There is no dearth of political will today to act against corruption and officers should take action against the corrupt, however powerful, without any hesitation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday.
CEO Shashi Arora discusses his roadmap for Airtel Payments Bank with Karan Choudhury.
When Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was conceived last December, the idea was to reduce the dominance of e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart. It was also to bring in a level-playing field for small merchants in India's fragmented but fast-growing $1-trillion retail market. However, those goals have changed now as large e-commerce players such as Flipkart, Amazon and Ecom Express are in various levels of talks with the ONDC team. They want to form partnerships like integrating with the network as well as providing their expertise to build it, according to the industry sources.
She said that despite government scheme and initiatives ranging from roads to agriculture, housing, scholarships to electricity benefiting lives of people, a false narrative was being created by the opposition that the government was working for cronies.
India recorded 50,035 cases of cyber crime in 2020, an 11.8 per cent surge in such offences over the previous year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week once again cautioned bank customers of fraud, including those in Know-Your-Customer (KYC) cases. In fact, certain frauds have become more prevalent than others, and being aware of them is the first step towards protect yourself. Mayur Joshi, chief executive officer, Indiaforensic.com, a company engaged in the prevention, detection, and investigation of frauds says, "It is necessary to learn, to read about these scams."
The Centre is unlikely to announce an agreement over payment mechanism with Russia until a ceasefire is declared in the Ukraine war, said people in the know. An inter-ministerial group headed by the finance ministry has been meeting regularly for over a month to analyse and discuss payment mechanisms that can work under the current circumstances and ensure the trade between India and Russia is not disrupted. The US had recently said that there would be consequences for countries actively attempting to "circumvent or backfill" American sanctions against Russia.
Agriculture, social services, education, defence and so on will be brought into the digital fold and every gram panchayat will be connected to the internet.
Paytm will look to raise up to $1.5 billion as part of primary share sale, leading up to its initial public offering (IPO), which is planned for November, a person familiar with the developments said. The company is looking to file its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) by July, according to sources. According to this person, though the details of the listing are being worked out, Paytm may take the qualified institutional buyer (QIB) route to list and issue fresh equity to raise funds.
Nandan Nilekani talks about moving towards a cashless economy and freedom of Internet, among others
Microsoft has become the first global Big Tech company to join the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), an Indian government initiative for developing a first-of-its-kind open network for digital commerce. The world's second-largest technology firm intends to introduce social e-commerce via its app in the Indian market later this year. ONDC is expected to open to the public in Bengaluru over the next fortnight as it enters into the next phase of the pilot for further fine-tuning before rollouts in other cities, according to a source in the know.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inaugurated and laid foundation stones of development projects worth more than Rs 38,000 crore in different sectors in Mumbai, giving a big push to infrastructure, urban travel and healthcare ahead of civic polls in the city in which the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction will seek to showcase these ventures to take on their political rivals.
Data processing compliance is the main reason behind the delay. The government, on several occasions, has made it clear that Indian financial data needs to be stored exclusively onshore and if it is processed outside, it needs to be brought back in 24 hours.
The payments industry is at a crossroads with the banking regulator on two pressing issues, neither of which seems headed towards an amicable solution. Depending upon which side accommodates the other, customers in India will have to choose between convenience and ironclad safety. In the end, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which regulates both banks and all payments services providers, will prevail. But the question is: will it do so by bending a little or by sticking to its firm stand? The two issues - one concerning payment facilitators storing customers' card details and the other about auto-renewal of payments - appear similar but aren't.
The next meeting of the GST Council will be held on September 28-29 in Goa.
Addressing the 76th United Nations General Assembly session here, Prime Minister Modi said that today, every sixth person in the world is an Indian.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday announced to increase the policy repo rate by 50 basis points to 4.9 per cent, the second hike in five weeks aimed at quelling the inflation. The MPC vote was unanimous and has decided to keep stance withdrawal from accommodative, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said in a press conference on Wednesday. The decision was taken during a three-day meeting of the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to review the interest rates in the country. The MPC voted unanimously to increase the policy repo rate by 50 bps to 4.90 per cent," Das said.
