Annual closing of government accounts extended settlement and reporting hours to ensure accounting within the financial year.
Agency banks must record all government transactions for the financial year within that year; designated branches are to remain open for over the counter government transactions up to normal hours on March 31. RTGS will operate with extended hours, NEFT will continue until midnight, and a special clearing will be conducted for government cheques. The reporting window for Central and State government transactions, including GST/e receipt uploads, is extended and kept open until 1200 hours on April 1. Agency banks must publicize these special arrangements.

Policy repo rate cut and accommodative monetary stance to support credit flow and mitigate pandemic-induced economic stress.
The Reserve Bank announced a sizeable policy repo rate reduction and maintained an accommodative stance to revive growth and preserve financial stability, alongside an asymmetric LAF corridor to discourage parking of funds. A multi pronged liquidity package-targeted long term repo operations for investment grade corporate instruments, CRR reduction and relaxed CRR maintenance, increased MSF accommodation and widened policy corridor-was calibrated to inject system and targeted liquidity. Supervisory relief includes a three month moratorium on term loan instalments and deferment of working capital interest without asset classification downgrade, deferral of NSFR implementation and the last tranche of the capital conservation buffer, and measures to improve market functioning including limited offshore NDF participation by IFSC banking units.

Recapitalization of Regional Rural Banks extended to support CRAR compliance, conditional on sponsor banks releasing matching funds.
Approval extends the recapitalization mechanism for RRBs to provide minimum regulatory capital for an additional year for RRBs unable to maintain the mandatory Capital to Risk Weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR) of 9%. Central funding is authorized but conditional on proportionate release by sponsor banks. NABARD continues to identify RRBs requiring assistance based on annual CRAR positions, with the aim of strengthening balance sheets to enable continued Priority Sector Lending to rural borrowers.

Foreign Direct Investment policy tightened on e commerce neutrality while liberalising sectoral entry to spur manufacturing and investment.
Foreign Direct Investment policy has been liberalised across multiple sectors to operationalise the Make in India objective by opening most sectors to foreign investment under an automatic route while reserving specified activities for government approval. Sectoral reforms relax entry and operational conditions for defence, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, rail, aviation, construction, financial services and digital media, while contract manufacturing and sale of domestically manufactured goods through wholesale, retail and e commerce are expressly permitted. E commerce marketplaces with foreign investment must not influence prices and must provide affiliated services to vendors on fair and non discriminatory, arm's length terms; violations may attract action by competent authorities.

Exchange of information for tax purposes enables sharing of banking and ownership data and mutual assistance in collection.
The Agreement establishes a framework for exchange of information between India and Brunei Darussalam for tax purposes, enabling both automatic exchange and exchange on request, covering banking and ownership information, permitting tax examinations by representatives in the other jurisdiction, and providing mutual assistance in the recovery of tax claims to support investigations and deter tax evasion and avoidance.

Branch authorisation policy change permits banks to open outlets freely, subject to rural outlet quota.
Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana mapped villages into Sub-Service Areas to provide at least one banking access point; banks report some SSAs served by branches and others by interoperable Business Correspondents. Under the Branch Authorisation Policy, RBI allows domestic scheduled commercial banks to open banking outlets without prior case-by-case approval, provided a mandated share of outlets each year are located in unbanked rural centres; rollout is overseen by State Level Bankers' Committees and guided by banks' business plans and commercial viability.

Business continuity measures required for pandemic response, prompting contingency planning and operational resilience across financial institutions.
Supervised financial institutions must implement internal monitoring and intervention protocols for employee health, revisit and adapt Business Continuity Plans to prevent service disruption, encourage digital banking, and assess impacts on balance sheets, asset quality and liquidity; a Quick Response Team should report regularly to top management and act as a single point of contact with regulators while institutions implement contingency measures and notify the regulator.

Treasury bill issuance schedule revised; auction amounts and timing set but may be modified with notice.
Revised calendar and notified amounts for Treasury Bill auctions set auction and issue dates with specified allotments across maturities and apply the terms of the General Notification governing Treasury Bill issuances. The Government, with the Reserve Bank of India, retains flexibility to modify notified amounts and timing in light of cash requirements and market conditions, subject to due notice and press release communication, and auctions remain governed by the General Notification and its amendments.

