The Reserve Bank of India on Friday announced more measures to increase liquidity flows to the non-banking financial companies.

The RBI permitted banks to use government securities equal to their incremental outstanding credit to NBFCs, over and above their outstanding credit to them as on October 19, to be used to meet liquidity coverage ratio requirements.

The move will help provide liquidity to housing finance companies (HFCs) and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) which have come under pressure following series of default by IL&FS group companies.

“... banks will be permitted to also reckon Government securities held by them up to an amount equal to their incremental outstanding credit to NBFCs and HFCs, over and above the amount of credit to NBFCs and HFCs outstanding on their books as on October 19, 2018, as Level 1 HQLA under FALLCR within the mandatory SLR requirement,” RBI said in a notification.

Stephen Hawking’s final work, which tackles issues from the existence of God to the potential for time travel, was launched on Monday by his children, who helped complete the book after the British astrophysics giant’s death. Hawking was forever being asked the same things and started work on "Brief Answers to the Big Questions" last year -- but did not finish it before he died in March, aged 76. It has been completed by the theoretical physicist’s family and academic colleagues, with material drawn from his vast personal archive.

"He was regularly asked a set of questions," his daughter Lucy Hawking said at the Science Museum in London. The book was an attempt to "bring together the most definitive, clearest, most authentic answers that he gave. "We all just

The Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) will form new government in Bhutan. The party has won 30 seats in 47 member National Assembly, the lower house of the parliament.

The Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) has got remaining 17 seats. The Election Commission of Bhutan has formally announced the results of parliamentary election held yesterday.

According to the commission 71.46 percent polling was recorded in the third general election. DNT President Dr Lotay Tshering won from South Thimphu constituency with a huge margin and he is set to form the new government.

This is the first time in Bhutan’s decade old parliamentary democracy that a new party has been chosen to form the government.

In last two elections the Bhutanese electorates had stuck with the two old parties DPT and People's Democratic Party (PDP).

A total 94 candidates, 47 each from DNT and DPT tried their luck in the final round of general elections. According to the constitution of Bhutan only two parties, which get highest votes in primary round, can participate in the final round.

DNT and DPT had got maximum votes in the primary round election held last month, while ruling PDP came third and failed to qualify for the last round.

Bihar’s Shahi litchi has received the geographical indication tag, the director of the National Research Centre on Litchi confirmed to IANS on Thursday. The fruit is mostly grown in Muzaffarpur and its neighbouring districts of East Champaran, Vaishali, Samastipur and Begusarai.

“It [Shahi litchi] has officially become an exclusive brand with the GI tag,” said Vishal Nath. “We were informed about this positive development on Tuesday.”

Social Entrepreneur Suheil F. Tandon has won the International Olympic Committee's Sport and Active Society Commission's Grant Award for his contribution to sports for development. Suheil is the Founder of Pro Sport Development (PSD) and Executive Director of Martha Farrell Foundation.

The International Olympic Committee, which is committed to building a better world through sport, redistributes more than 90 per cent of its income to the wider sporting movement, to help athletes and sports organisations at all levels around the world. Worth USD 25,000 each, these grants are awarded to grassroots organisations running effective sport for all programmes in different regions across the world.

The award ceremony was held during the Olympism in Action forum at Buenos Aires.

"I am honoured and humbled to receive this recognition. Playing sports is an excellent way to teach the values of sport. Participants learn about fairplay, about respecting others and develop a sense of responsibility and discipline. Adolescent boys and girls who are exposed to active sports turn out to be better citizens and our endeavour is just that," said Suheil from Buenos Aires after receiving the award.

India has been ranked as the 58th most competitive economy on the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness index for 2018, which was topped by the US.

India's rank rose by five places from 2017, the largest gain among G20 economies, the WEF said.

Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has announced its strategic investment in and partnership with Den Networks Limited and Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited.

In a statement published by the company on Wednesday, the RIL announced a primary investment of Rs. 2,045 crore through a preferential issue under Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) regulations and secondary purchase of Rs. 245 crore from the existing promoters for a 66% stake in Den Networks Limited ("DEN"), and Primary investment of Rs. 2,940 crore through a preferential issue under SEBI regulations for a 51.3% stake in Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited ("Hathway").

Apart from DEN and Hathway, RIL would make open offers for GTPL Hathway Limited, a company jointly controlled by Hathway with 37.3% stake, and Hathway Bhawani Cabletel and Datacomm Limited, a subsidiary of Hathway.

"Reliance is privileged to partner with the Rajan Raheja Group, one of the most respected business houses in India, and Sameer Manchanda, a first generation entrepreneur, who have created strong businesses through their business acumen and

New Delhi: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ltd’s quarterly earnings from the financial sector have edged past that of Accenture Plc, which is nearly double its size, making the Mumbai-based company the world’s largest pure-play information technology (IT) and consulting firm servicing mega banks and insurers.

Financial services sector is the largest buyer of services and solutions from IT and consulting firms, and in the last decade, Accenture has managed to retain its sectoral dominance.

During the July-September period, TCS got $2.07 billion in business from banking, financial services and insurance, or the BFSI sector. This included $1.63 billion from work across application development and maintenance, and other traditional solution offerings, besides $445.9 million from its proprietary platforms such as TCS iON.

Accenture, which follows a September-August financial year, got $2.01 billion in business from banking and insurance customers in the June-August period.

Put another way, TCS’s BFSI vertical, if carved out as an independent unit, will be larger than India’s third largest IT services firm, HCL Technologies Ltd, which ended with $2.05 billion in revenue in the April-June quarter.

“In the last quarter, we became the number one pure-play IT services firm servicing the banking and financial services sector across the world,” TCS’s chief operating officer, N. Ganapathy Subramaniam, said in an interview last week. “This is very heartening to see we are doing well, and the way we are shaping the industry.”

Akash Malik became India’s first silver-medallist in archery at the Youth Olympic Games, providing a fitting finale to the country’s best-ever campaign at the marquee event in Buenos Aires. The 15-year-old son of a farmer lost a one-sided final to Trenton Cowles of the USA 0-6 as India concluded with three gold, nine silver, and one bronze at the event that was launched in 2010.

Seeded fifth after qualification, the Haryana-boy was inconsistent in the summit clash against the 15th seed Cowles, who only shot in 10s and 9s to wrap it up easily. In the three-setter, both the archers shot four perfect 10s, but Akash’s two wayward 6s in the first and the third set proved to be the decisive factor.

READ | Panwar clinches Silver in 5000 m Race Walk in Youth Olympics

“I have trained in the wind, but here it was too much,” said Akash.

“I feel good but I lost the gold medal,” added the school-boy after bettering Atul Verma’s feat of a bronze at the Nanjing edition of the Games in 2014.

In a move aimed at promoting digital transactions, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released operational guidelines to facilitate payments among prepaid instruments (PPI) such as mobile wallets.

The guidelines, released yesterday, elaborate on requirements for achieving inter-operability for mobile wallets and cards, and norms for customer protection and grievance redressal.

According to the notification issued by the RBI, inter-operability among mobile wallets, and between bank account and e-wallet would be enabled through the UPI system. The inter-operability shall be facilitated to all KYC-compliant PPI accounts and entire acceptance infrastructure.

The inter-operability would be achieved in a phased manner. Paytm, MobiKwik, Oxigen and Ola Money are some of the popular mobile wallets in the country. Currently, a mobile wallet does not allow customers to send or receive money from a wallet run by another company.