bank of India has detailed the process and rules it intends to follow as the country’s largest lender initiates an exercise to restructure personal loans, as permitted by the Reserve Bank of India.
The bank, on Monday, launched a website where borrowers can check their eligibility and upload relevant documents.
This preliminary check would be followed up by scrutiny and approval at the branch level.
According to a set of FAQs published, the bank will assess applications based on whether borrowers have lost their jobs or seen incomes reduced as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.
Should customers pass that scrutiny, they may be eligible for an extension of the tenure of their loan, with a commensurate change in their equated monthly installments or EMIs.
This, however, would come at a cost.
SBI will seek either a personal guarantee from promoters or pledge of listed shares as part of its process of restructuring non-personal loans.
India’s largest lender detailed its rules for such restructuring on Sept. 21, which the Reserve Bank of India permitted without a downgrade in classification of the loan to non-performing.
A list of benchmarks have been provided by an RBI-appointed committee on restructuring of loans in individual industries.
Banks, however, have also been asked to frame board-level policies for the upcoming restructuring.
In a set of frequently asked questions issued, SBI said additional security would need to furnished in the case of restructuring.
Find out key highlights from the FAQs.
Who Moved My Credit Score?
3. U.S. Markets Slump; Sensex Hits Five-Week Low
Stocks slumped to a two-month low amid growing concern over tighter coronavirus restrictions and as a report detailed suspicious transactions at global banks.
The S&P 500 dropped for a fourth day -- its longest slide since February -- with commodity and industrial companies leading losses.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. sank more than 2.4%, while Carnival Corp. and American Airlines Group Inc. paced declines in travel companies.
Nikola Corp.’s founder stepped down in the wake of regulatory probes and a short seller’s allegations that the electric-truck startup misled investors, sending shares plunging.
Oil tumbled as Libya signaled the resumption of some crude exports.
Get your daily fix of global markets.
India’s benchmark equity index fell to a five-week low as a global risk-off sentiment remained a drag on stocks.
The S&P BSE Sensex closed down 2.1%, the lowest level since Aug. 14, while the NSE Nifty 50 Index slipped 2.2% to 11,250.55.
Only 3 out of the 50 Nifty constituents ended the day with gains.
Route Mobile Ltd., a cloud infrastructure provider, surged 86% in its trading debut after the share sale was oversubscribed 73 times.
Follow the day’s trading action here.
Globally, cases topped 3.08 crore leaving over 9.58 lakh dead.
U.S. deaths related to Covid-19 approached 2 lakh and the nation’s new cases rose in line with a one-week average.
In Europe, Germany’s health minister said the trend of cases is “worrying” while the U.K. cautioned the rate of coronavirus infections could reach around 50,000 by mid-October.
Indonesia’s capital is adding thousands of beds to house patients as its health system struggles with record infections.
Follow the global spread of the virus here.
10. News And The Subscription Equilibrium
Having spent a good part of my career seeking new revenue models, this was the first time I was seeing it from the other side – as a pure, and admittedly reckless, consumer, writes Parry Ravindranathan.
I spent the last few months looking for journalism that I would be willing to pay for and I was overwhelmed by the number of quality publications.
But after months of subscribing, from eight international publications and four Indian ones, I am now subscribing to four international ones and three in India.
It was less about affordability and more about how much I can consume.
Read more.