Foreign direct investment: Make in India coordinates sectoral action plans and reports FDI inflows and state distributions.
Make in India is an investment facilitation initiative focusing on 27 sectors with coordinated sectoral action plans: DPIIT coordinates manufacturing sectors and the Department of Commerce coordinates service sectors. Annexure I reports fiscal year FDI equity and total inflows; Annexure II reports state-wise FDI equity distribution for a specified quarter, sourced to the Reserve Bank of India. Central ministries and states undertake promotion and policy actions, but centralised data on total manufacturing units and line ministry formulations are not maintained by the coordinating department.

Interest Rate Deregulation - banks set MSME loan pricing with Board approval; interest subvention lowers effective borrowing costs.
Interest rate deregulation allows banks to set lending rates with Board approval subject to RBI guidelines, based on factors including cost of funds, borrower credit rating, tenor and purpose. The Performance & Credit Rating Scheme for MSEs was discontinued in December 2018. Separately, the Interest Subventions Scheme for Incremental Credit to MSMEs, 2018, provides a 2% interest subvention on fresh or incremental loans to eligible MSMEs, reducing effective borrowing costs for qualifying incremental credit.

Competition clearance for acquisition of additional equity in a systemically important NBFC by two investment vehicles.
Competition clearance was granted for a subscription to additional equity shares in Hero FinCorp Limited by Otter Limited, an investment company registered in Mauritius, and Link Investment Trust, a private investment trust in India, altering Hero FinCorp's shareholding; Hero FinCorp is a public limited, systemically important non-deposit taking NBFC focused on consumer finance and commercial lending, and a detailed order will follow.

Reconstruction scheme draft opened for public consultation, inviting stakeholder submissions to inform the bank resolution process.
The Reserve Bank of India placed a draft scheme of reconstruction for Yes Bank Ltd. in the public domain, circulated the draft to Yes Bank Ltd. and State Bank of India for comment, and invited suggestions from shareholders, depositors, creditors and the public within the stated consultation window; the announcement follows an earlier moratorium order on Yes Bank Ltd. and indicates the Reserve Bank will review submissions before taking a final view.

Moratorium on bank operations halts payments, caps withdrawals and restricts lending, disrupting fintech settlement services.
A central-bank-imposed moratorium suspended core banking functions, imposed a withdrawal cap per account, superseded the board, barred lending, investments, liabilities and disbursements, and placed an administrator in control; these measures caused immediate service outages for fintech and digital-payment platforms that relied on the bank for transaction settlement.

Foreign Direct Investment policy: liberal automatic-route framework with sectoral limits and targeted Make in India facilitation.
The document states that India's FDI policy is a liberal, transparent enabling regime with most sectors open under the automatic route, subject to sectoral limits in the Consolidated FDI Policy Circular and press notes. It describes Make in India's sectoral focus and interdepartmental coordination for investment facilitation, and provides aggregated sector-wise and country-wise FDI equity inflow data (April 2000-December 2019), showing distribution of inflows and principal source jurisdictions.

Bank consolidation: Ten public sector banks merged into four to create larger, digitally driven competitive banking entities.
Cabinet approved a mega consolidation effective 1.4.2020 by amalgamating specified PSBs into four successor banks (Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India into Punjab National Bank; Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank; Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank into Union Bank of India; Allahabad Bank into Indian Bank), creating larger consolidated entities with national reach and enhanced business scale and enabling digital transformation, operational synergies, cost benefits, larger lending capacity, improved risk management, and broader financial inclusion.

Green channel filing allows acquisition of a minority stake in a non-banking finance company to be effective upon filing.
Filing of a green channel combination under Section 6(2) read with regulation 5A notifies BCP V Multiple Holdings' proposed acquisition of a minority equity stake in IndoStar Capital Finance Limited; under the green channel procedure the notice is deemed approved upon filing and acknowledgment, subject to Combination Regulations' procedural requirements.