MobiKwik unveils Magic

2/08/2018

Mobile wallet firm MobiKwik has announced the introduction of Magic, a digital platform for seamless and paperless processing and transfer of rewards and reimbursements to employees working in the corporate sector.
The product offering includes employee benefits such as reimbursement for food, fuel, medical, phone, LTA and other company benefits. These will be accessible for both corporates and employees on a MobiKwik app.
The company said the employee benefit and reimbursement industry in India, estimated at ₹51,600 crore and is largely paper- based.
“With Magic, we are introducing a technology solution that will ease corporate processes, thereby simplifying the lives of million of employees in India. Magic makes the disbursal of employee benefits fast, simple and more efficient,” said Bipin Preet Singh, co-founder & CEO, MobiKwik in Mumbai.
“We aim to eliminate the estimated processing cost of ₹6 crore for organisations and benefit over 5 million users by 2020 thus achieving a revenue of ₹8,400 crore,” he added.

Bitcoin drops below $6,200 for first time in three months

Bitcoin plunged 20% to a three-month low today, its latest sharp loss following a series of setbacks for the cryptocurrency that, with a collapse across global mainstream markets adding to the selling.
The virtual currency fell to $6,190 for the first time since mid-November, according to Bloomberg News, and represents the latest hammering for a unit that saw a stratospheric 26-fold rise last year.
Today’s collapse comes just six weeks after bitcoin hit a record high of $19,511, fuelled by a flood of speculators looking to make a quick buck, with warnings it could fall another 50 per cent.
Since those heady days the cryptomarket — which includes dozens of other units — has been pounded by news of crackdowns by governments including in China, Russia and South Korea, one of the biggest markets for the sector.
On Thursday, India said it would “take all measures to eliminate” cryptocurrencies’ use as part of a payment system and in funding illegitimate activities, while Japanese authorities raided a virtual currency exchange after it lost $530 million to hackers.
Central bank in Europe, Japan and the United States have also flagged concerns about the unit and this week saw several commercial lenders say they would stop allowing their customers to buy bitcoin through their credit cards owing to debt concerns.
Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia Pacific at Oanda, said “the dynamics behind the moves are regulatory clampdowns and investors losing confidence in crypto”.
The sell-off on Tuesday was exacerbated by crushing losses on world stock markets, with the Dow on Wall Street suffering its biggest one-day points loss and wiping out all its 2018 gains.
The global rout comes as panicked investors fret over rising US borrowing costs, leading them to cash in profits after a stellar couple of months that have seen many indexes hit record or all-time highs.
Equities have enjoyed months of surges fuelled by optimism over the US economy, corporate earnings and the global outlook.
But while traders have been piling into equities, pushing many global indexes to record or multi-year highs, there has been growing concern on trading floors about elevated US Treasury bond yields — at four-year highs — and the likelihood of fresh Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.
“The risk-off tone is hitting Bitcoin almost as hard as a global regulator and bank scrutiny,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at AxiTrader. “The latest dent to the Cryptospace has been banks saying they are shutting down the ability of clients to buy bitcoin with their cards.”
“This could end up a full round trip back into the $1,850/$2,966 region.”

Higher MSPs for farmers won’t accelerate inflation: analysts

Non-perishable agri products may see slight price rise till MSPs come into effect

