Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav
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At a recent gather of thousands of farmers at Raisen in Madhya Pradesh, State Chief Minister Mohan Yadav proudly said that the district exported Basmati rice to 47 countries. This is despite the State not being recognised as Basmati growing State under the Geographical Indications (GI) definition. Even as the matter is yet to be settled legally, Yadav’s mention of export happening from Raisen may weaken India’s case globally as no major importing country is yet to recognise its Basmati GI despite APEDA spending huge sum in past many years.

The issue of including Madhya Pradesh in the GI area is an emotive issue in the State, first raised by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, when he was chief minister, as the State government had filed a case in GI registry for its inclusion in the geographical area. Under the GI law, even if farmers grow Basmati varieties outside the demarcated GI area, those cannot be sold as Basmati, making it difficult to get exported.

But Opposition Congress leader Digvijaya Singh last month threatened to go on a hunger strike if the State’s farmers do not receive the GI benefits for their Basmati rice. He wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking GI tag for Basmati rice produced in Madhya Pradesh.

Pending with Madras HC

Asked on the demand of Singh, Chouhan said: “You know the matter is in court. We are fighting for the GI. But, this Basmati (GI) issue is not only of India, even Pakistan is involved. They (Pakistan) also object. But, we have been continuously trying to resolve it.”

After a prolonged hearing for years, in February 2016, the Chennai-based GI registry issued the GI certificate to APEDA for Basmati rice, under which the recognised area included some districts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi. The Order was upheld by GI appellate tribunal, dismissing the appeal of MP government for the state’s inclusion.

When the matter reached Madras High Court, in 2020, the MP state government was asked why it did not approach the Registrar of Trade Mark seeking cancellation or modification in the GI Certificate issued to APEDA since it was a statutory remedy. The High Court dismissed the petition. But MP moved to the Supreme Court, which in September 2021 set aside the High Court order and remanded the matter back for fresh consideration, preferably within three months. Since then, the matter is pending.

Rajasthan’s claim

As global trade policy moved away from multilateral to bilateral after 2016, it was a huge opportunity to register Basmati GI in several countries between 2009 and 2016, had India resolved the issue at least for the undisputed area.

Sources said that there was a local organisation of Bundi in Rajasthan which also had filed a case in GI registry for the district’s inclusion as a Basmati grower. However, APEDA persuaded it to withdraw the petition, but it could not do so in case of Madhya Pradesh due to Chouhan’s insistence for the state’s inclusion, the sources added.

India exported 6.07 million tonne of Basmati rice during April-February of 2025-26 fiscal, same as was in entire 2024-25 fiscal. In value terms the Basmati export was $5.27 billion (or ₹46,403 crore) till February in FY26.

Published on April 14, 2026

Banks have increased their spreads for repo-linked external benchmark loans, dampening the extent of transmission of the cumulative 125 bps repo rate cut into such loans.

This comes amid deposit rates turning sticky in the wake of higher interest rates being offered by small scale instruments (SSIs).

So, the increase in spreads (the mark-up charged over and above the policy repo rate) in the case of repo-linked external benchmark loans is aimed at protecting Banks’ net interest margins.

In the current easing cycle (up to February 2026), as against the 125 bps cut in the repo rate, the WALR (weighted average lending rate) on outstanding loans declined 87 basis points (bps). For fresh rupee loans, the WALR declined 89 bps, according to RBI’s latest monetary policy report (MPR).

The WADTDR (weighted average domestic term deposit rate) on outstanding deposits declined by 47 bps. For fresh deposits, the WADTDR declined by 97 bps.

The pass-through from policy rate changes to repo-linked external benchmark loans is one-to-one. But the same in the case of marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) linked loans and deposit rates happens with a lag.

Since February 2025, the RBI’s rate setting panel has cumulatively cut the repo rate (the interest rate at which the central bank provides liquidity to banks to overcome short-term mismatches) from 6.50 per cent to 5.25 per cent

Mark-up over repo rate rises

The spread on fresh rupee loans was the highest for education loans, followed by other personal loans, and MSME (micro, small and medium enterprise) loans for domestic banks, per the MPR.

