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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued revised guidelines capping investment by Regulated Entities (REs) at 20% of the corpus of an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) scheme.

No RE can individually contribute more than 10% of the corpus of an AIF scheme, as per a circular issued by the RBI on Tuesday (July 29, 2025).

“Collective contribution by all REs in any AIF Scheme shall not be more than 20% of the corpus of that scheme,” it added.

These Directions will come into force from January 1, 2026, or from any earlier date as decided by a RE as per its internal policy. 

As per the Directions if a RE contributes more than five per cent of the corpus of an AIF Scheme, which also has downstream investment (excluding equity instruments) in a debtor company of the RE, then the RE will be required to make 100% provision to the extent of its proportionate investment in the debtor company through the AIF Scheme, subject to a maximum of the direct loan and/ or investment exposure of the RE to the debtor company, the RBI said in the circular.

If a RE’s contribution is in the form of subordinated units, then it will need to deduct the entire investment from its capital funds— proportionately from both Tier-1 and Tier-2 capital (wherever applicable). 

The REs include Commercial Banks (including Small Finance Banks, Local Area Banks and Regional Rural Banks), Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks/ State Co-operative Banks/ Central Co- operative Banks, All-India Financial Institutions and Non-Banking Financial Companies (including Housing Finance Companies).

Commenting on this Sudhir Chandi, director at Resurgent India said, “The new guidelines aim at better governing and strengthening the risk management process under the Investment Portfolio of the regulated entities. The previous guidelines issued in December 2023 and March 2024 have been repealed. “

“The guidelines are now brought into alignment with SEBI guidelines on due diligence and investment to ensure uniformity and clarity,” he said.

“The guidelines directly seek to address the concern relating to the misuse of the AIF route for evergreening of the loans and advancing by using AIF to finance the existing stress loans portfolio,” he said adding “By restricting the individual contribution to 10% of the corpus of an AIF, the concentration risk shall be mitigated.”

Similarly, the restriction on the collective contribution of all REs will further spread the risk and entail wider participation of more regulated entities, he said.

“The provisioning norms have been further strengthened to 100 percent in specific cases to discourage the higher level of investment in the designated category of existing borrowers,” he said.

The idea is to deter any diversion of funds from the alternative investment fund route for wrongful purposes contrary to the best practices of robust income recognition and assets classification, he stated.

Bank of India for the first quarter ended June 30, 2025 reported 32% YoY growth in net profit at ₹2,252 crore. However, the bank’s Net Interest Income (NII) fell 3.29% YoY to ₹6,068 crore. Its global Net Interest Margin (NIM) for the quarter fell from 3.07% to 2.55%.

Gross NPA reduced 29% YoY to ₹19.640 crore and Net NPA fell 13% to ₹4.950 crore. Provision Coverage Ratio (PCR) improved by 83 bps YoY and stood at 92.94%.The bank’s slippage ratio improved by 2 bps YoY and stood at 0.33%.

The bank’s global advances grew by 12.02% with domestic advances growing by 11.24% YoY. The bank’s global business crossed ₹15 lakh crore.

Retail advances grew by 20% YoY, MSME advances grew by 17% YoY followed by agriculture advances which grew by 12% YoY.

The bank’s deposits grew by 9.07% YoY with domestic deposits growing by 9.62% YoY. 

Engineering and Construction major Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) for the first quarter ended June 30, 2025 reported 30% Year on Year (YoY) growth in consolidated net profit at ₹3,617 crore.

The company for the quarter achieved consolidated revenues of ₹63,679 crore registering a YoY growth of 16% with healthy execution witnessed in its key Projects & Manufacturing (P&M) portfolio.

International revenues during the quarter were at ₹32,994 crore which constituted 52% of the total revenues.

During the quarter the company received orders worth ₹7,94,453 crore at the Group level. It registered a YoY growth of 33% aided by a strong ordering momentum witnessed across diverse businesses.

