Top five news stories to watch out for on March 2, 2020

Union Budget session resumes: The Union Budget session is set to resume on Monday (March 2). The session is likely to be a stormy one as the Congress is likely to raise the recent communal riots in Delhi.

They are likely to ask for Home Minister Amit Shah’s resignation. The party is also likely to submit adjournment motion notices in both Houses of Parliament on Monday to debate the issue. Also, lookout for a bill that will seek to amend the Banking Regulation Act to bring multi-state cooperative banks under the regulation of RBI during this session.

SBI Cards IPO:  SBI Cards and Payment Services IPO will open for subscription on March 2, with a price band of Rs 750-755 per share. This IPO is the largest one this year. The company wants to raise Rs 10,355 crore through this initial public offering, which is the biggest in size since October 2017. The IPO will close on March 5. SBI Cards is a subsidiary of the State Bank of India (SBI). 

Article 370 case in SC:  A five-judge Constitution Bench, led by Justice NV Ramana, will pronounce its order on a plea to refer to a larger Bench the petitions challenging the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution on March 2. The President’s notification of August 5 abrogated the special status given to the State of Jammu and Kashmir by blunting Article 370.

RBI's LTRO move: The Reserve Bank of India will conduct two more two Long-Term Repo Operations (LTROs) of Rs. 25,000 crore each this month. The first LTRO of three-year tenor will be conducted on March 2, and the second LTRO, on March 9.The LTROs are being conducted by the RBI to inject more liquidity into the banking system, and ensure the transmission of monetary policy changes. In the first LTRO of three-year tenor, which was conducted on February 17, banks placed bids for almost eight times the notified amount of Rs. 25,000 crore. In the second LTRO of one-year tenor, which conducted on February 24, banks placed bids for almost five times the notified amount of Rs. 25,000 crore.

Israel polls: Israelis head to the polls again on Monday to try and vote in a new government on Monday. This is the third time the nation goes to polls in less than a year. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and principle opposition leader Benny Gantz both failed to convince other parties to join a government. They also tried to form a unity government, but that initiative also failed.

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