The first Asia-Pacific (APAC) central bank to begin interest rate easing cycle is;

Yes Bank has acquired eight crore shares in electric equipment maker CG Power and Industrial Solutions which were pledged to it by a borrower. The acquired shares represent 12.79% ownership in the company and will be valued at ?292.56 crore. CG Power had a turnover of ?6,287 crore in fiscal year 2017-18.

PAISALO Digital Limited signed the first co-origination loan agreement with State Bank of India (SBI). This is the first agreement of its kind in the country that State Bank of India has signed. The agreement was signed with a vision of empowering the AGRI, MSME segment and small businesses. The loan ticket is designed at Rs.10,000 to 2 lakh. The company expects to disburse 200,000 loan applications in FY20. PAISALO Digital Limited is a leading systemically important non-deposit taking NBFC. It is registered with the Reserve Bank of India, in operations since 1992.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) has inked an agreement to invest USD 50 million in solar energy project developer Avaada Energy Pvt Ltd to help the company scale up rapidly. The investment will come equally from ADB's Ordinary Capital Resources and Leading Asia's Private Infrastructure Fund (LEAP). LEAP is a funding arrangement provided by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) which is administered by ADB.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued Rs. 50 denomination banknotes in Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series that bore Shri Shaktikanta Das' (Governor of RBI) signature. i.The design of these notes is exactly similar to the 'Rs 50 banknotes' in Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series. ii.The RBI notified that all bank notes in the denomination of Rs. 50 issued by the Central Bank in the past will continue to be legal tender.The dimension of the Rs. 50 banknote is 66 mm x 135 mm.On the frontal side, the numeral '50' is written in the Devanagari script along with Mahatma Gandhi's portrait in the centre.A small design of the denominational numeral '50' is printed on the front and back sides of the note, in the middle of the vertical band next to the watermark. It has a correct back-to-back registration and, according to the RBI, the design appears as one when seen against the light.

Government infused a capital of Rs. 205 crore into the state owned Bank of Maharashtra in lieu of preferential allotment of shares. After the Capital infusion, the shareholding of government in Bank of Maharashtra has increased to 87.74 % from 87.01%.

The Reserve Bank of India sanctioned reinsurance brokers to initiate non-interest bearing foreign currency accounts with banks for undertaking transactions. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) had issued notification and following this the RBI declared Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Currency Accounts by a resident person in India) Regulations, 2015 - Opening of Foreign Currency Accounts by Re-insurance and Composite Insurance brokers. Foreign currency account refers to a bank account operated in currency other than the currency of India or Bhutan or Nepal.

Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) signed a loan agreement on behalf of the government of USD 83.11 million to Congo for financing three solar power projects in the central African country. It aims to provide support for financing three solar photovoltaic power projects with a total capacity of 35 megawatts in the three provinces - Karawa, Mbandaka, and Lusambo.

Max Bupa, India's health insurance company collaborated with HDFC Bank, India's leading private sector banks, and launched 'AnyTimeHealth (ATH) machines. The machine is an automated, web-based model that permits customers to avail health assessment, namely, Body Mass Index', 'Blood Pressure', 'Body Type & Fat percentage', 'Muscle percentage', 'Bone Mass', 'Body Temperature' and buy health policy dynamically without incorporation of any kind of conventional manual efforts. Max Bupa partnered with HDFC Bank to design an end-to-end 'digital journey' for the bank's customers, which is designed to support HDFC Bank's assisted and non-assisted mode of selling insurance digitally, thus empowering the HDFC's customers to avail health insurance solutions proficiently.

Karnataka Bank has entered into an MoU with Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company to distribute the latter's life insurance products. The bank will be able to provide a wide choice of life insurance products to its customers across 836 branches, supported by the products of Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company. This is the third such tie-up by the bank after PNB MetLife Life Insurance Company and LIC of India, both of which continue to provide insurance solutions to the customers of Karnataka Bank.

Life Insurance Corporation(LIC), the largest insurance company in India, got 12 years from RBI for cut down stake in IDBI Bank.LIC is the lender's major shareholder, and it has a 51 per cent stake in the Bank. It means that no obligation to sell its stake in the following years or would probably spend higher money to keep its stake in any future fund raising by the bank. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) claimed that LIC can take up to 15 percent stake in any bank,which can stretch up to 30 percent as per the board approval.But the insurance regulator has authorised LIC to hold up to 51 percent in IDBI Bank in 2018. After 12 years LIC has to decrease stake in IDBI Bank by 10 per cent to 40 per cent.