News digest: Urjit Patel's exit, Mallya's extradition, car sales, and more

Urjit Patel quits as RBI governor 9 months before his term was to end

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel delivered a shocker on Monday by resigning, effective immediately, citing personal reasons. The 24th RBI governor resigned nine months before his term was to end. Patel’s abrupt resignation could impact the financial markets. Rating agency Moody’s said any attempt by the government to curtail the RBI’s independence would be credit negative.

If Patel resigned due to differences with the government, as is suspected, he would be second only to Benegal Rama Rau to do so before expiry of term due to differences with the finance minister. Read more 

RBI guv Urjit Patel's resignation may hit stock and currency markets today

The resignation of RBI Governor Urjit Patel is likely to hit the stock and currency markets on Tuesday. The futures on SGX Nifty dropped to 10,300 — down 2 per cent.

The rupee in the non-deliverable forwards (NDF) market fell to Rs 72.81 against the US dollar — down 1.7 per cent. The data is till 10 pm, Monday. The Sensex on Monday fell 713 points, or 2 per cent, to end at 34,960, its lowest close in more than a month. The markets had weakened because of a possible setback for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state polls and weakness in the global markets amid escalation of tensions between the US and China. Read more 

UK court verdict a landmark win for govt, but Mallya won't be back just yet

Fugitive billionaire Vijay Mallya should be extradited from the UK to India to face fraud charges, resulting from the collapse of his defunct Kingfisher Airlines (KFA), a London court ruled on Monday. There is, however, likely to be an indefinite delay in the final resolution regarding Mallya’s deportation or otherwise to India, despite the UK court ordering his extradition 20 months since he was first produced there following India’s application and a hearing of a trial spread over 53 weeks.

In a severe indictment of India’s leading liquor baron, the chief magistrate of the Westminster court Emma Arbuthnot described him as a “glamorous, flashy, famous, bodyguarded... playboy” who had “charmed and cajoled” Indian bank executives into furnishing KFA with facilities. Read more 

Govt contribution to National Pension Scheme raised to 14% of basic salary

In a bonanza for government employees, the Cabinet Thursday raised the government's contribution to National Pension Scheme (NPS) to 14 per cent of basic salary from the current 10 per cent, sources said.

Minimum employee contribution will, however, remain at 10 per cent. Read more 

SoftBank prices IPO at $13.32, to raise $23.5 bn with overallotment

SoftBank Corp priced its initial public offering (IPO) at 1,500 yen per share and will sell an extra 160 million shares to meet strong demand, a regulatory filing showed, raising 2.65 trillion yen ($23.5 billion) in Japan's biggest-ever IPO.

That makes the share sale one of the largest of all time globally, just shy of the record $25 billion that Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd raised in 2014. Read more