1. GOVERNMENT EXPLORING MORE WAYS TO MAKE INDIA ADIGITAL ECONOMY: Central Government, with the help from consulting agency Price waterhouse Coopers (PWC)has identified many ways to increase the people’s proactivity to digital payments. The government is trying to digitise payments at government hospitals, canteens, unreserved railway ticket counters, fertilizer subsidy payments and school fees. The government’s immediate goal is to reach 25 billion transactions for the current fiscal.

2. PSU BANK HEADS PUT SOME CONDITIONS FOR MERGERS TO HAPPEN: Top brass of prominent state-run banks like PNB, Canara Bank and Bank of Baroda which are positioned as acquiring banks, haveset certain pre-conditions to acquire smaller banks.Some of the key terms set by these acquiring banks are that the target bank be a profit making one and the current management is given at least a three year term after the merger to ensure smooth transition. Besides this, the acquiring banks have also demanded capital from the government even if the target bank is well-capitalised.

3. RBI INCLUDES HDFC BANK LTD IN “TOO BIG TO FAIL” LENDERS LIST: Private sector lender HDFC Bank Ltd has been declared a Domestic-Systematically Important Bank ( D-SIB). With this, the bank has joined State Bank of Indiaand ICICI Bank Ltd, which have been tagged as D-SIB or “Too-Big-to Fail” banks. Such classification means the collapse of these bankscould lead to cascading effect on the entire economy of the country. Such banks are also mandated to maintain a higher share of risk-weighted assets as tier-I equity.

4. CAIT SUGGESTS TAX REBATES TO CONSUMERS & TRADERS TO PROMOTE DIGITAL /CASHLESS MOVEMENT: The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has suggested several measures to the government to achieve the goals of cashless economy and reaching 2500 crore digital transactions this fiscal. The confederation says that certain tax rebates to consumers for some types of digital payments and similar rebates to be extended to the traders as well.

5. ITR FILING DATE EXTENDED TO OCTOBER 31^ST: The Ministry of Finance has announced that the “Due-Date” for filing Income tax Returns and various reports of audit prescribed under the IT Act, 1961 has been extended from September 30^th to October 31^st

6. FINTECH-BANK COLLABORATION YEILDS SMARTER OUTCOMES:RBI Deputy Governor Mr. B P Kanungo has said that Fintech companies need to collaborate with Banks for providing better service to the customers. This kind of collaboration will lead to smart solutions for better customer satisfaction.

7. RBI DEPUTY GOVERNOR SUGGESTS SELLING OFF PSU BANK LAGGARDS: The Deputy Governor of RBI Mr. Viral Acharya in one of his speech has suggested that the state run banks which are not doing well and are in “Intensive care unit”, be sold off to private sector banks as the time may be running out for state-run banks to clean-up and recapitalise.We feel that such a statement from the highest authority at this juncture is not justified, considering the fact that some of the Bank heads of acquiring banks have put some conditions to the government for mergers to happen. And selling off sick state-run banks to private sector will not solve the NPA menace that is eating up the economy.