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.
International airlines are offering affected passengers an option of refund, vouchers, discounts on future bookings, and the opportunity to hold tickets for up to two years following travel bans.
The dissidents, led by former president Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party, would leave the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna coalition with its 14 Members of Parliament, party sources said after their meeting with the President on Monday.
Basil had negotiated the Indian economic relief package to help Sri Lanka tackle the current foreign exchange crisis.
Sri Lanka has also imposed a police curfew in Western Province for six hours.
A statement issued by the presidential media division on Friday said an extremist group was behind the unrest near President Rajapaksa's residence in Mirihana.
The primary and immediate impact of a depreciating rupee is on the importers who will have to shell out more for the same quantity and price. However, it is a boon for the exporters as they receive more rupees in exchange for dollars. The rupee depreciation has wiped away some of the gains that would have accrued to India from international oil and fuel prices dropping to pre-Ukraine war levels.
The tiny Central American nation of El Salvador has embarked on an interesting experiment by recognising bitcoin as legal tender. This is proving painful for many of its citizens but it's a useful "pilot" project for larger economies that are contemplating the peculiarities of this new asset class. El Salvador has a population of 6.5 million and GDP of about $27 billion.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday allowed Chinese smartphone maker Vivo to operate its various bank accounts frozen by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money-laundering probe subject to furnishing of a bank guarantee of Rs 950 crore within a week with the agency. Justice Yashwant Varma also directed the company to give details to ED about its remittances and issued notice to the investigating agency on Vivo's plea seeking quashing of the order freezing its various bank accounts. ED contended that presently the proceeds of crime have been quantified to Rs 1200 crore.
Bharti Airtel aims to leverage its 180 million plus digital service customers and its wide presence in rural areas to grow its payment bank business. "We are well placed as we can leverage the 180 million plus customers we have across our digital assets. "We offer a plethora of services such as lucrative interest rates, gift cards, FASTag, telecom recharges, payments and debit cards. "Our large merchant base of more than eight million allows us to drive both engagement and monetisation.
A whopping Rs 62,476 crore has been "illegally" transferred by smartphone maker Vivo to China in order to avoid payment of taxes in India, the Enforcement Directorate said Thursday, as it claimed to have busted a major money laundering racket involving Chinese nationals and multiple Indian companies. This money is almost half of Vivo's turnover of Rs 1,25,185 crore, it said without stating the time period of the transaction. The crackdown on the leading Chinese company came after the federal probe agency found that three Chinese nationals, all of whom "left" India during 2018-21, and one other person from that country incorporated as many as 23 companies in India in which they were also helped by a Chartered Accountant, Nitin Garg.
Investors, including large corporations, view them as a potential hedge against uncertainty, and mainstream investment banks too are jumping into the game.
The Income Tax department on Friday conducted separate 'survey operations' at the premises of online news portals Newsclick and Newslaundry in New Delhi, officials said.
Bankers say outward remittances is confusing but can still be attributed to perception of stability in Indian economy.
Democratic Left Front politician Nanayakkara was among the 42 members who declared independence in Parliament from the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) coalition.
The future of cryptocurrencies in India appears uncertain but that has not deterred young Indians from embracing the so-called 'fourth industrial revolution' world, where interconnectivity and smart automation, much of it relying on blockchain technology, drive human civilisation. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das has repeatedly warned of macroeconomic instability and even "serious consequences" if cryptocurrencies turn mainstream. The country's monetary authority wants a China-like total ban on crypto, not even allowing these currencies to be treated as investments. Though Parliament's website had listed the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill as one seeking a total ban of cryptocurrencies in the country, it was not presented in the Winter Session. India now has the highest number of cryptocurrency investors in the world.
'I know margins are under pressure, but have banks begin to stoop so low to enhance their floats or slip in strange charges?' asks Keya Sarkar.
The 136-year-old baby, argues Shyam G Menon, is taking a tiny step to tackling the biggest dread of old age: Change.
Revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj along with senior finance ministry officials on Thursday held a meeting with Infosys managing director Salil Parekh to review the performance of the new income tax portal. More than 3.5 crore Income Tax Returns (ITR) have been filed so far for the financial year 2020-21 through the portal, which had faced glitches following which the ministry had directed Infosys to urgently address the issues. Infosys has developed the new income tax e-filing portal 'www.incometax.gov.in'.
To further strengthen the supervision on non-banking entities (NBFCs), the Reserve Bank on Tuesday issued revised guidelines on a Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework for such companies, excluding government-owned ones, effective from October 1, 2022, on the lines of what it had introduced for banks in 2002. The RBI came up with stricter supervisory norms under the PCA framework for banks after their bad loans mounted and balance-sheets bled badly. This involved restricting them from fresh lending, brand opening and, hiring, among others. The RBI said the revised PCA framework is also applicable to all deposit-taking non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), all non-deposit taking NBFCs in the middle, upper and top layers, including investment and credit companies, core investment companies, infrastructure debt funds, infrastructure finance companies and microfinance institutions.
