Provident Financial News

Fintech Moneyview is hunkering down on a lending model just as digital lending peers such as Paytm and KreditBee are either moving away from it or focusing on growth in other models.In its draft IPO prospectus, the Bengaluru-based startup revealed plans to substantially expand default loss guarantee (DLG) arrangements with lending partners as part of its credit distribution strategy. A default loss guarantee allows a partner, such as a fintech, to compensate a regulated entity, such as a bank or NBFC, for loan defaults.The move comes even as financial institutions have been reassessing such guarantees after the Reserve Bank of India introduced guidelines in mid-2023 that capped DLG exposure at 5% of a loan portfolio and required board approval.Paytm, a listed fintech platform that began DLG-backed loans in 2024, began retreating from the arrangement due to high costs by mid-2025.

₹10,485 crore—higher than what any equity category received in the same month.The asset-allocation and diversification argument underpinning multi-asset funds, strengthened by the inclusion of gold and silver as investable components, appears to be driving their rising popularity among investors.But just as investors were getting comfortable with the multi-asset pitch, fund houses have begun multiplying their offerings.Sebi’s 2025 directive on fund-of-funds (FoF) re-categorization appears to have triggered a fresh wave of multi-asset products. But do investors really need this variation of the multi-asset strategy, or does it simply amplify noise in an already crowded market and make choice harder?When Sebi first introduced fund categorization rules in 2018, FoFs were tucked into a residual “Other Schemes” bucket.

Quick-commerce operator Zepto Ltd is targeting a late April deadline for filing updated documents for an initial public offering (IPO) with India's market regulator, even as it faces valuation concerns, said three people aware of the matter.Zepto's December 2025 confidential filing is likely to be cleared in another four weeks, one of the people quoted earlier said–all three spoke on the condition of anonymity. Following the clearance, Zepto plans to file its updated draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) before the end of April, this person added.An updated prospectus is a public disclosure of the share sale details to investors after confidential filings.

Arnya Real Estates Fund Advisors and developer Supreme Universal have raised ₹1,030 crore for Arnya Real Estate Fund—Equity, from domestic and offshore investors, including family offices and ultra-rich individuals, marking the first close for the equity platform.The capital raised also includes around ₹220 crore of equity committed by the two sponsors. Arnya Real Estates will manage the fund, while Mumbai-based Supreme Universal will develop the projects.Arnya Real Estates has raised the capital for the platform via a Sebi-registered category II alternative investment fund (AIF)—Arnya Real Estate Fund-Equity.The two partners had announced the launch of a residential real estate platform in November that will develop housing projects in Mumbai and Pune.

Mint explains how the compensation mechanism could work and why the central bank believes a shared liability framework is needed.RBI has proposed a framework to compensate victims of small-value digital payment fraud, even in cases where the customer may have been partly negligent. The draft guidelines allow partial reimbursement for transactions of up to ₹50,000, with victims potentially receiving up to 85% of the loss or ₹25,000, whichever is lower.

Owning property is a big step toward financial independence for women. It provides status in society and an economic foundation.“It is security for life, and it's their right,” said Gautam Khurana, managing partner & founder, India Law Offices LLP in Delhi.However, land ownership by women in India remains abysmal. Only 18.7% of women between the ages 15 and 49 own a house by themselves, while 13.7% own it jointly with someone else, according to World Bank data.Historically, daughters are often excluded from property distribution after a father’s death.

ready-to-eat, or RTE, market. Yet, despite this gap, the RTE and the adjacent ready-to-heat segment already has an addressable consumer base of 70-80 million Indians, reflecting the latent scale of the opportunity.For years, the industry assumed that faster delivery would automatically drive adoption. The rise of quick commerce was treated as a breakthrough, as though reducing delivery time to ten minutes would dissolve consumer hesitation.But, speed was never the real barrier.

New Delhi: Facing supply disruption from West Asia, the Indian government has directed all state-run and private-sector refineries in the country to step up production of domestic cooking gas by diverting feedstock away from the manufacturing of non-essential products, including petrochemicals.Using its powers under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, the ministry has directed all refiners to supply LPG to the three state-owned refiners – Indian Oil Corp Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd – which will in turn supply it only to domestic consumers of cooking gas.The development is significant as India has only about 25 days of LPG stock. Annual demand stands at 33.15 million tonnes, with imports servicing about 75-80% of this.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the nationwide Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination campaign on 28 February by including it in India’s Universal Immunization Programme to vaccinate 12 million girls annually. With 120,000 new cases and 80,000 deaths annually, India accounts for a quarter of global cervical cancer deaths.Infection by certain HPV strains can cause precancerous cell changes, which may eventually lead to cancer.Mint explains the rationale behind the plan to help stop cervical cancer – the second most common cancer among women in India – by leveraging the country's digital infrastructure and primary health centre network.The aim is to prevent cervical cancer in girls before they are exposed to the virus.

India’s telecom giants and global technology firms are locked in a tussle over pricing and regulation of the country’s business internet backbone.At the centre of the clash are Domestic Leased Circuits (DLCs)—dedicated, high-security broadband lines used by banks, data centres and enterprises. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is conducting its first review of these tariffs in more than a decade, which could slash price caps that have been unchanged since 2014.The total revenue earned by service providers from DLCs in FY 2023–24 is around ₹13,300 crore, which is approximately 60% higher than the revenue earned in FY 2012–13, according to Trai.Mobile operators, including Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, are defending their turf, arguing that government intervention would amount to a subsidy for Big Tech.

