
Murae Organisor board approves share split, to invest around Rs 25 cr in agri venture
The company's board has fixed June 11 as the record date for the division of every share into two shares, Ahmedabad-based Murae Organisor Ltd said in a release.

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The Hindu
14 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Leak of complaint submitted to CPI(M) Polit Bureau triggers political controversy
A political controversy appears to be brewing over the media leak of a 'confidential complaint' purportedly submitted to the Polit Bureau (PB) of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] by a Kozhikode-based businessperson. The controversial letter reportedly implicated a group of CPI(M) leaders, including former Ministers, in financial scams centred around a U.K.-based businessperson from Kerala. The complaint emerged in the public domain on Sunday after the NRI businessperson adduced it as evidence in a libel suit filed by him against his rival and some sections of the media in a Delhi court. Graft charges The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seized on the somewhat knotty controversy riddled with accusations of financial shenanigans, corruption, money laundering and nepotism in an attempt to put the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government on the defensive. Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan demanded a clarification from the party and the government on the veracity of the accusations raised by the Kozhikode-based businessperson. Mr. Satheesan said the crux of the litigation appeared to be bitter feuding between two business rivals for the patronage of powerful CPI(M) leaders. He noted financial transactions involving the next of kin of CPI(M) leaders might be at the root of the scandal. Nevertheless, Mr. Satheesan stated, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan owed the public an explanation. He said the presence of the U.K.-based businessperson at the CPI(M)'s 24th party conference in Madurai in April, and his attendance at the Kerala Loka Sabha conference added to the political intrigue. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Sunny Joseph, MLA, stated that the sensational leak was mystifying and appeared to signal that 'something was rotten' in the CPI(M) 's State leadership. He said the scandal had the contours of official corruption with international ramifications and hidden rivalries within the CPI(M) leadership. Mr. Joseph demanded an investigation. 'Calls for inquiry' BJP former State president K. Surendran said the accuser had alleged in the letter that the NRI businessperson's paper company registered in Chennai had profited from government projects. 'If the accusations are true, they warranted an inquiry under the anti-money laundering and foreign exchange management laws,' he said. The CPI(M) was yet to formally react to the BJP and Congress's accusations.


Hans India
14 minutes ago
- Hans India
Ageing population, high debt seen as drags on China's growth ahead
China is expected to face an adverse economic impact in the coming decades due to its ageing population and high government debt, according to reports. High government debt raises interest costs and leaves less fiscal room to respond to shocks, just as ageing populations push up pension and health outlays, according to a report in Newsweek. The Chinese and US governments are among the most indebted in the world. The US government's gross debt at 123 per cent is equal to the country's GDP, according to International Monetary Fund data. China's stands at 84 per cent, buoyed by debt-driven growth in the 2010s and a housing market crunch that has heavily indebted local governments. London-based global advisory firm Oxford Economics estimates the Chinese economy's potential growth could be cut roughly in half by the 2050s. According to the Newsweek report: "Soaring pension and healthcare expenses are the biggest policy challenge of the 2020s in all advanced economies and most emerging ones." As per a United Nations report, China currently has a median age of around 40, which is well above the global average, and is projected to reach 52 by 2050. This would be much higher than even the US median age, which is expected to stay around 41 years. China's old-age dependency ratio, or the share of people aged 65 and older, is projected to rise by more than 50 percentage points by 2026 compared to 2010, versus roughly 8-10 points in the United States. This will strain China's modest safety net. And unless the country is able to reverse its flagging birth rate, this will shift the burden onto a smaller pool of workers, according to the report in Newsweek. Jed Cartledge, an economist and one of the authors of the Oxford Economics report, said this better positions the US demographically. China's fertility rate of 1.2 births expected per woman is among the world's lowest. While higher, the US rate of 1.6 births remains well below the rate of 2.1 necessary to sustain a population naturally. Cartledge pointed out, however, that historically, immigration has largely offset declining births and averted demographic problems in the U.S. "Admittedly, US immigration is taking a hit under the second Trump presidency, but we're expecting the reduction in net immigration to only last through the remainder of his second term before reverting to a 1.1 million per annum, which was the typical pace prior to the pandemic," Cartledge told Newsweek.


