SBI begins operations as unified entity

The State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, started functioning as a unified entity from Saturday, post the merger of its five associate banks, besides Bharatiya Mahila Bank.
The five associate banks merged with SBI are State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore.

With the merger, the SBI joins the league of top 50 banks globally in terms of assets.

Core sector output at 13-month low

Infrastructure sector output growth slowed to a 13-month low in February, dragged down by contraction in five of the eight segments, posing fresh worries for policymakers trying to step up expansion.

The eight core sectors rose 1% in February, slower than the 3.4% in January and below 9.4% expansion recorded in February 2016. Growth in April to February, 2016-17 was 4.4 %, higher than the 3.5% growth posted during the same period last year.

Meanwhile, total external debt of the country declined to $456 billion at the end of December from March-end 2016. “India's external debt stock fell by $29 billion (6%) at December-end 2016 over the level at March-end 2016,“ an official statement said.

National register of vehicles

Soon you will be able to find out whether a second-hand vehicle you are buying is stolen or has been involved in any crime. This will be possible as the Cabinet has approved changes in the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill, which includes having a national register of all vehicles.

The updated details of vehicles such as the chassis number, engine number, make and year of manufacture will be available in the national register, and this will help in checking the credentials while approving the ownership transfer of all vehicles. This will also make it almost impossible for inter-state gangs to steal vehicles from one state and sell them in other states with forged documents.

The Cabinet also approved fixing the immediate compensation to road crash victims ­ Rs.5 lakh for death and Rs.2.5 lakh for serious injuries ­ besides increasing the compensation for hit and run cases from the present Rs.50,000 to Rs.2 lakh.

India moves to BS IV

India kept its date for becoming a one-nation-one-fuel market, with the entire country switching to BS-IV grade petrol and diesel.

Gangotri and Yamunotri get living entity tags as well

Ten days after it declared the rivers Ganga and Yamuna as “living entities“, the Uttarakhand HC declared the glaciers from where the two rivers originate, Gangotri and Yamunotri, legal entities as well. The order delivered by Justices Rajiv Sharma and Alok Singh, who had also passed the order on the two rivers on March 20, said the glaciers will have “the status of a legal person, with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person“.

This was being done “in order to preserve and conserve them“ the court said, adding, “the rights of these entities shall be equivalent to the rights of human beings and any injury/harm caused to these bodies shall be treated as injury/harm caused to human beings“.




MTHL update

Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority inked an agreement for the disbursement of the first tranche of Rs.7,910 crore which is about 45% of the total cost of the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link. The agreement was signed by chief representative of JICA and Metropolitan commissioner UPS Madan.

Petrol & diesel prices cut

Oil companies slashed the prices of petrol by Rs.3.77 and diesel by Rs.2.91 on Friday after crude prices weakened. Petrol will now cost Rs.72.66 in Mumbai, while diesel will cost Rs.61.27.