The announcement of a Minimum Support Price (MSP) of 1.5 times the farmer’s cost will likely not have a strong upward impact on overall inflation but could spur a waning of the sharp slowdown in food price gains seen in 2017, according to officials and economists.
In the short term, a slight increase in prices of non-perishable farm products is possible as producers hold on to produce till the higher MSPs come into effect around September or October. The increase in MSPs would come into effect when the Kharif crop came into the market, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg had told The Hindu, adding he did not expect any impact in the first six months. However, there was the possibility of an induced effect as farmers held stocks in expectation of a higher price, he said.
Price expectations
Farmers would hold on to crops only if current prices were lower than 1.5 times the cost of production, economists said, adding that the inflationary impact of higher MSPs would be felt only if food prices fall fell below that level. “If prices are currently depressed and we know that in the future it will be 1.5 times the cost, then the prices may start going up right now,” said Ranen Banerjee, partner and leader - Public Finance and Economics at PwC India. “The non-perishable products, and those that can be stored, will be held till that time.”
Food inflation decelerated in 2017 at both the wholesale and retail levels. The ‘food and beverages’ category of the Consumer Price Index went from a strong growth of 7.2% in May 2016 to a contraction of 0.2% in May 2017. Similarly, the food part of the primary articles segment of the Wholesale Price Index went from a growth of 6.82% to a contraction of 2.13% over the same period. These plummeting prices due to excess supply had hurt farmers, forcing the government to act.
The nature of MSPs and the fact that government has limited funds to use to buy crops at that price, would contain inflationary expectations, said D.K. Srivastava, Chief Policy Advisor at EY India.
“MSPs don’t come into effect until market prices dip. And even if they dip, government’s ability to purchase at MSP is based on budget allocation. Currently, only limited purchases are done due to budget and quality considerations. If all the crops were to be bought, then the budgetary allocation would have to be much higher,” he said.
Mr. Banerjee added that due to this nature of MSPs, that they kick in only when market prices dip, the upward effect on inflation may be limited, but now even the sharp downward trend seen in the middle of 2017 will no longer take place.
“It is not necessarily going to have a higher inflationary effect,” Mr. Banerjee said. “But yes, there won’t be a sharp downward movement or drop in prices.”

What does mining a bitcoin really mean?

Bitcoin mining explained

2017 was the year when curiosity about the Bitcoin hit an all-time high, thanks largely to a dramatic surge in its value. Notwithstanding recent fluctuations in its price, interest remains strong in the original cryptocurrency, which was launched in 2009.

One question everybody has is what is the process of 'mining' that creates new Bitcoins and how does the blockchain technology underpinning the cryptocurrency really work. Here's how...

Making of the coin

Bitcoins are generated by a mathematical formula, or algorithm. It started with 50 coins in Jan 2009, the formula produces batches of new coins every 10 minutes.

These coins can be 'mined' by anyone willing to dedicate computing power.

Then it goes public

The blockchain forms a permanent, publicly available history of every bitcoin transaction.

Miners get more

Miners are rewarded for their work with new bitcoins automatically generated by the bitcoin algorithm.

Is there a mining limit?

The bitcoin formula sets a limit of 21 million coins. This limit is expected to be reached around the year 2140.

YES BANK's 1st USD Bond of $600 Mn Raised from International Markets

Commenting on the development Mr. Rana Kapoor, MD & CEO, YES BANK, said, "This landmark issue is the first foreign currency bond offering by YES BANK under our newly established MTN program, and the significant over-subscription as well as high quality investor base is testament to the commitment reposed by global investors in the Bank. As the 1st Bank to have begun operations at GIFT, we remain committed to expanding our operations at the IBU, Gandhinagar."
In its successful fund raising streak, YES BANK has previously raised a total of INR 37.5 Bn of Infrastructure bonds of which INR 3,300 Mn (USD 50 Mn) was raised through issue of Green Infrastructure Bond to FMO.
In FY17, YES BANK was one of the best performing banks in India across key parameters of growth, profitability and asset quality owing to a differentiated strategy. Bank's Advances grew by 34.7% to INR 1,323 Bn compared to industry growth rate of 5.4%, Total Assets grew by 34.7% to INR 2,151 Bn and Net profit grew by 31.1% to INR 33.3 Bn.
Further, YES BANK emerged as the fourth most profitable bank in India, as per H1FY18 net profit of INR 19.7 Bn.
As on March 31, 2017, YES BANK's Total Capital Adequacy Ratio stood healthy at 17% with Tier I Capital at 13.3%, ensuring that the Bank is well positioned to capitalize on growth.
As evidenced, YES BANK has been one of the strongest banks in India to have successfully demonstrated ability and consistency in raising capital across cycles. Through the equity route too, the Bank has raised a total of more than INR 200 Bn.
    •    The Bank has raised a total of INR 78.5 Bn (USD 1.2 Bn) in QIPs since 2014
    •    Recently raised INR 40 Bn (USD 612 Mn) through private placement of Basel III Tier II bonds
    •    INR 84.15 Bn was in total raised under Basel III Compliant Additional Tier-1 ('AT1') Bonds

