Note ban impact on loan, deposit growth significant: Moody's

February 23, 2017

New Delhi, Feb 23: Demonetisation has significantly impacted credit demand and deposit growth of banks but had a mixed effect on asset quality in the third quarter of current fiscal, Moody's Investors Service said today.

MoodyThe cancellation of legal tender of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes has led to a slowdown in economic activity that weighed on demand for credit among companies and retail borrowers during the October-December quarter, it said.

"Demonetisation has significantly impacted credit demand and deposit growth but effect on asset quality has been mixed; retail payment systems have benefited. While commentary from the banks points to a rise in activity in January 2017, it is still below pre-demonetisation levels," Moody's said.

In its report, Moody's said the slowdown in loan growth may also have been in part due to loan repayments using the demonetised currencies.

Deposits at rated banks grew by 13 per cent year-on-year in the December quarter, from 6 per cent in the preceding quarter, but as cash availability increases and restrictions on withdrawals go, a moderation will occur, it said.

It also said that retail payment systems, such as card transactions and mobile wallets, saw a significant uptick in activity post-demonetisation, but "the transition to a cashless environment will take time".

The government had on November 8, 2016, announced junking of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, which accounted for 86 per cent of the currency in circulation. This led to a slowdown in economic activity and weighed on demand for credit among companies and retail borrowers during the December quarter.

"Banks have experienced significant inflows into their deposit base as customers deposit their existing holdings of the demonetised notes. However, we maintain our view that the level of bank deposits will increase by only around 1-2 per cent in the near-term, given the substantial role of cash in the Indian economy as a medium of transaction," Moody's said.

Economic activity suffered in November and December 2016 as households and businesses experienced liquidity shortages following demonetisation.

"We expect asset quality in the quarter ending March 2017 to show more adverse trends as the quarter ended December 2016 may have benefited from the fact that only two of the three months were affected by demonetisation. Nevertheless, it seems that the impact on asset quality from demonetisation will be manageable for the banking sector," Moody's said.

As on February 3 2017, total currency in circulation was around Rs 9.8 lakh crore, which is about 58 per cent of the level seen before demonetisation.

"The amount of currency in public circulation continues to increase steadily, indicating that the limiting factor is the supply of currency rather than the demand for it," Moody's added.

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Agencies
June 26,2020

Facebook will introduce a new notification screen on its platform that will warn users if the article they are about to share is over 90 days old, the company announced on Thursday.

“We’re starting to globally roll out a notification screen that will let people know when news articles they are about to share are more than 90 days old,” Facebook wrote in a blog post.

The social media platform had previously introduced a context button in 2018 that provides information about the sources of articles in the News Feed. Building upon that, the new feature will inform users about the timeliness of the article.

“To ensure people have the context they need to make informed decisions about what to share on Facebook, the notification screen will appear when people click the share button on articles older than 90 days, but will allow people to continue sharing if they decide an article is still relevant,” Facebook said.

The social media giant stated that timeliness is important in understanding the context of an article and curbing the spread of misinformation on the platform.

“News publishers, in particular, have expressed concerns about older stories being shared on social media as current news, which can misconstrue the state of current events. Some news publishers have already taken steps to address this on their own websites by prominently labelling older articles to prevent outdated news from being used in misleading ways,” Facebook added.

Apart from this, the platform will also be testing a similar notification screen for information related to the global Covid-19 pandemic. The notification screen will provide information about the source of the link shared in a post if the link is related to information on Covid-19. It will also direct people to its previously introduced Covid-19 information centre for “authoritative” health information, it said.

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Agencies
February 29,2020

Ahmedabad, Feb 29: The presence of two feral pigeons onboard a GoAir flight at the airport in Ahmedabad in Gujarat created a flutter among the amused passengers, even though the avian surprise did not lead to any untoward incident or delay in the flight.

The incident took place on Friday when the passengers were boarding the Ahmedabad-Jaipur flight.

"Two pigeons had found their way inside the flight G8 702 while the passengers were boarding," an airline statement said on Saturday.

"The crew immediately shooed away the birds. The flight took off at its scheduled time at 5 p.m.," it added.

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Agencies
June 27,2020

Mumbai, Jun 27: The Bombay High Court observed that COVID-19 patients from poor and indigent sections cannot be expected to produce documentary proof to avail subsidised or free treatment while getting admitted to hospitals.

The court on Friday was hearing a plea filed by seven residents of a slum rehabilitation building in Bandra, who had been charged ₹ 12.5 lakh by K J Somaiya Hospital for COVID-19 treatment between April 11 and April 28.

The bench of Justices Ramesh Dhanuka and Madhav Jamdar directed the hospital to deposit ₹10 lakh in the court.

The petitioners had borrowed money and managed to pay ₹10 lakh out of ₹12.5 lakh that the hospital had demanded, after threatening to halt their discharge if they failed to clear the bill, counsel Vivek Shukla informed the court.

According to the plea, the petitioners were also overcharged for PPE kits and unused services.

On June 13, the court had directed the state charity commissioner to probe if the hospital had reserved 20% beds for poor and indigent patients and provided free or subsidised treatment to them.

Last week, the joint charity commissioner had informed the court that although the hospital had reserved such beds, it had treated only three poor or indigent persons since the lockdown.

It was unfathomable that the hospital that claimed to have reserved 90 beds for poor and indigent patients had treated only three such persons during the pandemic, advocate Shukla said.

He further argued that COVID-19 patients, who are in distress, cannot be expected to produce income certificate and such documents as proof.

However, senior advocate Janak Dwarkadas, who represented the hospital, said the petitioners did not belong to economically weak or indigent categories and had not produced documents to prove the same.

A person who is suffering from a disease like COVID-19 cannot be expected to produce certificates from a tehsildar or social welfare officer before seeking admission in the hospital, the bench noted and asked the hospital to deposit ₹10 lakh in court within two weeks.

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