Top Headlines: India prepares for Omicron; banks' asset quality to worsen

Business Standard brings you the top headlines at this hour.

Railway coaches to Ayush clinics, India keeps beds ready with Omicron rise

With Omicron cases on the rise and hospital beds filling fast across the country, various states and the Centre are keeping all the back-up options ready. These include Ayush centres and railway Covid-care coaches on standby mode. Read more
 

IT, pharma, electronics departments ask for top-up funds in PLI push

Key government departments, such as pharmaceutical, electronics and info­r­mation technology, and new and renewable energy, have sought approval of addit­ional funds for their production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes, following a better-than-exp­ected response from industry and also to give a fur­ther leg up to domestic manufacturing. Read more
 

Asset quality set to worsen, but banks resilient enough: RBI report

Indian banks’ asset quality may deteriorate but lenders have enough capital to withstand a severe shock, said the bi-annual Financial Stability Report, prepared taking inputs from all the financial regulators and released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on Wednesday. Read more
 

Centre likely to miss divestment target again as BPCL remains unsold

With the uncertainty looming over the privatisation of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), the government’s disinvestment target of Rs 1.75 trillion for FY22 is unlikely to be met. The Centre may lower its target for disinvestment receipts in the revised estimates, even as it is on track to launch the IPO of public sector behemoth Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). Read more
 

2021, the year that was: Of farmers, protests and three dead laws

The year 2021 will perhaps go down in India’s history as one where there was a paradigm shift in the manner in which agriculture and farm-related issues are handled in the country. The enactment of the three controversial farm laws last year, the sustained agitation that followed, and the sudden and rather unexpected repeal of the laws are events that have the potential to shape the agricultural sector in the years to come. Read more
 

Trading on a buffer: Can India afford to commercialise its fuel reserves?

Can’t India, a $2.7-trillion economy aspiring to be $5 trillion, afford to store $1 billion worth of oil as a buffer towards energy security? Or, can India, surrounded by hostile neighbours and dependent on imported crude afford to commercialise its energy security? And, if so, what is strategic about the Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPRs)? Read more