Latest news with #ANBC
Business Standard
10 hours ago
- Business
- Business Standard
RBI reduces priority sector lending requirement for small finance banks
PSL requirement will reduce to 60% from 75% earlier The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reduced the mandatory priority sector lending requirement for small finance banks (SFBs) to 60% from financial year 2025-26 onwards as against existing requirement of 75%. As per the Guidelines for Licensing of Small Finance Banks in Private Sector dated 27 November 2014 a SFB is required to extend 75% of its Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANBC) to the sectors eligible for classification as priority sector lending (PSL). Further, while 40% of its ANBC should be allocated to different sub-sectors under PSL, the SFB can allocate the balance 35% to any one or more sub-sectors where it has competitive advantage. On a review, it has been decided that financial year 2025-26 onwards, the additional component (35%) of PSL shall be reduced to 20%, thereby making the overall PSL target as 60% of ANBC or Credit Equivalent of Off-Balance Sheet Exposures (CEOBE), whichever is higher. The SFB shall continue to allocate 40% of its ANBC or CEOBE, whichever is higher, to different sub-sectors under PSL as per the extant PSL prescriptions, while the balance 20% shall be allocated to any one or more sub-sectors under the PSL where the bank has competitive advantage.
ABC News
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Budgie show preparation in full flight ahead of competition in Cairns
Bruce Schuster pampers his budgerigars with shampoo spritzes and a daily superfood medley. "My wife thinks they're better fed than she is," the 77-year-old says. "It's got all the nice vitamins in there. I've got my greens in there. I grate my carrot, I grate the beetroot and a bit of sweet potato." The retired real estate agent is a three-time national champion budgie breeder and competition judge. He is organising the 49th annual Australian National Budgerigar Council (ANBC) championship show in Cairns next weekend. Mr Schuster will also be among the 220 exhibitors bringing the nation's top 640 budgies to compete at the event. Since joining his local budgerigar club in 1992, his humble backyard operation in suburban Cairns has clinched the three national titles and many more podium finishes. "This little aviary here which only breeds around 100 birds a year if I'm lucky, what it produces is unbelievable," he says. During the two-day event, judges working in pairs will assess the birds against a "Standard of Perfection" which sets out strict criteria for form, colour and condition across 28 varieties. To get his birds show-ready, Mr Schuster sprays them every few days with shampoo and water to fluff up their feathers and uses a cotton bud dipped in milk to carefully remove any stains. "And different birds use different shampoos," he says. He also uses a toothbrush to loosen up head feathers to create the desired bouffant hairdo. "We used to have a hair dryer and we'd go out there and blow them around. I don't see it happening so much lately but it used to just buff the bird up," he says. "You also put a little bit of oil on their feet and their beaks to shine it up." The native Australian parrot's journey from desert nomad to the world's third-most popular pet behind dogs and cats began in 1840 when budgies were first exported to England. They have been bred for competitions since the 1920s, leading to the marked difference in appearance between exhibition budgerigars and their ancestral cousins that swarm in their thousands in the Aussie outback. Wild budgies are smaller and sleeker, averaging 18 centimetres in length, while show budgies are ideally 24cm long with head feathers so fluffy they appear to obscure their eyes. Colour mutations and selective breeding have given rise to 28 varieties in Australia and a cornucopia of shades including cobalt, violet, buttercup yellow and snow white. With names like opaline, cinnamon wing, recessive pied and saddleback, each variety has colour and plumage differences, from the shade of the bird's iris to the intensity of its markings. Griffith in the NSW Riverina hosted the first official gathering of Australian budgie fanciers in 1967. From a peak of more than 5,000 registered breeders during the pastime's heyday in the 1980s and 90s, the community has declined to about 1,600 breeders, most older men. ANBC president Russell Ogden says there is a concerted drive to recruit younger members through events like South Australia's Budgie Fest and Warrnambool's Budgies in the Bool. "We jokingly refer to it as a dying hobby," he says. "The juniors are going to be the future of our hobby in years to come, but we're also trying to encourage it as an inclusive family hobby." The pastime has also expanded around the world, with the Australian titles to be live-streamed to 48 member countries of the World Budgerigar Organisation including Sudan, Bangladesh and Slovenia. "It's actually probably more popular in some countries than it is in Australia, which is surprising," Mr Ogden says. Budgie shows are a fierce contest over differences in features that are barely discernible to the untrained eye. The tiny details — an out-of-place spot, aberration in tail feather numbers, or disallowed flecking in the plumage — are what set champions apart from the rest of the field. Breeders like Mr Schuster set out to create perfectly proportionate wing and tail lengths, a 30-degree angle of deportment on the perch, and just the right Pantone shade and markings. When it all comes together, he says the diminutive birds can elicit gasps of, "Wow, he's powerful." "The exhibition budgie is such a magnificent bird to look at," he says. "The directional feather and the colours and everything of those 28 varieties are unbelievable." Mr Schuster has enjoyed the camaraderie of the budgie community over three decades but admits it can be "over-competitive" at times. "You can see some people look at you and think, 'Oh, I'd love to beat him'," he says. But he too enjoys a bit of healthy competition. He gets a twinkle in his eye when he recounts some wins, such as successfully cajoling another breeder to lend him their prized cock or hen and bagging quality birds for a bargain. "I've won the nationals with a $50 bird," he says. Mr Schuster says some birds fetch "crazy prices" at auction — up to $10,000 — but he believes discernment is more important than deep pockets. "I play with bloodlines. I don't buy a lot of birds, and I think I've got a good eye," he says. "What you've got to remember is [a seller] is getting rid of their bird. If it was good they'd be keeping it."
