The Reserve Bank of India has toned down its expectation of the stress that banks may face as a result of the Covid crisis, after initially cautioning that non performing assets could nearly double due to the hit to economic activity. According to stress tests conducted by the RBI: The gross NPA ratio for the banking sector could rise to 9.8% by March 2022 under a baseline, as compared with 7.48 in March 2021. The baseline scenario used in the current stress tests in one where GDP growth for FY22 is at 9.5%. In January, the RBI had said the gross NPA ratio of banks could rise to 13.5% by Sept. 30, 2021 under the then assumed baseline scenario of 0% GDP growth in the second half of FY21. Under the medium stress scenario, where GDP growth is at 6.5%, the gross NPA ratio could rise to 10.36 percent

For Jet-II to take to the skies again, London-based Kalrock Capital and UAE businessman Murari Lal Jalan will need to infuse Rs 350 crore within 180 days followed by another Rs 250 crore in the next six months — a total Rs 600 crore in the first year.

This successful resolution applicant (SRA) will need to infuse through ECB Rs 175 crore in the second year, followed by another Rs 600 crore later on.

In all, the SRA has “proposed a total cash infusion of Rs 1,375 crore,” says the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) detailed order for the airline’s revival plan that made available on Wednesday.

With a bilateral trade of $86.4 billion in fiscal 2021, mainland China has emerged as India's largest trading partner, overtaking the US in the process and registering 5.53 per cent growth.

China was the only major country to post a growth in trade with India in the fiscal when the latter's overall trade declined over 13 per cent to $684.77 billion. India's bilateral trade with China had contracted in each of the two previous fiscals. In fiscal 2021, Indo-US bilateral trade contracted by 9.5 per cent to $80.5 billion.

The relationship with China remains skewed in favour of the dragon, even though trade deficit has come down. China is by far India's biggest source of imports at over $65 billion, registering a marginal decline of 0.07 per cent. In contrast, India's imports from US went down 19.4 per cent to $28.88 billion. Overall, imports decreased by more than 17 per cent to $393.6 billion.

The pickup in the Covid vaccination drive has encouraged several organisations to raise queries with consultants on whether the process of returning to office can begin. However, what's increasingly becoming clear - and large companies are setting an example - is that a 'hybrid' workplace is going to be the way forward.

What set the tone of this trend is a LinkedIn post by Unilever CHRO Leena Nair, where she said, "For all the sadness the pandemic has brought and is still bringing, one thing I hope we can take from this is the flexibility it has brought to businesses and to people. It would be dreadful to return to the way so many of us were working - 40-hour weeks, long commutes."

Conventionally, airfares cool in June and July. This year, fares are high as government hiked its lowest fare cap by around 15% for travel in June-July. The drop in Covid cases brought about a spike in demand for air travel, and what you have is the cheapest fare, say on the Mumbai-Delhi route, pric-ed over Rs 10,000, even for travel late next month. But for August, the cheapest return fare on a Mumbai-Delhi flight is Rs 4,600. A similar fare drop can be seen across most domestic sectors.

On sale or not, most airlines have put out cheap fares for travel in August-October to rake in much-needed forward booking revenue.