Former IAS officer Rangachari Sridharan was Friday appointed as first chief of National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), according to an official order.

Sridharan, a 1983 batch (retired) IAS officer of Karnataka cadre, will hold the post of chairperson, NFRA, for three years or till the incumbent attains the age of 65 years, the order said.

Besides him, Prasenjit Mukherjee has been appointed as full-time member of the authority for the same tenure, the order issued by Personnel Ministry said.

Mukherjee is a 1980 batch (retired) officer of Indian Audit and Accounts Service.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on March 1, approved establishment of the NFRA and creation of one post of chairperson, three posts of full-time members and one post of Secretary.

The NFRA is mandated to act as an independent regulator for the auditing profession. It will help in better regulation of financial audit of large companies.

India and Uzbekistan inked 17 agreements on Monday, including for visa free travel for diplomatic passport holders and cooperation in the fields of tourism, national security, training of diplomats and against trafficking.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev held delegation level talks and agreed to collaborate with each other across sectors

With the aim to build interoperability and mutual understanding as well as sharing of best practices, the 6th edition of IBSAMAR, a joint Multi – National Maritime Exercise between the Indian, Brazilian and South African Navies, is being held at Simons Town, South Africa from Oct 1-13.

The exercise includes both harbour and sea phases with various navigation and seamanship evolutions, surface weapons firing, force protection exercises, antipiracy exercise, anti-air and anti-submarine exercise as well as flying operations. Apart from professional activities, sports and social engagements are also planned.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today inaugurated the first Assembly of the International Solar Alliance at Vigyan Bhawan. The same event also marked the inauguration of the second IORA Renewable Energy Ministerial Meeting, and the 2nd Global RE-Invest (Renewable Energy Investors’ Meet and Expo). The Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Antonio Guterres, was present on the occasion.

Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister said that in the last 150 to 200 years, mankind has depended on fossil fuels for energy needs. He said nature is now indicating that options such as solar, wind and water, offer more sustainable energy solutions. In this context, he expressed confidence that in future, when people talk of organisations for the welfare of mankind established in the 21st century, the International Solar Alliance will be at the top of the list. He said this is a great forum to work towards ensuring climate justice. He said the International Solar Alliance could replace OPEC as the key global energy supplier in the future.

The Prime Minister said that the effect of increased use of renewable energy is now visible in India. He added that India is working towards the goals of the Paris Agreement through an action plan. He said that the target is to generate 40 percent of India's total energy requirements in 2030, by non fossil fuel based sources. He said India is developing with a new self-confidence of "Poverty to Power."

The Goa government Saturday inked an MoU with Portugal and said that the coastal state was looking at the European nation, with which it has a historical link, for its model of development.

Goa Public Works Department Minister Sudin Dhavalikar and Portugal's Minister of Environment Joao Pedro de Matos Fernandes on September 29 signed an MoU in the the field of water supply, waste water management and sanitation to be implemented in the state.

"Goa is proud to have an understanding with Portugal because it was ruling Goa prior to 1961 and, at the time, had implemented development works," Dhavalikar said.

"Considering all this, we can definitely think, in future, regarding the development of Goa based on the Portugal basis (model)," he told reporters.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Friday launched the three-day 'Kalahandi Dialogue', a global conclave on development for the district.

Using the platform, the chief minister also launched several projects for the district.

Though Patnaik was not present at the function due to health issues, he launched the conclave via video-conferencing.

Sujeet Kumar, the Chairperson of Kalahandi Dialogue, explained the reason behind creating the collaborative platform to engage the youth in development dialogue and action.

Kalahandi has undergone transformation from an example of poverty and hunger to a surplus agri-producer, Kumar said/

Odisha Skill Development Council chairman Subroto Bagchi shared several examples of entrepreneurs from Kalahandi to highlight the contribution they are making to the socio-economic transformation of the district.

The ITI of Kalahandi is now 58 years old and has trained more than 15,000 students who have been employed or have created employment in and around Kalahandi, he said.

India's external debt declined 2.8 per cent to $514.4 billion at June-end over the previous quarter on account of a decrease in commercial borrowings, short-term debt and non-resident Indian (NRI) deposits, the RBI said Friday.

At end-June 2018, the external debt was placed at $514.4 billion, recording a decrease of $14.9 billion over its level at end-March 2018.

As per the RBI, the decrease in the magnitude of external debt was primarily due to valuation gains resulting from the appreciation of the US dollar against the Indian rupee and major currencies.

The external debt to GDP ratio stood at 20.4 per cent at end-June 2018, a shade lower than its level of 20.5 per cent at end-March 2018. 

"Valuation gains due to the appreciation of the US dollar vis-a-vis the Indian rupee and major currencies (viz, Japanese yen, euro, SDR, and pound sterling) 

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been acting tough against banks which do not follow the norms, especially against banks failing to report frauds. On Friday, the central bank announced that a penalty of Rs 5 crore has been imposed on Karur Vyasa Bank (KVB) for non compliance. This is the fourth bank that has been penalised in the month of September by the RBI.

In a statement issued on Friday, the RBI said that the penalty was slapped "for non-compliance with its directions on "Income Recognition and Asset Classification (IRAC) norms, reporting of frauds, and on the need for discipline at the time of opening of current accounts".

"This action is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers," the statement added.

RBI said that the KVB failed to adhere to the directions issued by RBI. "This penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers vested in RBI under the provisions of Section 47A(1)(c) read with Section 46(4)(i) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949", the statement added.

Earlier this month, RBI had imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore each on Union Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra and Bank of India for delay in detection and reporting of fraud in some accounts.

RBI's tough policy on delay in reporting frauds comes after the Punjab National Bank failed to detect and report the Rs 13000 Nirav Modi scam.

Between April 2014 and April 2018, the country’s 21 State-owned banks ended up writing off Rs 3,16,500 crore of loans even as they recovered Rs 44,900 crore written off on a cumulative basis — or less than one-seventh the write-off amount — according to RBI data.

The recovery takes place on the total cumulative write-off and not only on write-off for a specific period. To put this number in perspective, the amount of bad loans written off by public sector banks (PSBs) during the four-year period is well over twice the projected budgetary expenditure on health, education and social protection for 2018-19, at Rs 1.38 lakh crore. Further, from April 2014 to April 2018, the loans written off by the 21 PSBs were over 166 per cent of the amount in the 10 years till 2014.

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has barred Bandhan Bank from opening new branches without its approval and ordered the bank to freeze the salary of its chief executive Chandra Shekhar Ghosh over its failure to meet shareholding rules, Bandhan informed the stock exchanges on Friday.

“RBI has communicated to us that since the bank was not able to bring down the shareholding of Non Operative Financial Holding Company to 40% as required under the licensing condition, general permission to open new branches stands withdrawn and the bank can open branches with prior approval of RBI and the remuneration of the MD and CEO of the bank stands frozen at the existing level, till further notice,” the bank said in a notification to BSE.

According to RBI’s new bank licencing guidelines, the bank’s promoter, Bandhan Financial Holdings Ltd, has to reduce its stake from 82% to 40% within three years of commencing the business. The deadline for Bandhan Bank was on 23 August. Thereafter, banks are required to reduce their shareholding to 20% and 15% within 10 years and 12 years, respectively. The bank has assured that it was taking necessary steps to comply with the licence condition on shareholding.