Archive

Introduction

India’s banking system forms the backbone of economic activity by mobilising savings, facilitating credit, enabling payments, and supporting investment. Over time, the sector has transitioned from manual, branch-centric operations to a technology-driven ecosystem that supports large-scale financial inclusion. As banking operations expand in scale, complexity, and digital intensity, regulatory frameworks require periodic updating to ensure stability, transparency, depositor confidence, and sound governance. The Banking Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025 represents a comprehensive legislative response to these evolving needs.

India’s handicraft sector functions as a large, decentralized livelihood system rooted in rural and semi-urban areas. It supports artisan households through home-based or small-workshop production models that require relatively low capital but generate meaningful value addition. Beyond income, handicrafts sustain community skills transmitted across generations and reinforce cultural continuity through region-specific techniques, motifs, and materials. The sector’s breadth is reflected in hundreds of formally classified craft categories and a wide range of geographically distinctive products with recognized identity value.

Expansion of Banking Activity

Between 2015 and 2025, India’s banking system witnessed substantial expansion in both deposits and credit. Domestic deposits increased from about ₹88 lakh crore to over ₹231 lakh crore, while bank credit rose from nearly ₹67 lakh crore to more than ₹181 lakh crore. This growth reflects rising financial deepening, greater household participation, and increased flow of credit to productive sectors across the economy.

Introduction

The Export Promotion Mission (EPM) is a unified national framework designed to strengthen India’s export ecosystem through coordinated financial and non-financial support. With an outlay of ₹25,060 crore for 2025–26 to 2030–31, the Mission integrates multiple schemes into a single digital system to improve competitiveness, market readiness and export capacity.

INTRODUCTION

– The India–EFTA TEPA came into effect on 1 October 2025, signed on 10 March 2024 in New Delhi.

– It is India’s first Free Trade Agreement with four developed European nations — Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.