During the quarter, orders were received across multiple businesses like Thermal BTG, Renewables, Power Transmission & Distribution, Hydel, Non-Ferrous Metals, Offshore & Onshore businesses of Hydrocarbon, Commercial and Residential projects, the company said.

International orders stood at ₹48,675 crore, accounting for 52% of the total order inflow.

The consolidated order book of the group as on June 30, 2025, was at ₹6,12,761 crore, a growth of 6% over March 2025. The share of international orders us 46%.

S.N. Subrahmanyan, Chairman and Managing Director L&T said, “This quarter we have performed well across all financial parameters. At a Group level, we registered once again, the highest order inflow for Q1 ever. Besides improved performance on all P&L parameters, the return ratios have also moved higher.”

“The projects and manufacturing businesses of the company continues to perform well. Our new-age businesses like Semiconductor, Data Centers, Green Energy and Digital Platforms have been successfully incubated in the current strategic plan and we expect these businesses to contribute meaningfully over the next 5 years,” he said.

“Besides enabling portfolio level diversification, these businesses reinforce our presence in technology driven sectors and to stay future ready,” he added.

Johnson Lifts Ltd, manufacturers of elevators and escalators, will be upgrading its Research and Development (R&D) unit with an investment of ₹250 crore to develop and test lifts with speeds exceeding 4 meters per second. This investment will happen over the next 2-3 years.

“We have opened a new office in Noida and our Nagpur factory has recently been expanded. Both at a cumulative cost of ₹54 crore,” said Yohan K John, Director of Johnson Lifts Ltd. The company manufactures 18,000 lifts and about 1,000 escalators annually.

Johnson Lifts Ltd holds a 50% market share in escalator installations at metro stations, having installed 3,396 out of the total 6,942 escalators across all metro stations. The firm has also done some interesting projects including the New Parliament House in New Delhi, Pamban Bridge at Rameshwaram and the Status of Unity, Gujarat. “We are also involved in the redevelopment of Egmore Railway Station, as well as several upcoming metro stations,” Mr. John pointed out.

The company, with over six decades of experience in the industry, launched its new elevator—Eazy Ride Plus on Tuesday. Specifically designed for existing villas and indoor applications, the product aims to enhance accessibility and convenience.

V.Jagannathan, MD and CEO of Johnson Lifts Ltd said: “Eazy Ride Plus caters to India’s growing residential retrofit market – lifts for existing homes – which comprises up to 80% of current demand for home lifts.” He added, “Installing a lift in an existing home is often complicated due to the lack of a build-in-shaft. Eazy Ride Plus eliminates this issue.”

The company has installed over 1,93,000 elevators and more than 7,000 escalators across the country. In the last financial year, it recorded a turnover of ₹3,000 crore.

Decathlon, a French sports retailer brand, on Tuesday (July 29, 2025), said it has a strategic target to scale its local sourcing from India to $3 billion by 2030.

Currently, India accounts for 8% of Decathlon’s global sourcing quantities, with a goal to scale this to 15% by 2030, according to the company.

This growth would be driven by a focused push in high-potential categories such as footwear, fitness equipment, and technical textiles — designed to meet the evolving demands of both Indian consumers and global markets, said Decathlon whose operations turned 25 years in India.

Addressing a media conference, Sankar Chatterjee, chief executive officer, Decathlon India, said, over the last 25 years, Decathlon’s production journey in India has been the backbone of the brand’s success in the country.

Over 70% of the quantities sold by Decathlon in India in 2025 will be made in India. This figure is expected to rise to 90% by 2030, reinforcing the brand’s focus on its local sourcing strategy. The brand’s local production ecosystem includes a Design Centre, which is supported by 113 manufacturing sites, 83 suppliers, and 7 production offices across India.

“Today, we’re able to offer a diverse and growing portfolio of categories, made in India that meet the evolving needs of Indian sport users,’‘ he said, adding, as the brand continued to strengthen its footprint across offline and omni-channel platforms, production excellence remained at the heart of Decathlon’s strategy.

