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Mumbai: HDFC Bank is making market enquiries about the issuance of infrastructure bonds worth around ₹10,000-15,000 crore as India's largest lender by market value looks to garner long-term capital and meet the reserve requirements arising out of its last-year merger with erstwhile parent HDFC."Bond markets are relatively stable now after the election-related volatility and for HDFC Bank, infrastructure bonds are a desirable option because these instruments bring leeway on maintenance of statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) and cash reserve ratio (CRR)," said a source aware of the developments.An email sent to HDFC Bank requesting a comment on the matter did not receive a response by the time of publication. In April, HDFC Bank had said that it plans to raise up to ₹60,000 crore through the issuance of various types of bonds in the current financial year. Funds raised through infrastructure bonds, which have a minimum maturity of 7 years, are exempted from the maintenance of SLR and CRR, which are mandatory reserve requirements for banks.111010771SLR, which is the portion of deposits that banks must invest in liquid securities like government bonds, is currently at 18%. The CRR, which is kept with the RBI is at 4.5% of net demand and time liabilities, a proxy for deposits.For HDFC Bank, the push towards infrastructure bonds comes at a time when the lender is trying to deftly balance the growing portion of deposits it must set aside as reserves after the merger with the relatively lower-yielding home loans that it inherited on its balance sheet from HDFC.The country's largest bank by market capitalisation has witnessed a compression in its net interest margins over the last couple of quarters due to the new asset-liability mix. HDFC Bank's net interest margin was at 3.44% in FY24 versus 4% in FY23.Further, with the bank not receiving any dispensations from the RBI on maintenance of reserves after the merger, issuance of infrastructure bonds as a means of garnering capital assumes more importance. In March, ET reported that the RBI had declined a request from HDFC Bank to permit classification of more than ₹1 lakh crore of securities issued by the erstwhile HDFC as infrastructure bonds. HDFC had more than ₹1.20 lakh crore of bonds classified as infrastructure finance instruments. If these bonds were given the infrastructure tag in the bank they can be set off against infrastructure and affordable housing loans of the merged entity without maintaining CRR and SLR on them.HDFC on its own had about ₹1 lakh crore of affordable housing loans and this would totally be offset against them.HDFC Bank had last issued infrastructure bonds in March 2024, raising ₹2,910 crore through such instruments at a rate of 7.65%.Latest RBI data showed that as on May 31, bank credit growth was at 16.1% year-on-year, excluding the impact of the HDFC merger. Deposit growth over the same period was at 12.2%.

PM Narendra Modi, on his maiden trip abroad since his re-election for the third straight term in office, met US President Joe Biden on Friday in a brief pull aside at the G7 summit and is understood to have touched upon various issues of common interests, including the Indo-Pacific region. "It's always a pleasure to meet @POTUS @JoeBiden. India and USA will keep working together to further global good," Modi wrote on X following their one-on-one meet on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Italy. Modi also met the leaders of France, Italy, Germany, Japan and the UK on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Italy, focusing on 'Make in India' initiative besides collaboration in high-tech, AI and defence sectors. He alsobriefly met the Canadian PM amid a chill in ties. Modi, who was invited for the Outreach Session at the G7 Summit, met French President Emmanuel Macron and reviewed bilateral relations, focusing on the 'Horizon 2047' Roadmap and the Indo-Pacific Roadmap, officials said. Discussions included cooperation in defence, nuclear, space, education, climate action, digital public infrastructure, connectivity and cultural initiatives such as the National Museum partnership and enhancing people-to-people ties. They agreed to further intensify strategic defence cooperation with increased focus on 'Make in India', officials informed. With UK PM Rishi Sunak, the focus was on the ongoing negotiations over the Free Trade Agreement. Upon reaching the venue of the summit, Modi met Pope Francis. Visuals from the session showed Modi sharing a hug with Pope Francis. Modi also invited Pope Francis to India.