Yes Bank customers will be able to access full banking services from Wednesday evening, as the moratorium will be lifted earlier. The RBI had on March 5 put a moratorium on Yes Bank restricting withdrawals to Rs 50,000 per depositor till April 3. However, the government in a notification on Saturday said the moratorium will be lifted by 18:00 hrs on March 18.
For the first time, the value of card and mobile payments of Rs 10.57 trillion was more than ATM withdrawals of Rs 9.12 trillion in Q4 of fiscal 2019-20. In the months of lockdown, the gap may have widened further, but cash could be back in vogue when the situation normalises.
In the past, there have been instances of people getting fake e-mails in the name of RBI.
As on June 16, currency in circulation was Rs 15.29 lakh cr, or 86.2% of pre-note ban level
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.
The protocol aims to "democratise" lending, reduce costs of credit, and ensure accessibility of credit to small companies and street vendors, according to Nandan Nilekani.
While digitisation and automation have made internal processes more efficient, front-end products are being enhanced digitally through robotics, artificial intelligence and botchats.
India's Internet economy has two choices: An immediate $30 billion Sale-and-Leaseback or a $3 trillion value harvesting over decades, observes Vibhu Arya.
A pan-India 'fraud-to-phone' network has been busted by security agencies, which have also arrested eight people and seized nearly 300 new mobile phones bought with stolen funds, officials said on Tuesday. Moreover, 900 mobile phones, 1,000 bank accounts and hundreds of unified payment interface (UPI) and e-commerce IDs of this gang have been identified and are under investigation. Nearly 100 bank accounts, and debit and credit cards have been frozen by the security agencies so far, officials said.
E-commerce companies have understood the importance of having their own in-house wallet, explaining their acquisition spree, says Manoranjan Mohapatra.
The RBI said the payment systems landscape will continue to change with further innovation and entry of more players which is expected to ensure optimal cost to the customers and freer access to multiple payment system options.
Around 30-50 million passengers in the reserved category have switched over to digital payments.
'Dear Business Partner, Kindly note and inform your all customers that Digital Cashback has been revised from 0.75 per cent to 0.25 per cent with effect from August 1, 2018 across oil industry for all loyalty customers,' said the text message sent by State-owned oil companies to petrol pump operators.
Compared to a 64 per cent penetration in Brazil (130 million users total) and 53 per cent in China (total 733 million users), India has barely 28 per cent penetration. Of the digital reach, almost 80 per cent are from affluent segments in urban areas. How can this change?
Using the app, bank transfers can be done from/to any bank account, making it easier to make payments at no charge. Even non-KYC Paytm users can avail the facility.
In the wake of scrapping of old Rs 500/1,000 banknotes, Niti Aayog has asked National Payments Corporation of India to frame a new scheme to incentivise digital payments.
A platform that helps retailers reduce failed transactions while keeping the cost down, Innoviti is all set for India's digital payments revolution.
The minister also exempted components from taxes to encourage domestic manufacturing of these devices.
Tripti Rai explains the unique features of Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app developed by the National Payment Corporation of India.
The bank can declare a withdrawal by you as illegal and deny any remedy in case a problem arises.
PhonePe wants to dethrone its Alibaba and SoftBank-backed rival, Paytm, claiming that additional capital that Walmart will bring to the table will help it grow much faster
Handle cards like you would handle cash.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Friday launch two schemes of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that may go a long way in changing how the household sector invests, and complains if anything goes wrong with their savings. These schemes - retail direct and an integrated ombudsman - will be launched by the Prime Minister virtually, in the presence of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. With the introduction of retail direct, a common man can directly take a position in government securities (G-Sec), considered to be the safest asset class a sovereign can offer.
Digital services work best when the seller designs a system where default options are designed to help the buyer, says Debashis Basu.