As part of its growth journey, Decathlon was working to create more than 3,00,000 new direct and indirect jobs in the country across its production ecosystem. The brand would also deepen its focus on culturally rooted sports like yoga and cricket, with the latter entirely conceptualised and manufactured in India. Decathlon currently operates 132 stores across 55 cities in India and it plans to expand its retail footprint to over 90 cities by 2030.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Ahmedabad, admitted Blu-Smart Mobility Ltd., an electric vehicle ride-hailing service, for insolvency resolution following a petition filed by Catalyst Trusteeship Ltd.

Catalyst Trusteeship, acting as a debenture trustee for Incred Credit Opportunities Fund-I and a financial creditor filed a petition against Blu-Smart, a related entity of Gensol Engineering, alleging a default of about ₹1.28 crore.

After hearing the arguments and going through the presented documents, NCLT Judicial Member Shammi Khan and Technical Member Sanjeev Kumar Sharma said the financial creditor has established the existence of a financial debt under section 5(8) of the insolvency and bankruptcy code, arising from the issuance of 15 non-convertible debentures worth ₹15 crore and the disbursement to Blu-Smart is undisputed.

The tribunal said it is satisfied that the financial creditor is entitled to the relief sought.

The NCLT appointed NPV Insolvency Professionals Private Ltd. as the interim resolution professional (IRP) of Blu-Smart.

Since it admitted the Catalyst Trusteeship petition, the bench dismissed another petition filed by Spectrum Trimpex Private Ltd. against Blu-Smart and said it can file its claims before the IRP.

Last month, NCLT had admitted Gensol Engineering Ltd. and its subsidiary Gensol EV Lease Ltd. for insolvency resolution, following separate cases filed by Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has upgraded India’s growth expectations to 6.4% in both 2025-26 and 2026-27 as compared to what it had predicted in April. The growth upgrade, of 0.2 percentage points and 0.1 percentage points, respectively, is in line with the upgrades for global growth. 

The IMF’s World Economic Outlook (WEO) July update released on July 29 upgraded its global growth forecast to 3% for 2025 and 3.1% in 2026, 0.2 percentage and 0.1 percentage points higher than what had been predicted in the April 2025 edition of the WEO.

“This reflects stronger-than-expected front-loading in anticipation of higher tariffs, lower average effective U.S. tariff rates than announced in April, an improvement in financial conditions, including due to a weaker U.S. dollar, and fiscal expansion in some major jurisdictions,” the report said.

However, the report also noted that, although the July prediction for global growth is higher than the one made in April, it is still lower than the 3.3% growth seen in 2024 and the pre-COVID-19 pandemic historical average of 3.7%. 

“In India, growth is projected to be 6.4% in 2025 and 2026, with both numbers revised slightly upward, reflecting a more benign external environment than assumed in the April reference forecast,” the report said.

The central government has budgeted to collect about ₹5.91 lakh crore from cess and surcharge in the current fiscal, a 9.43% growth over the collections in FY25, Parliament was informed on Tuesday (July 29, 2025).

As per data shared by the government in the Rajya Sabha, the Centre has budgeted to collect about ₹4.18 lakh crore from cess and ₹1.72 lakh crore from surcharge in FY26. This is higher than FY25 cess and surcharge collection of ₹3.87 lakh crore and ₹1.53 lakh crore, respectively.

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In a written reply to a question in the House, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said cess and surcharge are levied by the central government for the purposes of the Union under Article 271 of the Constitution.

“The proceeds of such surcharge and cess go towards meeting certain specific needs such as financing of Centrally Sponsored Schemes. The benefits of such expenditure also percolate to States,” he said.

Replying to a separate question in the House, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government collected ₹83,071 crore in 2024-25 by levying health and education cess, while it spent ₹87,199 crore from the kitty.

Giving details of the amount of health and education cess collected from income tax payers in addition to income tax during the last three years, Ms. Sitharaman said in 2023-24 and 2022-23 the government collected ₹69,891 crore and ₹60,616 crore, respectively from the cess.

During FY24 and FY23, spendings from health and education cess kitty stood at about ₹80,010 crore and ₹70,589 crore, respectively.