The spread for MSME loans increased from 3.20 per cent in January 2025 to 3.29 per cent in February 2026.

For housing and vehicle loans, the spreads increased by 10 basis points each to 2.44 per cent (from 2.34 per cent in January 2025) and 3.17 per cent (3.07 per cent), respctively; for education loans and other personal loans the spreads increased by 21 bps (4.62 per cent) and 11 bps (to 3.47 per cent), respectively.

Sanjay Agarwal, Senior Director, CareEdge Ratings, said: “Due to sticky deposit rates and competitive pressures in high quality asset segments, banks have chosen to target relatively higher yield customers to protect their net interest margins (NIM). Hence, on book basis, the mark-up over external benchmarks has increased.”

However on y-o-y basis, overall spreads on fresh loans (lending rates minus deposit rates) have compressed by 13 bps, exhibiting challenges in re-pricing deposits to expected lower levels.

Agarwal opined that with significant increase in capital markets yields and overseas borrowings landed costs, the banks’ lending rates are expected to inch up in the near term, thereby halting the rate reduction process as on now.

Banking expert V Viswanathan observed that the effect of reduction in repo rate can be offset by Banks through revised spread for new loans to protect their profit margin in the wake of sticky deposit rates.

Published on April 14, 2026

India’s crude oil imports from Russia surged in March 2026, on a monthly basis, as State-run refiners more than doubled their purchases of the geo-politically sensitive commodity from Moscow.

According to Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), Russia is heavily reliant on Asian markets to sell its oil with 90 per cent of its total exports of crude oil delivered to China and India in the first quarter of 2026.

“India’s imports of Russian crude oil doubled month-on-month. The biggest shift was in State-owned refineries’ imports from Russia, which saw a massive 148 per cent increase (m-o-m), presumably due to Russian barrels being more available in the spot market, which serve as their primary source of imports,” CREA pointed out.

According to global real time data and analytics provider Kpler, India roughly imported around 1.98 mb/d of crude oil from Russia in March compared to around 1 mb/d in February 2026.

India was the second-highest buyer of Russian fossil fuels in March 2026, importing a total of €5.8 billion of Russian hydrocarbons. Crude oil products constituted 91 per cent of India’s purchases, totalling €5.3 billion. Coal (€337 million) and oil products (€178.5 million) constituted the remainder of their monthly imports, CREA said.

While India’s total crude imports recorded a 4 per cent m-o-m reduction in March 2026, Russian imports doubled. The biggest shift was in state-owned refineries’ imports from Russia. Their imports were in fact 72 per cent higher than March 2025, presumably due to Russian barrels being more available in the spot market, which serves as the primary source of imports for them, it added.

The state-owned New Mangalore (Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals) and Visakhapatnam (Hindustan Petroleum Corporation) refineries had stopped Russian imports at the end of November 2025, but purchases resumed in March 2026.

Private refineries, meanwhile, registered a more modest 66 per cent month-on-month increase, but remained lower than the same time last year, it said.

Despite the EU’s ban on imports of oil products made from Russian crude on 21 January 2026, 14 shipments of oil products from refineries, including Indian, using Russian crude—and identified as high risk according to EU guidance—have unloaded at EU ports in the month of March, CREA said.

Nine of these shipments departed from Turkey’s refineries, four from India and one from Georgia. Some shipments from refineries running on Russian crude unloaded oil products at multiple European ports. France was the largest recipient of shipments from these refineries running on Russian crude, unloading four shipments in March, followed by Cyprus (three shipments), it added.

“Refineries in India, Turkiye, Brunei, and Georgia that use Russian crude exported €830 million of oil products to sanctioning countries in March 2026. The importers included the EU (€304 million), Australia (€332 million), and the US (€168 million). An estimated €188 million of these products were refined from Russian crude,” it pointed out.

The US’s imports came from the Jamnagar refinery in India and the STAR refinery in Turkiye, owned by SOCAR. In March, as much as 39 per cent of the STAR refinery and 25 per cent of Jamnagar refineries’ feedstock came from Russia, it added.

Published on April 14, 2026