Top headlines: RBI mum on corporates in banks; Niti releases poverty index

Business Standard brings you the top stories on Friday

RBI keeps on hold suggestion to give bank licence to big businesses

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has not yet accepted a recommendation to allow industrial houses to float banks in the country and has kept the non-promoter shareholding capped at 10 per cent for individuals or non-financial institutions.

The internal working group, constituted on June 12 last year under the chairmanship of Prasanna Kumar Mohanty, director, central board of RBI, had suggested in its November 20 report that large corporate, or industrial houses should be allowed in banking after necessary amendments to the Banking Regulations Act. Read more

Bihar, Jharkhand, UP emerge as poorest states in India: Niti Aayog

Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have emerged as the poorest states in India, according to Niti Aayog's Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).

As per the index, 51.91 per cent population of Bihar is poor, followed by 42.16 per cent in Jharkhand, 37.79 per cent in Uttar Pradesh. While Madhya Pradesh (36.65 per cent) has been placed fourth in the index, Meghalaya (32.67 per cent) is at the fifth spot. Read more

Black Friday: Sensex sinks 1,400 points. What's spooking the markets today?

It was truly a ‘Black Friday’ for the Indian markets that saw an across-the-board sell-off. The S&P BSE Sensex shaved-off over 1,400 points in intra-day deals. Its counterpart on the National Stock Exchange, the Nifty50 index, lost over 400 points. Read more

Tomato prices to remain elevated for two more months: Crisil Research

Wayward and excess rains have resulted in the ongoing spike in vegetable prices, and the cost of tomatoes will continue to be at elevated levels for two more months, Crisil Research said on Friday.

The situation in Karnataka, one of the major tomato growing regions, is so "grim" that the vegetable is being sent from Maharashtra's Nashik, it said, pointing to on-ground interactions. Read more