Watal panel had suggested an independent payments regulator be set up.
Technology is rapidly reshaping industries that have long been rooted in tradition, driving a wave of innovation that is transforming everything from finance, banking, steel to manufacturing.
The stories of exclusions illustrate so tragically, the need of the hour is to bolster biometrics and 'smart' technologies with something more old-fashioned - the good old fashioned, compassionate human touch, says Geetanjali Krishna.
The key gain from using Aadhaar will be a drastic cut in impersonation and fictitious identities, thereby plugging a major loophole through which a lot of leakage in subsidy payment takes place.
Credit card payments to buy fuel at petrol pumps will from October 1 not get a 0.75 per cent discount that State-owned oil companies had introduced more than two-and-a-half years back to promote digital payments.
Aadhaar is a creation of the previous Congress-led government.
The cheque truncation system, which is currently operational at the major clearing houses of the country, has stabilised well and it has made large efficiency gains: RBI
E-KYCs and Aadhaar authentication are of crucial importance to the fin-tech companies as the recent RBI instructions require strict KYCs for these players to function in the market.
Ayan Pramanik reports on former Infosys CFO V Balakrishnan's fintech firm, which aims to make borrowing easy for small firms and individuals.
American online major Amazon seems to be almost doubling its India investment going by the company's recent announcement during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state visit to the US. From the time the Seattle-headquartered company started its India journey in 2013, its investment into the country is pegged at $11 billion or roughly $1.1 billion a year. By committing a fresh round of $15 billion by 2030, the Jeff Bezos-founded company's investment would go up to more than $2 billion a year over the next seven years.
Former chairman of the UIDAI Nandan Nilekani, elucidates how Aadhaar could become the spine for alternative banking and could replace government services with cash benefits.
We are certainly for digitisation. I do not have opinion about demonetisation. I still don't, says Bill Gates.
Seeking to rope in youngsters to promote cashless transactions, Modi said for every person you introduce to the BHIM app, you will get a cash back of Rs 10.
Whether it was the MGNREGS or the NFSA or the Aadhaar-based DBT scheme for cash transfer, the Modi government has built on the basic architecture created by the Singh government. Policy makers in the Modi government, instead of discarding them as products of the previous political regime, worked on them, expanded their scope and reach, and used new tools to improve their performance, explains A K Bhattacharya.
The government has opted for the RuPay debit card over the Aadhaar-based platform for "last-mile" authentication in its Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.
The minister also exempted components from taxes to encourage domestic manufacturing of these devices.
The Union Budget on Wednesday outlined several initiatives to drive India's technology agenda and boost digital infrastructure, including new centres of excellence for artificial intelligence, National Data Governance Policy, and Entity DigiLocker.
'It has also saved the government about $ 9 billion in fraud and wastage because by having that unique number you eliminate fakes and duplicates from your beneficiary and employee list,' Nilekani said at an event on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Softening the demonetisation blow, the Budget for 2017-18 on Wednesday halved the tax to 5 per cent on incomes up to Rs 500,000 but proposed a new surcharge of 10 per cent on incomes between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore and raised duties on cigarettes and pan masala while stepping up allocations for infrastructure, rural, agriculture and social sectors.
'Just the amount of work which is there just to become more and more successful in banking. For this to happen you need to have leaders who understand technology.'
Aadhaar-related schemes and the Aadhaar Act exist on the assumption that Right to Privacy is not a Fundamental Right.
NPCI has launched several consumer friendly systems including one that allows users to transfer money to people over mobile phones across India.
The key components of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission include a health ID for every citizen that will also work as their health account, to which personal health records can be linked and viewed with the help of a mobile application, a Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) and Healthcare Facilities Registries (HFR) that will act as a repository of all healthcare providers across both modern and traditional systems of medicine.
New offerings by banks are changing the way you transact.
Taxi booking, shopping and transfer of money will be easy.
Adhil Shetty, CEO, BankBazaar.com shares his thoughts on what could help make digitisation and going cashless easier in the New Year.
While digitisation and automation have made internal processes more efficient, front-end products are being enhanced digitally through robotics, artificial intelligence and botchats.
Govt looking for common ground on GST; hopes to pass it soon.
Domino's India data that included sensitive customer information such as their names, phone numbers, and credit card details has allegedly been breached and put on sale on the dark web. According to tweets by Israel-based Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock, Alon Gal, the data is worth 13 terabytes (TB). He tweeted on Sunday that the data includes as many as 180 million order details, including 1 million credit card details. The data, said Gal, was up for sale on the dark web. The threat actor, he said, was asking for $550,000 for the data.
GPS devices will enable real-time money transactions
After acquiring Grama Vidiyal Microfinance last year, IDFC Bank is looking for opportunities to strengthen its retail capabilities, says Rajiv Lall, its chief,
The hack may have been done by a rogue Twitter employee, or it may have been a smart hack into the Twitter system, or a social hack where someone conned Twitter's employees into giving them access,' suspects Devangshu Datta.
People may soon be able to use SMS communication with government departments as a documentary proof while utilising citizen-services for making payments, registrations and various other schemes.
It was widely expected that this time around, the government would be less likely to initiate fresh reforms and rather loosen its belt a little to give various segments of the economy, especially the multitudes that truly constitute India, something to smile about, says Sudip Bandyopadhyay.
Entirely new businesses have been built using data to disrupt traditional companies.
The blockchain, the public ledger that tracks every bitcoin transaction, is changing commerce as we know it, says Devangshu Datta.
Within the next two years, verification and scrutiny of returns will happen electronically through anonymised back offices manned by tax experts and officials. It will function without any personal interface between taxpayers and tax officers. Both the taxpayer and the tax officer will not know each other -- who is scrutinising whose return, and at which place, points out Kuldip Kumar, partner and leader personal tax, PwC.
'Modi's visit is path breaking in the sense that India has come out of the closet and is prepared to deal with Israel openly and in a host of fields, military as well as civilian,' says P R Kumaraswamy, one of India's leading experts on the Middle-East, currently in Israel.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances