Aadhaar: What happens to firms like Jio, Paytm as SC strikes down sec 57?

Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday indicated that the Centre would examine whether separate legal backing is needed for Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act, a provision which allows private entities access to the core Aadhaar database.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act, which deals with private entities, and read down a few others, stating that they were unconstitutional.

“If it is backed by law, it is not unconstitutional,” Jaitley said when asked about Supreme Court striking down Section 57, which allows ‘any body corporate or person’ or ‘private entity’ to demand Aadhaar.

He added that the Centre would see if the court’s decision arose from a “procedural concern”.

“So let us first read the judgement. There are two-three prohibited areas. Are they because they are totally prohibited or are they because they need legal backing. So my answer in general, the generic answer will depend on what is the rationale… for instance on these private entities, it needs to be backed by law. That’s my understanding. I still have a detailed reading of the judgement to do,” Jaitley said

Business Standard

Flipkart will become Walmart today: Is that really good news for India?

When Carl Douglas McMillon, president and chief executive officer of Walmart Inc, arrives at the Embassy Tech Village headquarters of Flipkart in Bengaluru later on Wednesday to acquire India’s first-to-a-billion-dollars-startup, he will be accompanied by Walmart International’s Judith McKenna and CEO (commerce) Marc Lore. It will be a triumphal return to India for the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer which will be partnering Google’s parent Alphabet Inc in a deal estimated at $18-20 billion enterprise value – Walmart will own about 60 per cent stake, and Alphabet will get to own about 15 per cent of the online market place.

The passage of the past five years has obviously dulled memories. All recent media reports seem to have conveniently glossed over the history of Walmart’s previous foray into India, in partnership with Sunil Mittal’s Bharti group. Walmart in 2012 launched a global review of corruption after a New York Times report on bribery at the company’s Mexico operations. The review by its lawyers flagged India among the countries with the highest corruption risk. The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act forbids American firms from paying bribes. Almost on cue, in November that year, Bharti Walmart suspended a number of employees, including the chief financial officer, as part of an internal investigation into bribery allegations in the Indian operation. By June 2013, Raj Jain, the CEO of the India operations, quit after six years at the helm of the company. It did not take much time thereafter for the Walmart-Bharti JV to fall apart.

Paytm launches two new services under wealth management offering

Mobile application basedfinancial services platform Paytm has announced the launch of two new services - Gold Gifting and Gold Savings Plan as part of its wealth management offering, Paytm Gold.
The company said the customers can now send 24K 999.9 purity gold to each other instantly - offering them a convenient gifting solution.
It said that more than 60 per cent of Paytm Gold purchases are from tier two and three cities with millennial constitutingthe majority.

The platform has witnessed repeat purchases of Paytm Gold worth up to Rs 500 at regular intervals, thecompany said in a release.

On the Gold Savings Plan, the company said the scheme intends to help customers conveniently andregularly save in gold as per their budget and requirement byentering the duration, frequency and amount of gold they wantto save.
The company said the customer's gold will be stored in MMTC PAMP's 'secure and 100% insured' lockers for free and they can get delivery of this gold at any time.
"This would eliminate additional fees associated with offline Gold purchase like making and locker charges, while offering customers access to trusted and affordable gold savings for the long-term," the company said.

Reliance Jio takes on Airtel, Voda with 100% cashback on Rs 399 recharge

Reliance Jio on Thursday introduced a variety of discounts for its prepaid subscribers, including triple cashback of up to Rs 2,599 on every recharge of Rs 399 or above.

The triple cashback offer includes 100 per cent cashback vouchers of Jio worth Rs 400 on every Jio tariff plan recharge of Rs 399 or above and an instant cashback of up to Rs 300 on every recharge. The vouchers will include discounts at travel portals and retail stores.

While there was no reply to queries sent to Jio, its channel partners on condition of anonymity said the prime membership customers will get a cashback and vouchers for certain recharge amounts through wallets, including leading digital payment wallets like AmazonPay, AxisPay, FreeCharge, Mobikwik, Paytm and PhonePe.

The exclusive Jio Prime benefits will be available during the offer period from November 10-25, 2017.

