DBS’s launch of a new digital bank in India provides a test case for a branchless model of banking in Asia that will influence a dozen other markets in the years ahead.

China is well on the way to creating a global currency, with a little help from the IMF. But what of India, the other economy set to dominate the 21st century? Will the rupee come to rival the renminbi and the dollar, or will poor planning and weak infrastructure undermine its ambitions?

India has been a tough market for global wealth managers, ground down by rising costs and regulation. But private wealth is growing fast, offering long-term profit for those with patience and persistence.

.

ECM re-emerges from lengthy slump; foreign investors jump on slew of mid-sized IPOs.

Annual cap of $750 million, five-year maturity; corporates, real estate and investment trusts can issue.

China’s risk score fell 1.5 points, to below 60 out of 100, for the first time in almost two years in Q3 2015. With Brazil in freefall and a US interest-rate hike on the cards, investor risk is rising for many – but not all – emerging markets (EMs), complicating portfolio selection.

A number of eye-catching deals in the Indian market in 2015 are creating excitement for bankers about the potential pipeline of deals this year.

Trade Finance Survey 2015 full results

The feelgood factor from the election of Narendra Modi as prime minister does not seem to be translating into better fees for IPO bankers – yet.

A lack of international monetary policy coordination and efforts to beef up the IMF to reflect the newfound clout of emerging markets (EMs) raises the risks of trade protectionism and market volatility, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan tells Euromoney.

Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan’s tough monetary medicine combatted the storm ravaging the deficit-ridden economy in the recent emerging market crisis. Now, he is battling vested interests to arouse a sleepy financial system for over one billion people.

Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan is battling inflation and crony capitalists to open a new chapter in the Asian superpower’s growth story. Rajan – Euromoney’s central bank governor of the year 2014 – reveals his blueprint for reforms and issues a stark warning about the cracks in the global economy.

Even in a bullish scenario where a Rajan-Modi dream team unleashes reforms – from PSL to the bond market – in an economic super-cycle that sees public lenders recapitalized, foreign investment banks could still be chasing rainbows in India. It is an over-banked market, with dozens of fee-hungry institutions jockeying for business.

In exclusive interviews, leaders of Indian finance reveal how banks, nursing wounds from the recent credit boom, should be set free from the shackles of state control, as reformists raise hopes of a new dawn for Indian capitalism. A jolt, not a tweak, to the financial system is desperately needed.

India needs a litany of reforms to unshackle its stalled capitalist project. Modi’s government should take inspiration from the paradox of Singapore’s activist state and strong private sector.

Incensed by their failure to reform, Brics policymakers have established a flawed rival to the World Bank and IMF. Rhetoric aside, the west dismisses emerging-market dissent over the broken financial architecture at its peril.

The economic ties between the UAE and India have gone from strength to strength in recent years and are set to deepen further. The UAE not only offers India the promise of investment in its creaking infrastructure, but a compelling investment environment for Indian companies and a staging post for expansion. Conversely, Asia’s third largest economy offers Arab companies growth opportunities

A new government could herald a more lucrative time for investment bankers in India

After the rupee’s spirited rally in line with the ascent of newly installed Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, analysts say rising US yields could undercut the currency, while others claim strong equity inflows and an improvement in the current account suggest appreciation for the rest of the year.

International companies are less likely to invest in India than Iran due to the seemingly more onerous regulatory and tax regime of the world’s largest democracy, according to a pulse survey conducted by Euromoney.

Treasury professionals of companies with combined annual sales of more than $250 billion have voted China, India and Russia as the worst countries to repatriate company funds from, according to Euromoney’s ‘trapped cash’ pulse survey.

Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey have more in common than macroeconomic numbers.

Although market players discern substantial differences between the fragile-five economies – notably in their current-account profiles – they remain, as a group, especially vulnerable to domestic and international market shocks, says bearish analysts.

Emerging-market assets have fallen thanks to domestic policy risks, rather than Fed-tapering fears, triggering market contagion, as Turkey and Argentina lurched into crisis mode. However, India’s economic rebalancing shows the way forward for EMs out-of-market favour.

Oil and gold imports problematic for reserves; The worst-performing EM currency this year

Concerns are mounting about the risks to India’s financial health posed by a growing shadow banking sector that has helped fund a decade-long investment-fuelled consumption and investment boom.

It has been a horrible few months for emerging market (EM) currencies, with foreign exchange investors looking to exit a broad range of exposures from Brazil to Indonesia. However, a closer examination of the EM landscape reveals that among the detritus are currencies that look set to outperform.

The Indian rupee is likely to remain under pressure despite central bank efforts to slash spot dollar demand, including lending dollars from its reserves to state-run oil companies, but analysts are split over its prospects for the rest of the year.

With India’s faltering economy lurching from bad to worse the country’s central bank governor-designate has his work cut out to tackle problems ranging from a falling currency and high inflation to urgently needed structural reforms.