Modi, Obama target five-fold jump in Indo-US trade, to USD 500 billion

10/01/2014

Targeting a five-fold jump in Indo-US trade to US $500 billion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama on Wednesday pledged to deepen economic cooperation and will set up a joint program to boost business investment.
After two days of talks focused on ways to reinvigorate the India-US relationship through economic, energy and security cooperation, the two sides agreed on US $1 billion of concessional financial from the US Export-Import Bank for the country's renewable energy development agency.
The two leaders, who met for the first time, agreed on boosting two-way trade to US $500 billion from US $100 billion. However, no deadline was set for reaching that goal.
FULL COVERAGE: PM Narendra Modi in US
The US President and PM Modi recognised that businesses of the two countries have a critical role to play in sustainable, inclusive, and job-led growth and development, a joint statement issued after the meeting said.
In order to raise investment by institutional investors and corporate entities, the leaders decided to establish an Indo-US Investment Initiative led by the Ministry of Finance and US Department of Treasury, with special focus on capital market development and financing of infrastructure.
They also agreed to establish an Infrastructure Collaboration Platform convened by the Ministry of Finance and the Department of Commerce to enhance participation of US firms in infrastructure projects in the country. In this context, the US government welcomes the government's offer for US industry to be the lead partner in developing smart cities in Ajmer (Rajasthan), Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh), it said.
The government will welcome two trade missions in 2015 focused on meeting its infrastructure needs with US technology and services.
The two leaders discussed their concerns over the current impasse (including on the issue of public stockholding for food security purposes) in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and its effect on the multilateral trading system. Modi and Obama directed their officials to consult urgently along with other WTO members on the next steps, the joint statement said.
The two sides committed to work through the Trade Policy Forum to promote a business environment attractive for companies to invest and manufacture in India and in the US. They committed to hold public-private discussions in early 2015 under the Commercial Dialogue on new areas of cooperation, including innovation in advanced manufacturing.
The US President welcomed Modi's ambitious plan to extend basic financial services to all its citizens through the Jan Dhan Yojana. Obama and the Prime Minister underlined the important contribution that US locomotive technology, equipment to monitor rail system assets, and US best practices can play in modernising the country's vast railway network, including accessing programmes of US Trade and Development Agency in this work, the statement said.
Agreeing on the need to foster innovation in a manner that promotes economic growth and job creation, the leaders committed to establish an annual high-level Intellectual Property (IP) Working Group with appropriate decision-making and technical-level meetings as part of the Trade Policy Forum. In particular, the two leaders recognised the contribution of the Information Technology industries of both the countries and the IT-enabled service industry in strengthening India-US trade and investment relations.

RBI to issue final norms on small, payments banks by end-November

 
The Reserve Bank of India will issue final guidelines on small and payments banks by November end, aimed at expanding the banking space and paving way for corporates to enter these two segments.
"Based on the feedback received, final guidelines on licensing of these banks will be issued by end-November 2014," RBI said in its bi-monthly policy review on Tuesday.
Draft guidelines for Small Banks and Payments Banks were issued by the central bank in July and comments were invited till August 28.
The final norms will allow micro finance institutions (MFIs), telecom players, non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and public sector companies eligible to apply for bank licences once RBI invites applications for the same.
The proposed small banks will provide a whole suite of basic banking products such as deposits and supply of credit, but in a limited area of operation.
On the other hand, payments banks will offer a limited range of products such as acceptance of demand deposits and remittances of funds. They will have a widespread network of access points particularly in remote areas, either through their own branch network or through Business Correspondents (BCs) or through networks provided by others.
"Both payments banks and small banks are 'niche' or 'differentiated' banks, with the common objective of furthering financial inclusion," RBI had said while issuing the draft guidelines for licensing these banks.
Small banks can collect deposits and disburse small-ticket loans to farmers and small and medium businesses, unorganised sector through high technology-low cost operations, as per draft regulations.
Payment banks will cater to marginalised sections of society, including migrant labourers, for collecting deposits and remitting funds. They would, however, not be allowed to indulge in lending operation.
Such banks can be set up with a minimum capital of Rs 100 crore as against Rs 500 crore required for normal commercial banks, as per the draft norms.
With regard to Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), the central bank said changes in the regulatory framework would be introduced by end-October 2014.
The new framework would cover prudential regulations on core capital, asset classification and provisioning norms, regulation on deposit acceptance, corporate governance and consumer protection measures.
With these changes coming into force, the RBI will recommence registering new NBFCs, it said.