After a prolonged period of good times, it is time to tighten your purse strings. BT tells how.

They span generations and are there in every field, from biscuits to banking, from HR to hospitals. Denied entry into a male bastion, they create another industry. They are the most powerful women in the corporate world.

Several leading NBFCs, all boasting impeccable pedigrees—CitiFinancial, SBI Cards, BoB Cards, Cholamandalam DBS Finance and GE Money—have extended unsecured loans to high-risk, non-salaried borrowers. They are now facing massive delinquencies. Can the problem spiral out of control like the subprime crisis in the US? A report by Anand Adhikari.

The asset quality of retail loans in india has weakened in recent months, a CRISIL report says. The contributing factors: the rising proportion of unsecured loans, increasing exposure to high-risk customers, hardening interest rates, and a dip in credit standards during 2004-07.

Telecom operators, banks and a clutch of service providers are jostling for what is likely to become a massive market in mobile payment. The question is: can it do to banking what mobile phones did to communications? Kushan Mitra finds out.

Credit card companies have reduced the free credit time and increased interest rates. Customers had better watch out.

With inflation at 11.63 per cent (at the time of writing) and rising, it is hardly surprising that the Indian middle class consumer is pinching her pennies. With sharply rising interest rates on loans to finance everything-from homes and cars to two-wheelers, personal computers and holidays-it's no wonder that the credit culture embraced by consumers in a happier, low-interest rate regime not so long ago is now finding few or no takers.

As inflation figures rage, marketers have a huge challenge on their hands—to keep the price-value equation just right for consumers. BT's Rachna Monga & A. Subramanian report.

Mobile banking is fast catching up as an alternative channel for banking services. Here’s what you should know about it.

As interest rates rise, borrowers are going to get hit. How should you manage your loans in this scenario?

Standard Chartered Bank has joined hands with Tata AIG General Insurance Company to provide a risk cover for lost cards that will protect customers against fraudulent transactions.

ICICI Bank, the country’s leading private sector bank, has increased the monthly interest rate it charges some of its credit card customers to 3.24 per cent from 3.19 per cent earlier with effect from June 1.

Can information technology be transformational? Without doubt, yes. And here are 20 examples to prove it. Our annual listing of the most IT-savvy outfits in the country.

Armed with deep pockets and distinguished brands, some of India’s biggest mega-corps are diversifying away from their flagship businesses. Synergies do exist in most cases, but do some of these promoters run the risk of spreading themselves too thin? BT's Anand Adhikari finds out.

Business Today’s league of extraordinary managers—25 young guns, aged 40 or under, who are blazing a trail up the corporate ladder.

It can be grim, as the recent credit turmoil in the West indicates. Back home, it’s not time to panic, but to take stock of sticky assets.

HDFC Bank has emerged as #1 for the 5th year running. What is the secret formula that keeps it ahead, year after year?

Raju Vegesna had been waiting for this day since taking over India’s leading ISP, Sify, from its cofounder R. Ramaraj in 2005. After slogging for nearly two years trying to give the ISP a makeover, Nitya Varadarajan tells us how Vegesna and his team are ready to showcase the refurbished Sify to the world.

If cash is going out of fashion, thanks to the credit card, it won’t be long before plastic makes way for another payment system. And this one could well be in your mobile handset.

Corporate “zero balance salary accounts” is the latest battleground for banks. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Union Bank of India have rushed in to replicate the Suvidha accounts of first-comer Citibank with some freebies thrown in.