Indian Express
16 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Corporate loan growth slows in April-June quarter as firms delay investments, shift to cheaper debt market
Corporate loan growth by domestic banks slowed down in the first quarter of FY26, as companies put off investment decisions. This was largely due to uncertainty around tariffs, weak demand that held back private capital spending, and a shift towards cheaper funding options in the corporate bond market. Additionally, many companies continued to reduce their debt levels, which further dampened loan demand. Between April and June 2025, bank lending to industries grew at the slowest pace in over three years, signalling muted credit demand from the corporate sector. According to RBI data, loans to industries — including micro, small, medium, and large enterprises — rose by 5.49 per cent year-on-year to Rs 39.32 lakh crore, marking the weakest growth since March 2022. In Q1 FY26, the country's largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), reported a 5.7 per cent Y-o-Y growth in its corporate loan book, but saw a fall of 3 per cent on a Q-o-Q basis. Private sector lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank posted Y-o-Y growth of 7.5 per cent and 1.7 per cent, respectively, in their corporate loan portfolios, but witnessed sequential declines of 1.4 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively. A banking analyst noted that this reflects a phase of growth without fresh investment in the economy. The industrial growth as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) slowed to 2 per cent in April-June 2025, compared to 4 per cent in the previous quarter. According to SBI chairman C S Setty, the tepid growth in the corporate loan book was mainly on account of delay in investment decisions by corporates due to uncertainties caused by the higher tariff announcement by US President Donald Trump in April this year, shift in borrowing from banks to other alternate sources and higher prepayments of loans by corporates. While state-run Bank of Baroda's corporate loan book expanded by 4.2 per cent Y-o-Y , it registered a sharp dip of 10.2 per cent Q-o-Q. Corporate advances of Union Bank of India and Bank of India rose 2.68 per cent and 4.49 per cent y-o-y, respectively, though their books declined 4.83 per cent and 1.5 per cent sequentially in April-June 2025 quarter. Canara Bank and Punjab National Bank's corporate book grew flat at 0.48 per cent and 1.1 per cent, respectively, on a Q-o-Q basis in June 2025 quarter. Bank of Baroda's chief economist Madan Sabnavis attributes weak credit demand from corporates to the slowdown in investments as companies await a revival in demand. The US President had initially announced to impose a 26 per cent tariff on imports of Indian goods, but later declared a 90-day pause, which resulted in corporates holding back on expansions and new investments. He subsequently doubled the tariff on India to 50 per cent. 'An important factor to consider is the uncertainty in terms of how these tariffs are going to play out and how quickly this is going to be addressed. Due to this uncertainty, a lot of investment decisions could be delayed and people will postpone their spending. This is the second order impact of tariffs,' Setty said during a press conference post the declaration of the Q1 FY26 results. Easing rates in the debt market following the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) 100 basis points (bps) reduction in the repo rate since February has prompted corporates to shift from banks to debt market instruments. 'Some large corporates are accessing the commercial paper (CP) market to replace working capital limits. This is expected because there is a good amount of liquidity (in the CP market). The rates are much more affordable (in the CP market) compared to borrowing from banks,' Setty said. The lender has seen working capital limit utilisation by corporates in his bank falling to 58 per cent from 62 per cent in Q1 FY25. Total funds raised through CP increased to Rs 4.51 lakh crore in April-June 2025 quarter, compared Rs 3.8 lakh crore in same period of FY25, and Rs 4.38 lakh crore in January-March 2025 quarter, according to Besides CPs, companies are also tapping the corporate debt market for cheaper funds compared to bank loans, which has impacted corporate loan growth of banks. In the first quarter of the current fiscal, corporates mobilised Rs 3.42 lakh crore through private placement of bonds, data from showed. 'We believe that funds raised through the bond market are being largely used by corporates to support ongoing business needs rather than for long-term capital investment,' said Saswata Guha, senior director, Financial Institutions (Banks), Fitch Ratings. With access to cheaper funds through CP and corporate bond markets, along with strong cash flows, domestic corporates have continuously reduced their debt, resulting in slower corporate credit growth. 'Corporates having strong cash flows are deleveraging. So, the (credit) demand is not that much because there is a deleveraging happening on the corporate book,' Bank of Baroda's managing director and CEO, Debadatta Chand, said during an analyst meet for the quarter ended June 2025. Lenders have also become prudent in lending to corporates as they do not want to overexpose themselves while expanding their corporate loan book. 'Banks are mindful of risk-return tradeoff and focus on risk-adjusted returns which makes them quite sensitive to pricing. They are also mindful of concentration risk embedded in a corporate exposure,' said Fitch Ratings' Guha. 'While lenders are trying to be more prudent in ensuring that their risk-adjusted returns on corporate exposure are justified, they can do so because retail and small business lending continues to grow healthy,' he said. Banks are hopeful of a stronger growth in corporate advances from the third quarter of the current fiscal. While SBI expects its corporate loan book to grow by 10 per cent in Q3 of FY26, Bank of Baroda is confident of achieving a 9-10 per cent growth in the segment during FY26. 'The shift (for funding from banks to the debt market) has happened, but I think these shifts keep happening. Once the rates stabilize on the bank side, they (corporates) will come back to utilization (of their working capital limits),' the SBI Chairman said. Setty said SBI has a robust visibility on the corporate loan pipeline in terms of proposals under discussion, and on sanctions which are yet to be disbursed. The bank has a total corporate loan book pipeline of Rs 7 lakh crore. For large-scale capex-led funding requirements, corporates will have to return to the banks, as the bond market alone will not be adequate to fulfill those needs, Guha said.