Gross tax revenue collected by the Centre forms part of the divisible pool and distributed between the Centre and states. Collection from surcharges and cess do not form part of the divisible pool and are hence not shared with States.

Currently, 8 different cesses are in operation. These are agriculture infrastructure, development cess, cess on crude oil, cess on exports, GST compensation cess, health and education cess, national calamity contingent duty and infrastructure cess.

Surcharges are levied on corporate tax, income tax, and social welfare surcharge under Customs.

States, especially those ruled by Opposition parties, have been making a case for including cess collection in the divisible pool. Currently, the Centre devolves 41% of the taxes collected to States.

Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty bounced back after a three-day fall, ending higher on Tuesday (July 29, 2025), powered by a rally in blue-chip stocks Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 446.93 points or 0.55% to settle at 81,337.95. During the day, it surged 538.86 points or 0.66% to 81,429.88.

The 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 140.20 points or 0.57% to 24,821.10.

From the Sensex firms, Reliance Industries edged higher by 2.21%. Larsen & Toubro, Asian Paints, Tata Motors, Adani Ports, Tata Steel, Maruti, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance and HDFC Bank were also among the gainers.

However, Axis Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Titan and ITC were among the biggest laggards.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹6,082.47 crore on Monday (July 28, 2025), according to exchange data.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng settled lower while South Korea’s Kospi and Shanghai’s SSE Composite index ended in positive territory.

Markets in Europe were trading higher. The U.S. markets ended on a mixed note on Monday (July 28, 2025).

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.63% up to $70.48 a barrel.

Stock markets declined for the third day on Monday (July 28, 2025).

The Sensex tanked 572.07 points or 0.70% to settle at 80,891.02 on Monday (July 28, 2025). The Nifty declined 156.10 points or 0.63% to 24,680.90.

Every winter, Delhi’s skies turn into a toxic haze, reminding us of the urgent need to break free from the grip of fossil fuels. Use of these fuels for transport is one of the major pollutants. These fuels also power our electricity and industries; the GHG emissions from all these is causing global warming and slowly but surely destroying life on earth. The erratic rainfalls is just a sign. The science is clear: to save our cities and our planet, we must end our reliance on fossil fuels as soon as possible.

Fortunately, the technology for transition is ready. Electricity generated from solar and wind are now cheaper than that from fossil fuels. Electric vehicles (EVs) for two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and cars are rapidly maturing. The price gap with petrol vehicles is narrowing, and EVs offer a direct route to slashing pollution, while getting rid of fossil fuel. They are not just a vision for tomorrow—they are a present-day solution for cleaner air and a healthier future.

Yet, at this pivotal moment, the Delhi government is considering a policy that threatens to undermine this progress. By promoting petrol-based hybrid vehicles, policymakers risk using hybrids as a fake proxy for EV. While hybrids may be slightly more fuel-efficient than other petrol cars, they still run on petrol, still emit harmful NOx and PM2.5, and still contribute to the very pollution crisis we are trying to solve. Granting them concessions and incentives is a dangerous sleight of hand—one that confuses consumers and slows the adoption of genuine electric vehicles.

The Government of India deserves praise for its clear policy to promote electric vehicles, which has already spurred rapid growth in the EV sector. However, by allowing hybrids as a fake proxy for EV, and offering them subsidies, we risk reversing this momentum. This is not just a policy misstep—it is a step backward in India’s march toward its net-zero emission targets.

India’s commitment to net-zero emissions is bold and necessary. Achieving this goal requires us to reject false-measures and embrace true electrification. We must not be misled by hybrids and equate them to EVs. The path forward is clear: rapid, unwavering support for genuine electric vehicles.

The time for ambiguity is over. We must reject policies that prolong our dependence on fossil fuels and instead focus on accelerating the adoption of real electric vehicles. For the sake of our children, our cities, and our planet, let us accelerate our efforts to move fully to renewable electricity and fully to electric vehicles.

(The writer is Institute Professor, IIT Madras and Chairman, ITEL)