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Public sector banks are expected to get another two-year extension to comply with Sebi's minimum public shareholding (MPS) norms, a top government official has said. Out of 12 public sector banks (PSBs), five are yet to comply with MPS norms and the government's holding is beyond 75 per cent. As per the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), all listed companies must maintain an MPS of 25 per cent. However, the regulator gave special forbearance to state-owned banks till August 2024 to meet the requirement of 25 per cent MPS. "We have written to the Department of Economic Affairs for the extension," Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi told PTI in an interview. Generally, he said, a two-year extension is given and hopefully it should come sooner than later. Five banks have minimum public shareholding of less than 25 per cent. Currently, government holding in Delhi-based Punjab & Sind Bank is 98.25 per cent. It is followed by Chennai-based Indian Overseas Bank at 96.3
The Congress on Friday hit out at the government over the Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals Corporation Limited (BIBCOL) reportedly facing a "grim future", and said shutting down vaccine PSUs will only erode the country's capabilities further. Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared on X a media report which claimed that the BIBCOL factory in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr, that was at the forefront of India's fight against polio before, hasn't produced a single vaccine since December 2022. "Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals Corporation (BIBCOL) was set up in the late 1980s, at the personal initiative of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, to make India self-sufficient in the production of oral polio vaccines. It was my good fortune to have been associated with its establishment at Bulandshahr in UP as part of the technology mission on immunisation," Ramesh said in a post on X. But BIBCOL now faces a "grim future in the era of the non-biological PM", h
State-owned Bank of Maharashtra recorded the highest growth rate last fiscal in terms of total business and deposit mobilisation among public sector lenders at a time when most banks are facing difficulty in achieving double-digit growth. The Pune-headquartered lender has registered a 15.94 per cent rise in the total business (domestic) in FY24, followed by the country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) with 13.12 per cent growth, according to published financial numbers of the public sector banks (PSBs). However, SBI's total business (deposit and advances) was about 16.7 times higher at Rs 79,52,784 crore compared to Rs 4,74,411 crore of Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) in absolute terms. Similarly, BoM continued to maintain its top spot in terms of growth in deposit mobilisation, with a 15.66 per cent rise in FY24. It was followed by SBI (11.07 per cent), Bank of India (11.05 per cent) and Canara Bank (10.98 per cent). Out of 12 public sector banks, only these four lenders could