The cashback redemption availability will have three categories:

• Jio cashback vouchers worth Rs 400, which include eight vouchers of Rs 50 each will be provided instantly in MyJio for redemption from November 15, 2017

• Instant cashback from partner wallets will be credited to user wallets instantly 

• E-commerce vouchers of up to Rs 1,899 for shopping on e-commerce platforms and discounts on flight tickets will be available from November 20, 2017 onwards on specific portals 

Paytm now allows users to pay through BHIM UPI on its platform

Digital payment platform Paytm on Tuesday introduced payments using BHIM UPI on its platform, using which users can create their own Paytm BHIM UPI ID on the app, which will be issued by Paytm Payments Bank.

Also, Paytm users can link any of their savings bank account with this unique Paytm BHIM UPI ID and start sending and accepting money.


With Paytm BHIM UPI, users can now make seamless and instant money transfers directly between two bank accounts, with no waiting time to add beneficiary. They will also not have to share their bank account details and IFSC code with anyone to receive money. This will enable a larger pool of Paytm users to transact digitally with more choices, greater ease and convenience.

To create UPI ID, users can go to the BHIM UPI section on the Paytm app home screen. These IDs will be users' registered mobile number. For example, if a Paytm user's registered mobile number is 9123456789, the UPI ID will be generated as 9123456789@paytm. Users can link their Paytm BHIM UPI ID with their existing savings bank account.

Paytm will also be training its five million merchant partners to create their Paytm BHIM UPI ID and accept money using the same. Merchants will also get the flexibility of adding multiple bank accounts with the single Paytm BHIM UPI ID and accept money directly into their bank accounts. As per the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) guidelines, users can send up to Rs. 1 lakh a day using BHIM UPI; while there's no receiving limit.

"As a part of our journey of being a truly open payment platform, consumers and merchants should both have complete range of choices to select payment source and destination. With the availability of BHIM UPI to our large user base and merchant network, we believe the next wave of digital payments will begin soon," said Renu Satti, MD and CEO - Paytm Payments Bank.

Amazon's Great Indian Festival vs Flipkart's Big Billion Days: Online sales begin today

It is time again to loosen your purse strings! With attractive deals and huge discounts across various categories on offer, almost all major e-commerce platforms are geared up to commence their sales for the festive season.

While e-commerce giant Flipkart and the online retail platforms it owns -- Jabong and Myntra -- will start with their five-day-long "Big Billion Days" sales from September 20, Amazon India's "Great Indian Festival" will begin exclusively for its "Prime" customers on the same day at 12 p.m.

However, the festival sale for all customers of Amazon India will be from September 21 to 24.

"For the first time ever, the Great Indian Festival will start early at 12 noon on September 20 only for 'Prime' members," Manish Tiwary, Vice President, Category Management, Amazon India, told IANS.

"We expect more customers to join the digital ecosystem and shop with us during this festive season. With expanded selection and a robust logistical support system, we are ready to handle the massive customer traffic that we are bound to receive this season," Tiwary added.

Amazon India will offer deals across several categories, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, large appliances, baby products, clothing and accessories, beauty products, home and kitchen products, furniture and stationery products.

Paytm payments bank launching next week, but not with Shinjini Kumar as CEO

After more than a year's delay, online mobile wallet major Paytm would finally launch its payments bank on May 23. But in a crucial change, former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) executive and PricewaterhouseCoopers consultant Shinjini Kumar, who was chosen for the role of the payments bank chief executive officer (CEO), has stepped down and is in exit mode, while Renu Satti, vice-president, business, will take over. (A payments bank can carry out most banking operations but can't give out loans or issue credit cards.)

"We are in the process of launching Paytm Payments Bank on May 23. We recently received approval from RBI for Renu Satti to be the CEO," said a Paytm spokesperson.

Kumar told Business Standard that she stepped down as she was relocating back to Mumbai. Paytm Payments Bank headquarters would be in Noida. "I want to be in Mumbai. I tried to relocate to Delhi, but as things are evolving more, it was difficult to travel back and forth between Delhi and Mumbai. That is the reason I decided to step down," Kumar said.

She added that sending a fresh list of probable CEOs for the payments bank for approval, as well as some other conversations with RBI, caused a delay in final approval.

