ICICI Bank Managing Director and CEO Chanda Kochhar's salary decline 22% to Rs 4.79 crore in the year gone by, as declared in bank annual reports.

The Centre is likely to start the process of strategic disinvestment in loss-making public sector enterprises (PSEs) by next month even as an influential forum of the executives of these businesses has flayed the move and threatened agitation. National Confederation of Officers' Associations, an influential body of senior officers of PSEs, said in a statement that the Government is showing "a complete lack of understanding of the purpose and role of the public sector in India". "We are told the government and the NITI Aayog favour closure and strategic sales of 74 sick central PSEs. We and start agitation," an office-bearer of the NCOA said, adding national executive committee members of the confederation will meet next month to work out their course of action.
-Business Standard

Moving ahead with the operationalisation of the interest rate setting monetary policy committee, the Finance Ministry has said it will notify the rules "within few weeks" and thereafter appoint three Government nominees, said Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das.
-Economic Times

Warning of "more bad news" on the stressed loans front in the Indian banking sector, eminent banker Uday Kotak has said its "weak underbelly" has "resurfaced strongly" and the story is not over yet, though lenders have begun cleaning up their books.
Kotak Mahindra Bank chief Uday Kotak has said forced mergers may not be possible for PSU banks anymore due to their huge bad loans.
-NDTV Profit

In a strong pitch for RBI to allow banks and housing finance companies to fund land transactions, industry leader Deepak Parekh has said NBFCs and foreign private equity players are charging exorbitant rates that push up the cost of land. Parekh, chairman of the country's leading mortgage lender HDFC Ltd that was a pioneer in this sector, said that a major factor that can improve housing affordability is bringing down the cost of land.
-Business Standard

The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), the investigative agency for white collar crimes, has sought loan details from lenders to the Vijay Mallya-owned defunct Kingfisher Airlines. As a multi-disciplinary organization, the SFIO probes cases of financial frauds that are referred to it by the corporate affairs ministry. According to a banker, by asking these details, the SFIO is probably trying to ascertain whether or not there were any lapses on part of the lenders in the entire Kingfisher Airlines loan saga.
-Times of India

Consolidation among public sector lenders is expected to happen only after the completion of merger between SBI and its associates, a senior Finance Ministry official said. Banks can only make acquisitions when they have financial might which is subdued at the moment due to clean up exercise of balance sheet, the official added.
-Economic Times

Bank of Baroda has undertaken a comprehensive review of its business and has finalised a detailed set of plans to fundamentally reposition it for future, Chairman Ravi Venkatesan has said. Venkatesan said the management intends to gradually exit unprofitable businesses.
-Economic Times

There is no dearth of capital to finance India's massive infrastructure development, provided the projects involving huge investments are handled with "transparency" and "good governance", SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said today.
-Business Standard

Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian on Sunday said Brexit, or Britain's exit from the European Union, was a sad development but India would not be affected by it due to its solid macroeconomics.
-NDTV Profit

Central banks are ready to cooperate to support financial stability in the wake of Britain's vote to leave the European Union, the Bank for International Settlements said on Saturday.
-NDTV Profit

The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will be different from institutions like the World Bank because it has a greater understanding of the developing world's needs, officials said on Sunday at its first annual meeting.
-The Economic Times

The Government may soon roll out a long-term multiple-entry comprehensive visa by merging tourist, business, medical and conference visas into one to attract more visitors and boost trade. The long-term, multiple-entry visa is likely to be given up to 10 years but under this category, the visitor will not be allowed to work or stay permanently, said a Government official, who is part of the deliberations. As per the proposal, if a foreigner is granted long-term, multiple-entry non-working or non-permanent stay visa and his or her stay is restricted to 60 days on a visit, the government may waive the visa fee as well.
-NDTV profit

The Government has eliminated 1.6 crore duplicate and bogus ration cards that will help save about Rs 10,000 crore in subsidy bill annually, said Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa. In addition, the Government has saved Rs 14,872 crore by offering subsidy on cooking gas (LPG) directly to consumers and direct benefit transfer is planned to be extended to 150 schemes by the end of this year, he told PTI here.
-Business Line

HDFC Bank's Aditya Puri saw the maximum jump in remuneration among private bank chiefs in 2015-16, with a 31% growth at Rs 9.73 crore. Axis Bank's Shikha Sharma came in second, whose compensation package jumped 28% to Rs 5.50 crore. The decision to give up bonuses after RBI mandated asset quality review (AQR) saw ICICI Bank Managing Director and CEO Chanda Kochhar's salary decline 22% to Rs 4.79 crore in the year gone by, as declared in bank annual reports. Yes Bank chief Rana Kapoor saw a 20.76% hike in remuneration at Rs 5.67 crore. For Kotak Mahindra Bank's Uday Kotak, the corresponding figure was over 9% at Rs 2.47 crore in 2015-16. Compared to the bank's median salary, Kochhar's salary is 100 times that of an average employee while Puri's is 179 times. HDFC Bank had 311 employees earning over Rs 60 lakh a year while for Axis Bank, it stood at 163, their annual reports showed.
-Business Standard
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