Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das and Deputy Governor Michael Patra responded to a host of queries in the post-policy interaction with the media. Edited excerpts:

Attempts to clear impression about widespread action; curbs only against outliers for major breaches

Rural demand catching up, consumption expected to support economic growth in FY25, says RBI governor

Das says confident of meeting external financing requirements

As the Indian economy progresses towards the USD 5 trillion target over the next two years and the USD 10 trillion target by 2030, the demand for company secretaries will be tremendous to manage the inflow of capital both from the Indian and international investors, a top domain expert said on Friday. "We have to increase the pool of Company Secretaries (CS) to 95,000 by 2030 and to 1.4 lakh by 2047, the year of Viksit Bharat economy driven by capital flow and the government-initiated infrastructure development, B Narasimhan, President of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), said here. Currently, ICSI has around 70,000 CS members and over 2 lakh students, he told PTI. Narasimhan gave an insight into the aspects resonating with the Indian economy. We, as CS, are the most recognised profession in the capital market, handling compliances across the board of listed and unlisted companies. SEBI has appointed us as the compliance offices and it is mandatory, he said. Ca

The 'future expectations index', which judges consumer sentiment for the upcoming 12 months, also improved to its highest since mid-2019, the survey showed

India's foreign exchange reserves increased USD 2.951 billion to USD 645.583 billion for the week ended March 29, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday. This is the sixth consecutive week of a jump in overall reserves. The kitty had increased USD 140 million to USD 642.631 billion in the previous reporting week. The country's forex kitty had in September 2021 reached an all-time high of USD 642.453 billion. The reserves took a hit as the central bank deployed the kitty to defend the rupee amid pressures caused majorly by global developments since last year. For the week ended March 29, the foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased USD 2.354 billion to USD 570.618 billion, data released on Friday showed. Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound, and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves. Gold reserves increased USD 673 million to USD 52.16 .

In exchange for tariff reduction, EFTA countries will increase foreign investments in India

Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday said India has been building up gold reserves as part of its forex deployment. "We are building up gold reserves that is a part of our reserve deployment," Das told reporters at the customary post-policy review press conference here. He did not give any specifics on the quantum of gold buys, but pointed to the official data which shows an increase in the value of gold reserves. As per official data, the value of gold in the forex reserves stood at USD 51.487 billion as on March 22, which is USD 6.287 billion higher than the value as at end-March 2023. As per a recent news report, RBI bought 8.7 tonne of gold in January alone which is the highest in two years. The central bank's gold holdings had touched 812.3 tonne at the end of January from 803.58 tonne in the preceding month, as per the World Gold Council. The price of gold has also seen a rally over the last few months. Earlier in the day, Das announced that the overall forex ..

The junior professionals are likely to outshine senior professionals in terms of salary hike percentage

India will by the end of 2025 stop importing urea as a massive push for domestic manufacturing has helped bridge the gap between supply and demand, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has said. In an interaction with PTI, the minister noted that the availability of fertilisers is very important for Indian agriculture. He said the country has been using chemical fertilisers for the last 60-65 years to enhance crop production. Now, Mandaviya said, the government is making efforts to promote alternate fertilisers like nano liquid urea and nano liquid di-ammonium phosphate (DAP). "Use of alternate fertilisers is good for crops and soil health. We are promoting it," he said. Asked about achieving self-sufficiency in urea production, Mandaviya said the Modi government has adopted a two-pronged strategy to end dependency on urea imports. The minister highlighted that the government has revived four closed urea plants and is reviving one another factory. He noted that I

The recent remarks of Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund, about India's growth figures does not represent the views of the IMF and were in his role as India's representative at the global body, the IMF has said. "The views conveyed ...by Mr. Subramanian were in his role as India's representative at the IMF," Julie Kozack, IMF spokesperson, told reporters here on Thursday. She was responding to a question on recent remarks by Subramanian, in which he projected a growth rate of 8 per cent for India, which is different from the last growth rate projections by the IMF. Subramanian, at a event in New Delhi on March 28, had said Indian economy could grow at 8 per cent till 2047, if the country redoubles the good policies that it has implemented over the last 10 years and accelerate reforms. "So, the basic idea is that with the kind of growth that India has registered in the last 10 years, if we can redouble the good policies that we have ...

The Reserve Bank on Friday announced the launch of a mobile app to enable retail investors to participate in government securities (G-Secs) or government bonds market. RBI Retail Direct Scheme, launched in November 2021, gives access to individual investors to maintain gilt accounts with the RBI and invest in government securities. The Scheme enables investors to buy securities in primary auctions as well as buy/sell securities through the Negotiated Dealing System - Order Matching system (NDS-OM) platform. "To further improve ease of access, a mobile application of the Retail Direct portal is being developed. The app will enable investors to buy and sell instruments on the go, at their convenience. The app will be available for use shortly," RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said, while announcing the first bi-monthly monetary policy for the current fiscal. The government is planning for gross market borrowing of Rs 14.13 lakh crore for 2024-25. Out of this Rs 7.5 lakh crore, or 53 per

The Reserve Bank of India put the estimated real GDP growth for FY25 at 7 per cent

Amid the heat of the ongoing Lok Sabha electioneering, the Centre has announced plans to significantly increase wheat purchase from non-traditional states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Bihar and set a target of seven-fold jump in procurement to 50 lakh tonnes in the ongoing 2024-25 marketing year. Further, even as the ban on outbound shipments of wheat continues, "it will be a dream for us to export now", Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra told reporters on Thursday. "UP, Bihar, and Rajasthan have been contributing much less than they could have. We are targeting total wheat procurement of 310 lakh tonne this year. Of which, we are hoping to procure at least 50 lakh tonne from three non-traditional procurement states alone," he said. While Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Bihar put together contributed only 6.7 lakh tonnes to the central pool during the 2023-24 marketing year (April-March), the Union Food Ministry has decided to procure 16 per cent of the total wheat procurement target o

RBI MPC latest updates: Catch all the latest developments related to RBI's Monetary Policy Committee announcements

RBI said the regulatory framework for participation in ETCDs involving the Indian rupee (INR) is guided by the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999

India could see a substantial growth of USD 359-438 billion in GDP through adoption of GenAI and the country's Global Capability Centres (GCC) market would exceed USD 100 billion by 2030, Deloitte India said in a report. The Technology Trends 2024 report: India perspective said GCCs are taking the lead in 2024, showcasing India's growing prowess in catering to international technology needs. "With over 1,600 GCCs, India's GCC market is growing and creating its dominance globally. It is estimated that by 2030, the Indian GCC market would exceed USD 100 billion, with 2,500 GCCs across the country employing over 4.5 million people," it said. The report pointed out a close connection between technological adoption and accelerated economic growth. Improved accessibility and government initiatives, it said, have led to a significant surge in digital technology adoption. It said advanced technologies offer avenues for growth and efficiency, such as automating tax filing, using blockchai

Food prices have a direct bearing on poll preferences of the voter and in the past there have been instances when governments have been voted out due to rising food inflation

For the next six years, Modi's goal is to raise per capita income to $4,418 from around $2,500, the document says, without specifying the spending or reforms needed to achieve that