#RealtyNewsRoundup: IDBI Bank Cuts Lending Rates By 5 BPS

After three public lenders reduced their marginal cost of fund-based lending rates earlier this week, LIC-owned IDBI Bank also reduced rates by five basis points (bps). The bank's one-year MCLR now stands at nine per cent while six-month and two-year rate is now stand at 8.60 per cent and 9.25 per cent, respectively. IDBI Bank has reduced its one-month lending rate by 10 basis points to 8.15 per cent. The reduced rates will come into effect from April 12.

Meanwhile, the repo rate reduction by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is credit positive for residential mortgage-backed securities market as it will offset the rising funding cost for the lenders, preventing an increase in mortgage rates, says a report by rating agency Moody's. Last week, the RBI had cut the repo rate, the rate at which it lends money to banks, by 25 basis points, to bring it to six per cent.

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The National Green tribunal (NGT) has formed a Central Monitoring Committee to prepare and enforce a national plan to make over 350 river stretches across the country pollution-free as it has caused serious threat to safety of water and environment. The committee will co-ordinate with the River Rejuvenation Committees of the states and oversee the execution of the action plans, taking into account the timelines, budgetary mechanism and other factors.

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The Bombay High Court on April 11 restrained the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) from carrying out further land reclamation for the Coastal Road Project in Mumbai till April 23. The HC also directed the BMC not to dump debris of the project in the Worli sea-face area until further orders.

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Traffic-related pollution caused asthma among 350,000 children in India in 2015, second only to China, according to a Lancet study that analysed 194 countries and 125 major cities worldwide. The first global estimates of their kind published in The Lancet Planetary Health journal suggest that more than one in 10 childhood asthma cases could be linked to traffic-related air pollution every year.

Source: Media reports