New Delhi: Delhi Congress workers will break pitchers on Saturday to highlight people's plight due to water scarcity in the national capital, its chief Devender Yadav said and demanded a special session of the assembly to discuss the issue. In the 70-member Delhi Assembly, the Congress has no MLAs. Yadav alleged the Delhi government has not taken effective steps to address the water shortage due to which people, including women, children and the elderly, are forced to run after water tankers to fill a bucket. The Delhi Congress will hold a "matka phod" protest in all 280 blocks of the national capital from 10 am to 1 pm on Saturday to highlight the plight of the people, thirsting for drinking water, Yadav said. "Thousands of Congress workers, locals, former MPs, ex-MLAs, district and block Congress presidents, municipal councillors, ex-corporators and others will participate in the demonstrations," he said. Alleging that 58 per cent of potable water was going to waste, the Delhi Congress chief claimed that had the Delhi government taken effective steps to plug the loopholes, people would not have faced such a severe crisis. People have been complaining of dirty water through taps but the Delhi Jal Board did not take any step to address this, he said. Yadav claimed that water tankers do not reach many areas and people have to spend over Rs 100 daily to purchase drinking water. Delhi Water Minister Atishi on Friday said water production in the national capital is decreasing continuously as less water is reaching the Yamuna river here. The AAP government has been accusing BJP-ruled Haryana of not releasing Delhi's share of water. Sharing data, she said water production on June 6 was 1,002 million gallons per day (MGD) which declined to 993 MGD the next day and 990 MGD on June 8. It was 978 MGD on June 9 and 958 MGD the next day. On June 11, June 12 and June 13, water production was 919 MGD, 951 MGD and 939 MGD, respectively, the minister added.

IT services major Infosys will kick off the first quarter earnings for FY25, announcing its results on July 18."A meeting of the Board will be held on July 18 to approve and take on record the consolidated financial results and its subsidiaries for the quarter ending June 2024," the company said in a filing.In the recent fourth quarter, the Bengaluru-based company posted a 30% YoY growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 7,969 crore and the revenue from operations in the fourth quarter stood at Rs 37,923 crore, up 1% year-on-year.The software major forecast that its constant currency revenue growth for FY25 will be around 1-3%. Similarly, the company expects operating margins to be anywhere between 20 and 22% in the current fiscal.Infosys clocked a deal value of $4.5 billion in the January-March period, with 44% of it being net new ones. FY24 deal value was the highest ever at $17.7 billion, which the company says will create a robust foundation for growth.

S&P Global Ratings has rated six Tata group companies, including Tata Motors and Tata Steel, on CreditWatch with positive implications. The other entities part of the latest action from S&P include Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), Tata Power, TML Holdings Pte. and ABJA Investment Co Pte.The review, the ratings agency said, is being done to assess whether the potential of support for the group entities from Tata Sons is greater than what the ratings agency previously factored in. This is due to increasing operational and management linkages within the group.Tata Sons has a record of supporting group entities in events of stress. For instance, the group had earlier provided material extraordinary financial support to entities such as Tata Teleservices and Coastal Gujarat Power, an erstwhile subsidiary of Tata Power which has now been merged with Tata Power."We are also undertaking the review because we believe operational integration between Tata Sons and group entities, as well as between group entities, will continue to increase," S&P said.The review will also consider Tata Sons' improving flexibility to provide support, and the group's more balanced cash flow generation. The market value of some of Tata Sons' key holdings has increased significantly over the past few years, in line with a material improvement in their financial performance."Our review will also assess whether the difference in the ratings on Tata Motors and JLR is warranted. This is given the possibility of increasing integration between the two companies," the ratings agency further noted.S&P intends to resolve the CreditWatch in the next six to eight weeks.The global agency could raise the ratings by at least one notch if it finds that the group status of these companies is higher than the current moderately strategic importance. This would depend on S&P's view of operational and management linkages, and the strength of expected group support."We could affirm the ratings on the six companies if our review concludes that the expected support for the entities is not strong enough to warrant a rating uplift," it said.