RBI

The attempts to disparate the state governments’ expenditure on subsidies by the votaries of the neo-liberal fiscal regime, do not stand the scrutiny of facts and reason. The use of terms like “freebies” and “revadi culture” is an assault by the state-capital nexus on the lives of millions of working people, by keeping them vulnerable in order to discipline them, as an integral part of the neo-liberal agenda.

The launch of the central bank digital currency is a bold step in the right direction.

The purpose of this article is to address some of the lacunae in the scale-based framework proposed by the Reserve Bank of India in a discussion paper on non-banking financial companies that have turned a blind eye to the growth aspect and recognising only the stability by minimising the possibility of systemic risk. In this context, the introduction of pyramid-based structure of NBFCs is found to be lacking a common parameter for classification of companies in different layers. Further, the revision of threshold asset size limit for identifying systemically important non-deposit taking NBFCs from `500 crore to `1,000 crore is found be undervalued, which will result into making the smaller asset sized NBFCs subject to stricter prudential norms.

The flow of bank credit is crucial to revive the economy. The fear of potential asset quality woes has reduced the risk appetite of banks. Going beyond the restructuring support, banks need policy support by relaxations in prudential norms in the near term to be normalised in the next four–fi ve years. Coping with the adversities of the pandemic needs a collaborative policy support of all stakeholders to step up the lending appetite.

In a proactive move, the Reserve Bank of India rescued the economy with its innovative—blended conventional and unconventional—monetary policy measures. Low-interest rates, aligning targeted liquidity, and granting moratorium coupled with forbearance to enable banks to restructure loans, mandated the Kamath panel to work out modalities to restructure corporate sector loans. After affirming stability and orderliness of the financial sector throughout the crisis period, it rightly signalled descent towards normalisation paving for pandexit manoeuvring the tool of variable reverse repo rate.