'To the believers of crypto regulations, I have only one question to ask, how will you regulate it?'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expressed hope that digital transactions will soon surpass cash as Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is increasingly becoming the most preferred payment mechanism in the country. Modi after the launch of the cross-border connectivity between the UPI and PayNow of Singapore said about 74 billion transactions amounting to more than Rs 126 trillion, which is approximately 2 trillion Singapore dolla, was done through UPI in 2022. "Many experts are estimating that very soon India's digital wallet transactions are going to overtake cash transactions," he said.
The benchmark indices are set to end their five-month gaining streak, but the market breadth continues to hold strong So far this month, stocks gaining have outnumbered those declining, a sign that the bulls still have the upper hand, even as the pullback in the S&P BSE Sensex and the National Stock Exchange Nifty indicates otherwise. On the BSE, 2,126 stocks have advanced and 1,955 have declined in August, translating into an advance/decline ratio (ADR) of 1.1.
'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.'
With over 80 million Unified Payments Interface (UPI) users, Amazon Pay, the payments business of e-commerce giant Amazon, has been growing at 40-50 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), said Mahendra Nerurkar, chief executive officer (CEO) and vice-president (V-P), Amazon Pay India. "Leveraging just the micro peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions on UPI is not a business model. "While we have enabled those features, we do not chase monthly active users based on this.
The interest charged on an inter-state loan given to a credit card holder without the use of a plastic card would not be subject to the integrated goods and services tax (IGST), a two-judge bench of the Calcutta high court has ruled. In this connection, it recently set aside a ruling by a single judge of the high court. The issue was a loan of Rs 650,000 granted by Citi Bank with an EMI of Rs 58,056 for 12 months and inclusive of integrated GST (IGST) on each installment of interest.
GST authorities have expanded the probe into alleged tax evasion by fintech firm BharatPe to include reported issuance of fake invoices by those close to the firm's ousted co-founder Ashneer Grover, an official said. GST authorities are now scrutinising BharatPe books of the last four years to see if bogus invoices were issued for services as well. BharatPe had stripped Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain of all positions after a preliminary report of an external audit commissioned by the fintech firm's board showed that the duo indulged in alleged misdeeds and financial irregularities.
The Tango D10S - a 12-seater financed by an Argentine fintech company - is designed as a flying museum in tribute to the former World Cup winner, who died of a heart attack in November 2020.
'We have a plan to plough back a 'This year in the first half we had profits of more than Rs 31,000 crore.' significant amount of profits this financial year.' 'We have seen this organic plough back of profit is one of best ways to support the equity of the bank.'
Prosus NV, which owns PayU, has terminated a $4.7 billion (about Rs 38,400 crore) deal to acquire Indian payments firm BillDesk, saying certain conditions precedent were not met. Prosus, the global investment arm of South African multinational Nasper, had on August 31 last year announced acquisition of BillDesk in an all-cash deal to expand its footprint in India's booming fintech sector under the umbrella of its payment gateway PayU.
The Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Vikram Doraiswami, who was touring Scotland this week was blocked from entering a gurdwara in the capital Glasgow by pro-Khalistan extremists.
'There is a need for an innovation sandbox where the PSBs can collaborate and then they can do their own innovation on top of it.'
The Reserve Bank on Thursday said it will come out with a framework allowing borrowers to switch to fixed interest rate from floating interest rate, a move that would provide relief to borrowers of home, auto and other loans reeling under the impact of high interest rate. Unveiling the bi-monthly monetary policy, Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das said under the framework, to be put in place shortly, the lenders will have to clearly communicate with the borrowers about tenor and EMI. "The supervisory reviews undertaken by the Reserve Bank and the feedback and references from members of public have revealed several instances of unreasonable elongation of tenor of floating rate loans by lenders without proper consent and communication to the borrowers," he said.
Stocks of small- and mid-cap companies continued to gain ground in July, notwithstanding analysts sounding caution on these two market segments given the sharp run thus far in calendar year 2023 (CY23). Sanjeev Prasad, co-head of Kotak Institutional Equities, in a note co-authored with Anindya Bhowmik and Sunita Baldawa in June-end, had cautioned against the sharp run in small- and mid-caps. "We do not see any particular reason for the excitement in small- and mid-cap stocks.
Every defaulter is not a wilful defaulter who has the capability of paying back and is yet not servicing the bank loan, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The governor made it clear that the RBI is aware of what's happening and acts accordingly, but doesn't make a noise about that, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
If 4,000 workers could work round the clock for the construction of the new Parliament building, then there is no reason why all infrastructure projects too cannot follow that model, asserts Dr Sudhir Bisht.
India's first-ever listed new-age company, Zomato, has seen a meteoric rise in its stock price in calendar year 2023 (CY23), rising 70.75 per cent during this period as compared to 9.5 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. From being the second worst hit new-age stock in CY22, crashing 57 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the stock hit the Rs 100-mark for the first time since January 2022 in late August. The stellar run in the stock - only after PB Fintech and One97 Communications-owned Paytm, analysts say, may be coming to an end, at least for now.
'These companies hired in high numbers last year and are balancing that out this year by recruiting fewer freshers.'
Indian startups received a record funding of $10.9 billion across 347 deals in the third quarter of 2021, according to a PwC India report. This is twice the amount of funding received in Q3 of the calendar year 2020 and an approximate increase of 41 per cent compared to the second quarter of 2021. An increase in funding activity was witnessed across all sectors in terms of value and volume.
