Business Today 5 January 2025

Nearly three decades is a long time to track the evolution of India’s banks and non-banks. The latest BT-KPMG Survey of India’s Best Banks and NBFCs for 2023-24 takes a deep dive into the forces shaping this sector. From the burden of massive non-performing assets, our banks today are not just resilient but thriving. A recent S&P Global Ratings note highlights this resilience, citing stabilising asset quality and a projected decline in bad loans in the banking sector to 3% of gross loans by the end of the financial year. Yet, as Anand Adhikari notes, headwinds remain. Interest rate volatility, liquidity pressures, and a decline in low-cost deposits are forcing banks to rethink strategies, including raising deposit rates—moves that could compress net interest margins and profitability. Rising delinquencies in micro-loans…

THE FOUR-PHASE PROJECT IS BEING DEVELOPED BY ZURICH AIRPORT INTERNATIONAL AG THE NOIDA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IN JEWAR, UP, SAW ITS FIRST SUCCESSFUL TEST FLIGHT ON DECEMBER 9. COMMERCIAL FLIGHTS ARE LIKELY TO OPERATE FROM APRIL 2025. THE ESTIMATED TOTAL COST OF THE PROJECT IS ₹29,561 CRORE. HERE ARE THE KEY FIGURES: 70 MILLION Total estimated traffic design capacity per annum at Jewar after completion of all four phases by FY50 350-400 Expected operational airports in India by 2047. The number has more than doubled to 157 in 2024 15 PER CENT YoY increase recorded in total air passengers handled at Indian airports, touching 376 million in FY24 SOURCE YAMUNAEXPRESSWAYAUTHORITY.COM PIB…

SLIPPING INTEREST THE GROWTH IN COMBINED NET INTEREST INCOME (NII) OF LISTED BANKS SLOWED DOWN IN FY24 FOLLOWING A RISE OF MORE THAN 20% IN FY23 THE BOTTOM LINE SINCE FY19, THE COMBINED PROFIT AFTER TAX (PAT) OF LISTED BANKS HAS BEEN RISING STEADILY MODERATING CREDIT GROWTH CREDIT GROWTH IS SET TO CONVERGE WITH DEPOSIT GROWTH AFTER 2.5 YEARS, INDICATING A SOFTENING IN CREDIT DEMAND PROFIT PIE OUT OF A TOTAL OF 41 LISTED LENDERS, 13 PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS (PSBs) CONTRIBUTE 44% TO THE OVERALL PROFIT OF THE INDIAN BANKING SYSTEM SOURCE ACE EQUITY 11% SURGE IN NIFTY BANK INDEX IN 2024 (TILL DECEMBER 16), AND 68% IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS, WHILE THE BENCHMARK NIFTY 50 RALLIED 14% YTD, AND 105% IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS 20% YEAR-ON-YEAR GROWTH…

KEEPING UP WITH its preference of appointing a top finance ministry official to helm the country’s central bank, the government has appointed former Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra as the 26th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Malhotra, a 1990-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, has taken over from Shaktikanta Das, who was among the longest-serving RBI Governors. The thinking seems to be that an officer from North Block who is appointed at Mint Street would lend a more sympathetic ear to the government’s concerns. Malhotra’s appointment comes at a critical juncture when the government is hoping for a rate cut to jump-start economic growth that slowed to a lower-than-anticipated 5.4% in the second quarter of financial year 2024-25. Gross domestic product (GDP) is now widely seen to grow at…

birla opus paints, one of the newest ventures from the stable of billionaire businessman Kumar Mangalam Birla, appears to have made an instant impact. The paint brand, which was launched in early 2024, is now fighting with well-established players like Asian Paints and Berger Paints. The decorative paints company is housed under the ₹1.31 lakh crore Grasim Industries, a global producer of cellulosic fibres, diversified chemicals, fashion yarn, and fabrics. The new entrant has demonstrated high levels of aggression, and with the commencement of production at its fourth plant (in Karnataka’s Chamarajnagar), it claims to be the second largest in the decorative paints segment in terms of capacity, pegged at 866 million litres per annum (MLPA). The other plants are located in Ludhiana (Punjab), Panipat (Haryana), and Cheyyar (Tamil Nadu). “We…

WHEN DUTCH PAINT company AkzoNo-bel said in the third week of September that it was planning to cut 2,000 jobs globally, the signs looked ominous. Just a few months before that announcement, the paint company, which is known for the Dulux brand, had closed plants in Ireland, the Netherlands, and Zambia. Soon after that there was a review of its decorative business in South Asia. Of course, that included India as well, where AkzoNobel has a 5-6% market share (it has been in India for 70 years through various rounds of ownership), with nimblefooted local players only getting stronger. Asian Paints remains the largest, followed by Berger Paints, and then there’s Birla Opus’ aggressive launch, which has only put more pressure on smaller players. The question is, what options are…