| | MAY 20238A key executive at Russia's Gazprombank said on Monday that the bank has expanded its links with Indian banks to speed up trade between the two countries in national currencies, as Russia has become India's largest supplier of oil this year.Trade between India and Russia has increased since the West imposed sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine last year, which has altered oil and other goods flows."We worked hard to establish our level of partnership with Indian banks, and our representatives here worked hard", Elena Borisenko, deputy chairman of Gazprombank's board of management, said Monday on the sidelines of an India-Russia business dialogue event in New Delhi."Now we have infrastructure, we have payments from banks... it is much better than it was three months ago", she added.Gazprombank is Russia's third-largest lender in terms of assets and a vital link in the Russian energy trade.The trade balance is shifting increasingly in favour of Russia as a result of increased oil purchases. Borisenko believes that Russian companies investing in infrastructure projects in India could help to improve the balance."We are hoping that trade will improve and those payments between Russia and India will become more and more in national currencies", the executive said.Last year, India implemented a broader framework to facilitate overseas rupee trade, and many foreign banks, including Gazprombank and other Russian institutions, have opened vostro accounts with Indian banks since then. India's Tata Steel is in talks to raise as much as $400 million, according to people familiar with the matter, in what could become the company's first green loan.The debt could have a tenor of about five years and the proceeds would be used for capital expenditure, said the people, who declined to be named because the matter is private. The lenders include Bank of America Corp., HSBC Holdings Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.No final decision has yet been taken and details may still change, according to the people. Bloomberg-compiled data indicate this would be Tata Steel's first green loan.Steelmaking is carbon intensive and the sector will require fresh financing to improve its environmental footprint. A global shift to low-emissions productions would require outlays of about $4.4 trillion over the next 30 years, according to a 2022 McKinsey Quarterly report.Tata Steel lags its peers on several environmental metrics, including greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, and water and waste management, according to data compiled.Tata Steel is an Indian multinational steel company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, with its headquarters in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. It is a subsidiary of the Tata Group.Tata Steel, formerly known as Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO), is one of the world's largest steel producers, with an annual crude steel capacity of 34 million tonnes. It is one of the most geographically diverse steel producers in the world, with operations and commercial presence all over the world. RUSSIA'S GAZPROMBANK EXPANDS LINKS WITH INDIAN BANKS TO TRADE IN THEIR RESPECTIVE CURRENCIESTATA STEEL TO RAISE $400 MILLION IN THE FORM OF GREEN LOANSIN FOCUSIN FOCUS
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