Of the 2,562 customer complaints received between January 2020 and March 2021, a majority relate to illegal apps. At least two dozen suicide cases have been reported, perpetrated by the harassment by loan app operators, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Chief economic advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Tuesday said Indian economy will grow at over 7 per cent, down from above 8 per cent of growth rate projected in January. He, however, said that the economic momentum and the animal spirits are "unmistakable". "India's own growth rates have come off the projections made in January down to about 7-plus per cent for the current financial year," Nageswaran said speaking at Global Fintech Fest event in Mumbai.
While both institutions provide financial assistance, there are significant differences between them in terms of offerings, eligibility criteria, interest rates, and other crucial factors.
Venture Capital giant Sequoia India & Southeast Asia has rebranded itself to Peak VX Partners. The VC firm will now manage its assets under management (AUM) in the region of over $9.2 billion across 13 funds independently. The rebranding exercise followed Sequoia Capital's break-up into three independent entities across the globe. Besides Sequoia India & Southeast Asia, Sequoia China business has adopted the name HongShan in English (it will
Can Bhavish Aggarwal upend the electric two-wheeler market, which is now overwhelmingly in favour of scooters?
Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) flows have turned positive on a trailing 12-month (TTM) basis for the first time since December 2021. Thanks to robust inflows over the past three months, the TTM overseas flows into domestic equities stand at over $7.3 billion-the most since November 2021. This has helped propel one-year Nifty returns to 12 per cent.
Zaggle Prepaid, Cyient DLM, Healthvista India, Rashi Peripherals and Vishwaraj Sugar Industries have obtained the green signal to launch their initial public offerings (IPOs). The approvals come at a time when capital raising by way of IPOs has slowed to a crawl, with only four issues hitting the market so far this calendar year. Recently, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) issued final observation letters on their draft red herring prospectuses (DRHPs), which is akin to getting approval to hit the markets.
Investors seem to be shying away from stocks of companies in the 'digital' space with most counters that comprise the Nifty India Digital index giving negative returns over the past year. The index tracks the performance of a portfolio of stocks that broadly represent the 'digital theme' within basic industries, such as software, e-commerce, IT-enabled services, industrial electronics, and telecom services. The fall in some of these stocks over the past year has been steep; the sharpest decline of around 60 per cent was seen in shares of PB Fintech (parent company of Policybazaar).
WhatsApp's advantage is that it is the first app millions of Indian check first thing in the morning and innumerable times during the day and night.
'In the business of money, where you are regulated, the liability lies on the head of the acquirer.' 'It is not a good thing when you cannot spot the risks.'
Paytm's pre-IPO investors, which include likes of Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathway, SoftBank and Alibaba, do not seem to be in a hurry to exit India's leading digital payments brand as they continue to believe in its long-term prospect, analysts said. On Tuesday, 86 per cent of Paytm's shares became free to trade after the end of the lock-in period, allowing investors to sell shares that haven't yet been allowed onto the market. Market participants have been speculating on Paytm, post-expiry of lock-in for pre-IPO investors.
Walmart, the world's largest retailer, has paid $1.4 billion to buy out US-based Tiger Global's investment in e-commerce firm Flipkart, according to sources. The transaction puts Flipkart's valuation at $35 billion, against nearly $38 billion in 2021 when it raised funds from Japan's SoftBank, Walmart, and other investors. Tiger Global, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, and Accel now have all fully exited the e-commerce firm by selling their stake to Walmart.
'As part of our D33 strategy, the plan is to establish 30 unicorns in Dubai within the next 10 years.'
But the industry's chief executives remain confident of the long-term growth potential of NBFCs in India, given their specialised lending on the asset side, last-mile reach, and a well-capitalised balance sheet. "Over the years, NBFCs have faced many crises.
Mutual funds, as experts and custodians of another set of retail investors' savings, play a speculative game they are neither supposed to nor equipped to do, cautions Debashis Basu.
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.
Upping the ante, fintech unicorn BharatPe has filed an arbitration for clawing back it's former MD and co-founder Ashneer Grover's restricted shareholding and founder title, sources said. The arbitration was filed on Thursday under Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) rules, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. If relief is granted, Grover may lose his unvested shares and right to use the founder title.
Despite a firm improvement in the operational metrics of new-age companies during the January-March quarter (Q4FY23), analysts remain cautiously optimistic about their outlook. This is because the shares of these firms are still not risk free, as per analysts, given the companies are yet to make profits. Kranthi Bathini, director-equity strategy at WealthMills Securities says that while the sentiment around these stocks, which includes Paytm and Zomato, has turned positive, it remains to be seen how soon these firms turn profitable and improve margins.
A day after getting permission to raise its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) user base to 100 million, WhatsApp on Thursday said it has plans to make significant investments in 'payments on WhatsApp' across India, including India-first features and driving adoption. The company, however, did not share details of its plans. The Meta-owned messaging app got its first greenlight for its payments service from the National Payments Council of India (NPCI) in November 2020 with a cap of 20 million users. A year later, in November 2021, the limit was raised to 40 million users.
A few days back, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged the start-up community and public to deal in cryptocurrency with caution because everything that was floating around was not currency. In the first week of August, the country's top nine crypto exchange platforms were summoned by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in Hyderabad. The exchanges were questioned for money laundering, especially over a number of Indian non-banking financial companies and their fintech partners for predatory lending practices in violation of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines and by using tele-callers who misuse personal data and use abusive language to extort high interest rates from the loan takers.
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