The investigation under FEMA was taken up by ED based on a reference received from RBI to investigate advance remittances received by certain entities for the purchase of the shares of Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank through escrow mechanism maintained with Standard Chartered Bank, Mumbai.
The NSE International Exchange (NSE IFSC) on Monday said trading in select US stocks will soon be facilitated through its platform. The Exchange will soon announce the operational details and will launch the product at the earliest possible time, NSE IFSC said in a statement. It further said depositories, banks and brokers have already started working with NSE IFSC to enable these investment products for Indian investors.
They said the notice was issued, after completion of the probe, under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
As stringent sanctions imposed by the European Union and US are crippling business and trade, desperate Russian oil companies are offering huge discounts to India, provided a payment mechanism to bypass the SWIFT ban is quickly approved by the government. According to sources familiar with the development, Russian oil firms are offering 25-27 per cent discount to the dated Brent crude prices. State-run Rosneft is one the biggest oil companies that supply crude to India.
New Delhi has a chance to rid itself of its image as the bully in the subcontinent by helping a neighbour tackle problems that India, for once, has no role in creating. It should grab the opportunity with both hands, suggests Aditi Phadnis.
Sri Lanka's new Finance Minister Ali Sabry on Tuesday resigned, a day after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed him after sacking his brother Basil Rajapaksa amidst the island nation's worst economic crisis.
These are the highlights of RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das's statement and resolution of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC):
India's current account swung to a deficit for the first time in the current fiscal, with the gap coming at $1.7 billion or 0.2 per cent of the GDP in the December quarter. In the current fiscal, as the pandemic impacted trade, the current account had been in surplus in the previous two quarters, at $15.1 billion and $19 billion, respectively, as per the data on balance of payments released by the RBI on Wednesday. The critical measure of a country's external strength now stands at a surplus of 1.7 per cent of GDP for the first nine months of the fiscal year as against a deficit of 1.2 per cent in the year-ago period. In the December quarter, there was a rise in the merchandise trade deficit to $34.5 billion from $14.8 billion in the preceding quarter, and an increase in net investment income payments.
According to the bill, Indians should not exceed 15 per cent of the population.
The PFI is alleged to have been continuously involved in anti-government propaganda and spreading the narrative that Muslims were being persecuted in India.
The hospitality sector has been hit very hard by the pandemic. In the past 18 months, it has lost business, first because of the harsh lockdowns and after that because of lack of demand due to the ensuing economic slowdown. Most hospitality businesses have sustained low revenues and losses since April 2020. Is this the classic case of a beaten-down cyclical sector that may be close to bottoming out?
CBI and Enforcement Directorate are probing the huge remittances to Hong Kong from the bank.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday fired Basil Rajapaksa from his post and invited the Opposition parties to join a unity Cabinet to tackle the raging public anger against the hardships caused by the economic crisis.
Bangladesh might overtake India this year by per capita income in nominal dollars, but it is not yet close to becoming South Asia's economic powerhouse anytime soon, T N Ninan points out.
From March 3, investors in India will be able to trade in select US stocks through the NSE International Exchange (NSE IFSC), a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Investors can invest in NSE IFSC receipts on US stocks, which will be in the form of unsponsored depository receipts (DRs). For a start, this will include DRs of 50 US stocks such as Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Tesla, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Nike, P&G, Coca-Cola, and Exxon Mobil. Indian retail investors will be able to transact on the NSE IFSC platform under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) limits prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which currently stand at $250,000 per year.
Having exposure to international funds and gold is a must for those who have foreign currency-denominated goals.
The government is considering blocking internet protocol (IP) addresses of companies/exchanges on which trading in cryptocurrencies is happening, said a source in the know. Two months ago, the government had said it intended to bring a Bill to ban private cryptocurrencies and introduce India's own digital currency in line with what China and other countries had done. This move is part of that. The government had also proposed to promote technology like blockchain. Industry, however, says banning decentralised currencies like bitcoin and ethereum is not possible.
From road transport to health insurance, tax rules have changed from October 1.
The currency market won't care for our moans, groans, cries and sighs. The rupee will find its own level, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The Government also defended the President's decision to enforce a state of emergency, that had given him sweeping authority to act in the interests of public security and preserving public order, including suspending any laws, authorising detentions and seizing property, saying it was declared after attempts were made to attack the President's Office and other public property.
