Fraudsters and wilful defaulters.

"On Friday (30 June), both Sensex and Nifty50 clocked more than 1% gains and scaled lifetime highs at 64768.58 points and 19201.70 points, respectively. Nifty50 settled at a record closing high of 19189.05 points and Sensex at 64718.56 points." ET. "Inflows from foreign portfolio investors into equities crossed $10 billion in the current financial year." But, "While the Indian rupee has been the second best to the rupiah in terms of carry returns so far in 2023, that looks set to change in the second half of the year." ET. "The highest bond yields among major Asian nations and a less volatile currency are burnishing the appeal of rupee assets." "Benchmark 10-year Indian bonds offer a yield of 7.07%, compared to 6.30% on similar-maturity Indonesian notes." Since yields are inverse to price, it is strange that Indian government bonds are priced lower than those of Indonesia, seeing that our economy is doing so well. "Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday (01 July) that the Indian economy has moved away from the twin-balance sheet problem of banks and corporates to twin-balance sheet advantage because of the concerted efforts of the Modi government. Profits of public-sector banks increased to Rs 1.04 lakh crore (Rs 1.04 trillion) in 2022-23." Outlook. Great news. "Scheduled commercial banks' net non-performing assets (NPA) ratio fell to a 10-year low of 3.9 percent in March 2023, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) noted." ET. Wonderful, but, a detailed letter from Dr Bhagwat Karad, Minister of State for Finance showed that "the sum total of the irrecoverable losses made by banks over the eight years and nine months of Narendra Modi's rule comes to Rs 12,09,606 crore (Rs 12.096 trillion)," wrote Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar. In June, an RBI circular to banks said, "Regulated entities may undertake compromise settlements or technical write-offs in respect of accounts categorised as wilful defaulters or fraud without prejudice to the criminal proceeding underway against such debtors..." TOI. "This is the first time that RBI has come out with compromise norms for settling with wilful defaulters." "A wilful defaulter is a borrower who has defaulted on meeting payment or repayment obligations to the lender despite having the capacity to do so." Reuters. "Two of India's largest bank employee unions...urged the central bank to review and withdraw its recent decision to allow compromise settlements for wilful defaulters." A fraudster is one who borrows money through "forged instruments, manipulation of books of accounts and conversion of property," or uses the money for "illegal gratification". RBI. "In the last five years, banks have reported 983 frauds above Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) to the tune of Rs 3,76,400 crore (Rs 3.764 trillion)," wrote Thomas Franco. This is depositors' money. Can defaulters and fraudsters invest in the stock markets? That could explain the astronomical rise.