The volatile market scenario continues to keep everyone guessing. With the war showing no signs of receding, one needs to tread these waters carefully.Buy above ₹318, stop ₹303, target ₹348 (Multiday)Buy above ₹5590, stop ₹5390 target, ₹5995 (Multiday)Buy above ₹2555, stop ₹2450, target ₹2775 (Multiday)Why it’s recommended: The Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (MCX), is India's leading commodity derivatives exchange with over 60% market share. It provides a national-level, regulated electronic platform for trading futures and options in commodities such as gold, silver, crude oil, and natural gas.

XED, which provides education programs to top executives. The company plans to raise $12 million through a dollar-based offering in GIFT City this month.While the offering will test the IPO route at the offshore financial centre, the forthcoming framework is aimed at companies that want to list directly on the exchanges.If implemented, the proposal would allow Indian and global companies, whether already listed elsewhere or privately held, to list their shares on GIFT City exchanges without raising fresh capital.

India is weighing a plan to prioritize natural gas supply to critical sectors after LNG (liquefied natural gas) shipments from Qatar were disrupted following an attack on QatarEnergy’s Ras Laffan liquefaction complex on Monday, three people aware of the matter said.The move assumes significance as India imports about 55% of its natural gas requirement. Further, of the $14.9 billion worth of natural gas imports in FY25, Qatar’s share was about 50%, according to data from Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC).“The government is looking at multiple options to ensure uninterrupted supply of natural gas,” one of the three people mentioned above said on condition of anonymity.

crude oil to India.Higher oil and gas prices should force CGDs and oil marketing companies (OMCs) to raise prices of CNG and auto fuels. Nomura estimates that CGDs source 30%-40% of their natural gas requirement from imported LNG. As imported LNG prices rise (due to higher pricing and shipping costs), CGDs must raise the CNG price to maintain their Ebitda margins.

Past conflicts in the Middle East typically hit India at the gas station. This time, the risks transcend oil, threatening everything from smartphone exports to New Delhi’s fragile finances.Flames have reached the United Arab Emirates, India’s second-largest electronics export destination after the US. Beyond being an entrepôt for regional trade, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are wealth hubs for the Indian elite.

₹12,195 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme was introduced in February 2021 to encourage the local manufacture of equipment such as network switches, transmission gear and set-top boxes.Out of the scheme's 42 applicants, 19 including Samsung have not claimed or received any incentive, data showed. Only 15% of the scheme's outlay was actually disbursed, even as its five-year run ends this month.Companies which have chosen FY23 as base year will have one year left (FY27) to claim incentives on incremental sales, whereas investments under the scheme were only allowed till FY26 for all the scheme participants.Samsung India Electronics, which applied for the scheme in 2022, chose to withdraw because it found local manufacturing unviable given limited customer demand for its telecom gear, an industry expert said.

CDs near maturity, they reflect as outflows in the next 30 days, dragging down the LCR.“We expect a sharp decline in LCR for Q4FY2026 driven by huge CD issuance in past months. However, this decline shall be recouped partially with the revised LCR norms effective 1 April, which is driven by lower outflow rates on certain other deposits,” said Gupta.In December 2025, banks raised a total of ₹1.56 trillion through 176 CD issuances, followed by ₹1.48 trillion in January through 111 CDs and ₹2.67 trillion in February, according to data provided by Prime Database.In 2025, banks raised ₹13.4 trillion through 1,446 CD issuances, higher than the ₹12.33 trillion raised via 1,284 issuances in 2024, data from Prime Database showed.The spurt in CD issuances comes as credit growth continues to outpace deposit accretion.

Mint shows the standards establish common definitions for cloud systems, introduce performance metrics for data centres, and embed ethical considerations within AI system design, formalizing the technical and governance backbone of India’s AI expansion.The standards have been notified under Sub-rule (1) of Rule 15 of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Rules, 2018. They are Indian Standards derived from international ISO/IEC frameworks.For now, they are not mandatory.

AIFs. Unlike mutual funds that pool in investors' money to invest primarily in listed equities and bonds, AIFs are also pooled investments but can invest beyond securities and bonds to invest in less traditional assets such as private equity, venture capital, real estate and hedge funds.“My allocation to AIFs was driven by one simple realization that traditional instruments capture broad market beta, but they rarely provide access to early-stage alpha.

OpenAI, the creator of foundational artificial intelligence behind ChatGPT, announced on Friday that it has signed a deal with the Pentagon. It allows the US department of war (DoW), formerly the department of defense, to use the Sam Altman-led company's models in classified environments.That has raised eyebrows and questions over the use of the OpenAI technology stack in India, among the largest markets for AI and the fastest adopter of the technology worldwide.

A new term that entered the lexicon after India’s budget for 2026-27 was the ‘orange economy.’ Synonymous with the creative economy, it is emerging as a formidable engine of growth that transcends traditional industrial boundaries. Once viewed as niche, the intersection of culture, technology and intellectual property now accounts for roughly 3.1% of global GDP and 6.2% of all employment.For a country like India, where recent budgetary initiatives recognize the strategic value of creative assets, the growth of this sector offers more than just economic expansion.