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Glory Paul Race October 10, 2019 European consumer association BUIC has published a report entitled ' Cash versus Cashless: Consumers need a right to use cash '.  As well as repeating the benefits of continued cash usage - safeguarding consumer privacy ('a cashless society is a fully traceable society'), enabling financial inclusion, contributing to a more competitive retail payments market - the report concludes that 'the card schemes are the main beneficiaries of the society without cash.  They are at the origin of the movement.  In some countries they have even created pseudo consumer associations for the promotion of a cashless society'. Is there a danger attached to 'over-promoting ' a cashless society and what are the implications of the backlash we are now witnessing?  Is the message that though change will happen the pace of that change cannot be forced? With regard to the pace of change the report highlights the situation in Sweden and Germ...

Naavi.Org 98410spice October 10, 2019 This is in continuation of our discussion on the Theory of Data to explain “What Data is” for different communities like the technologists, lawyers and business manager. In this direction we have stated that there are three hypotheses that we want to explore and the first of such hypothesis was the thought that “Data is a congregation of fundamental data particles which come together to form a stable in a meaningful pattern for a software/hardware to enable a human being to make a meaning out of the pattern.” If we take an expression ’10’ and ask several people to read it as ‘data’, then perhaps most of them will read it as number ten”. But ask a “Binary Reader” who knows the language of “binary” like I and you know English, he will say ’10’ is decimal number two. [This is not much different from asking people to read “ Ceci est une pomme”. Not many would be able to understand this. But those who know French may understand this equiva...

FirstPost PTI October 10,2019 Moody's Investors Service on Thursday slashed its 2019-20 GDP growth forecast for India to 5.8 percent from 6.2 percent earlier, saying the economy was experiencing a pronounced slowdown which is partly related to long-lasting factors. The projection is lower than 6.1 percent that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had forecast just last week. Moody's attributed the deceleration to an investment-led slowdown that has broadened into consumption, driven by financial stress among rural households and weak job creation. "The drivers of the deceleration are multiple, mainly domestic and in part long-lasting," Moody's said in a report. It expected the growth to pick up to 6.6 percent in 2020-21 and to around 7 percent over the medium term. "Although we expect a moderate pick-up in real GDP growth and inflation in the next two years, we have revised down our projections for both. Compared with two years ago, the probabi...

FirstPost PTI October 10, 2019 He depositors had gathered outside the BJP's office in Mumbai ahead of Sitharaman's scheduled press interaction in the run-up to the 21 October Maharashtra Assembly elections The PMC Bank was put under 'directions' by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last month due to weak financial health, wherein the central bank has capped the deposit withdrawals at Rs 25,000 PMC is in bad health allegedly due to its exposure to the near-bankrupt realty player HDIL, to which it has loaned over 70 percent of its Rs 9,000 crore in advances Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday faced irate depositors of Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank, and promised to bring in legislative changes for upholding of their interests. The depositors had gathered outside the BJP's office here ahead of Sitharaman's scheduled press interaction in the run-up to the 21 October Maharashtra Assembly elections. The PMC Bank w...

The Indian Express October 10, 2019 By Avantika Ghosh Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday released the strategy document, which stated, “In the past few years, the government of India has placed health high on its political agenda and made a commitment to make significant increases in public spending in health." The World Health Organisation’s Country Cooperation Strategy for India for 2019-23 has heaped praise on the government for its “commitment” and for setting goals that recognise and act upon India’s changing health landscape where non-communicable diseases have replaced communicable diseases. Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday released the strategy document, which stated, “In the past few years, the government of India has placed health high on its political agenda and made a commitment to make significant increases in public spending in health. The National Health Policy 2017 calls for more than doubling in government health spending ...

The Indian Express October 10, 2019 By Pranav Mukul As TRAI examines the possibility of lawful interception of messages on WhatsApp and similar platforms, a look at the debate around such interception, the technical difficulties, and practices around the world On Tuesday, The Indian Express reported that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is studying the possibility of bringing platforms such as WhatsApp under the ambit of “lawful interception”. Lawful interception of online communications platforms such as WhatsApp, Skype, Signal or Telegram has been a long-running debate that has ranged governments and regulators across the world against technology companies and privacy activists. The authorities want such platforms to provide access to messages, calls, and their logs to law-enforcement agencies to aid them with investigations. India, too, has made demands for traceability of communications from instant messaging platforms. Why is TRAI looking at law...

The Indian Express October 10, 2019 By: ENS Bureau The bank also slashed its retail term deposit and bulk term deposit interest rates by 10 bps and 30 bps, respectively, for ‘1 year to less than 2 years’ tenor, with effect from October 10, 2019. Close on the heels of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) fifth cut in the repo rate last week, State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday slashed the interest rate on savings bank deposits (with balances up to Rs 1 lakh) by 25 basis points (bps), from 3.50 per cent to 3.25 per cent, with effect from November 1, 2019. The bank also slashed its retail term deposit and bulk term deposit interest rates by 10 bps and 30 bps, respectively, for ‘1 year to less than 2 years’ tenor, with effect from October 10, 2019. It has also reduced the MCLR (marginal cost of funds based lending rate) by 10 basis points, making home and personal loans cheaper for customers. This has been done “in view of the adequate liquidity in the system”, the ba...

The Indian Express October 10, 2019 By George Mathew, Anil Sasi  The PMC scam went undetected for around 11 years despite the RBI requiring all regulated entities — including cooperative banks — to submit details of transactions and accounts to it since February 2016. The last time Reserve Bank of India was forced to issue a statement on the robustness of India’s banking system was back in October 2008 in the wake of the global financial crisis. So, on October 4, after the implosion at the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank, when the RBI reiterated that the banking system was “safe and sound”, quite a few eyebrows were raised. Not just because this was seen as an over-reaction, disproportionate to the rumblings at a mid-sized, Maharashtra-based cooperative bank with a deposit base of just Rs 11,000 crore, but also because the RBI itself has a few questions to answer. For, the PMC scam went undetected for around 11 years despite the RBI requiring all regula...

The Indian Express October 10, 2019 By Subhajit Roy While Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not brief Xi Jinping on Kashmir, sources said in case the Chinese President wants to understand the issue, the PM will provide an “outline”. Hours after New Delhi and Beijing officially announced Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India for the second informal summit in Mahabalipuram on October 11 and 12, India took strong exception to a reference to Kashmir in a meeting between Xi and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. India said it is “not for other countries to comment” on its internal affairs. While government sources said Delhi will not raise Jammu and Kashmir unless Xi brings it up, the Ministry of External Affairs’ official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said: “India’s position has been consistent and clear that Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India. China is well aware of our position. It is not for other countries to comment on the internal affairs of ...

Business Standard October 09, 2019 By Ajai Shukla Balakot hero Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was the star attraction as he flew past in a MiG-21 Bison fighter As the Indian Air Force (IAF) celebrated its 87th anniversary on Tuesday, a clear theme was the operations of February 26, when Indian fighter aircraft attacked the Balakot terrorist training camp in Pakistan and skirmished with counter-attacking Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighters the next morning. Drawing thunderous applause from spectators at Hindan Air Base outside Delhi was the “avenger formation” in the fly-past, a three-aircraft formation led by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman in his MiG-21 Bison fighter, flanked by two Mirage 2000 fighters flown by pilots who had bombed Balakot. Varthaman was shot down and captured by the Pakistani military in that skirmish, but only after shooting down a PAF F-16 fighter, as claimed by the IAF. Meanwhile in Merignac, France, aerospace firm Dassault delivered...