Satti started as manager, human resources, Paytm, nearly a decade back and has risen up the corporate ladder since. She has headed different teams for online marketplace and mobile wallet at the firm.

The payments bank will launch its services first in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and then expand to northeast.

In January, Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma told Business Standard that in the first phase the payments bank would have 100,000 banking correspondents. "In the first phase, we are targeting as many as 200 million wallets, current accounts and savings accounts. While normal banks target savings accounts and current accounts, we will target wallets as well," he had said.

In the last one and a half years, Paytm postponed the opening of the payments bank seven times. Sharma in January had even announced the launch of the bank. But it got delayed.

READ MORE

Samsung Pay is live in India. Your move, Apple?

Latest Business News - A week back Samsung initiated the registration process for early access to its mobile payment service Samsung Pay in India. And this week, the service has been officially launched for the users who registered for early access program to use Samsung Pay services.

India saw a huge spike in digital payment services post demonetisation drive, which took place on November 8. Since then, a lot many players have entered the arena and are offering digital payment services in different ways. The latest in the arena is Samsung Pay, which took the lead and launched its mobile payment services in India before Apple’s Apple Pay and Google’s Android Pay.

While there is no dearth of e-wallet services and digital payment apps in India, what is it that makes Samsung Pay different from other existing services? Let’s take a look:

What is Samsung Pay

The Samsung Pay is a secure and easy to use mobile payment service available exclusively on select Samsung Galaxy smartphones -- Samsung Galaxy Note5, Samsung Galaxy S7, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+, Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) (2017) and Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) (2017).

READ MORE ON - How Samsung Pay works?
CLICK HERE To Watch The Video Of Samsung Pay

Paytm introduces new features for users and merchants

Digital payments firm Paytm brings its users the newly added features to its mobile app to offer a more intuitive user experience while introducing an array of new features ranging from being able to accept up to Rs. 50,000 for merchants and additional security layers for users.

The updated app remains light and loads 3X faster even on low-end smartphones and slow network areas.

Here's a few features launched on the app:

Self-declared merchants can now accept up to Rs. 50,000 directly in their bank accounts- The merchants can now self-declare themselves on the app itself and start accepting up to Rs. 50,000 directly in their bank accounts.

The amount is settled at midnight every day and the settlement charges remain zero percent. As mentioned by Paytm, the bank settlement charges will stay at zero percent when amount would be settled to merchants' Paytm Payments Bank account.

To self-declare, merchants need to tap on 'Accept Payment' in the updated Paytm app, select 'Bank Account', enter bank details and confirm. Wallet balance of a self-declared merchant should not exceed Rs 20,000 post which the amount is settled directly to the merchant's bank account.(Read More)

From Paytm to Freecharge, feature phones get a digi-wallet push

Breaking News - In an effort to bring every mobile phone user into the fold of the digital economy, mobile wallet companies are churning out a host of digital wallets that work on feature phones.

From state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to mobile wallets such as FreeCharge, Oxigen and Paytm, every player is either coming out or already has introduced mobile wallets for feature phones. Feature phones incorporate the ability to access the Internet and store and play music but lack the advanced functionality of smartphones.

In India, around 140 million feature phones are sold in a year and these constitute nearly half of the total mobile phone user base. According to industry experts, to make digitisation a success it is extremely important to reach out to this market. Most of the users of feature phones are in small towns and rural areas but a chunk is also found in cities (Read More).

Paytm launches 100-member merchant helpdesk to educate on digital payments

 

Breaking News - Mobile payment and e-commerce platform Paytm on Monday announced a 100-member 'merchant helpdesk', announcing that it will invest Rs 50 crore towards educating merchants on digital payments across the country.

The helpdesk will educate users about why the delay in transfer in a few cases, which happens due to the banking systems that are going through stress owing to load spikes or may not respond due to downtime or network fluctuation at the their end.

"It is our utmost priority to educate our partners who accept payments using Paytm," said Sudhanshu Gupta, Vice President of Paytm, in a statement.

The company has also launched a toll-free number 1800 1800 1234 that helps non-smartphone and non-internet users to pay or receive money using Paytm.(Read More)