News digest: Govt turns down RBI bid, Patanjali's plan B, and more

Govt nixes RBI bid to withdraw from from the boards of public sector banks

Govt decides against removing RBI nominees from PSB boards, cites NPA issue

The government has decided to turn down the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) demand for removing the regulator’s nominees from the boards of public sector banks (PSBs). 
 

The government felt the presence of the RBI’s nominees on boards should continue at a time when the banks were grappling with bad loans and dealing with various cases of frauds, said a senior official. 

“A communication was sent by the finance ministry to the RBI last month conveying the government’s decision, which had the approval of Finance Minister Piyush Goyal,” said the government official. Read more

GSK Pharma to pare brands to 20 in India, bring new products into country

British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals is working on a strategy to reduce the number of brands in India to around 20 from 130, and bring in more patented products from the parent to the country.

This would not only enable the company to simplify its operations, analysts say this is a strategic move by the drugmaker to focus on high-price and high-margin products. Read more

Patanjali has Plan B after a sluggish rise to Rs 120-billion sales 

Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Group clocked Rs 120 billion in sales during 2017-18 (FY18), up from Rs 105.61 billion in the previous year, the latest figures sourced from the company show. 

Patanjali’s revenue grew in double digits, a yardstick of things going well at a time when businesses have faced speed bumps. 

But, compare the sales growth number in FY18 — at 13.6 per cent — with that in the three preceding years, and the gap tells a story. Read more 

Forensic auditors deploy tech, social media tools to catch fraudsters

As financial and corporate fraudsters become more sophisticated, using technology to avoid detection, forensic auditors are scrambling to keep up by using tools such as social media analytics to catch them.

It can be a photograph posted by a relative boasting about the new house they have bought overseas, a post about their next holiday destination, or it can be special tools that spot duplicate addresses and telephone numbers. 

The ingenious use of a whole battery of tools allows forensic auditors to close in on their prey. Read more