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<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/DoYou-Need-Aadhaar-Card-Govt-Says-Yes-Supreme-Court-Says-No/articleshow/22981267.cms">Controversy</a> is still raging over the mandatory use of <keyword id="144117" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="AADHAAR">Aadhaar</keyword>, but an expert <keyword id="2006823" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Committee-on-financial-inclusion">committee on financial inclusion</keyword> has already recommended that the <keyword id="6354335" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="reserve-bank-of-india">Reserve Bank of India</keyword> should leverage the <keyword id="2006820" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Aadhaar-network">Aadhaar network</keyword> to ensure that every Indian has a <keyword id="2006817" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Free-bank-account">free bank account</keyword> by January 2016. The recommendation has come from the Committee on Comprehensive <keyword id="2006821" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Financial-Services-for-Small-Business">Financial Services for Small Business</keyword> and Low-Income Households, which is headed by <keyword id="311391" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Nachiket-Mor">Nachiket Mor</keyword>, an <keyword id="2006825" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="RBI-board-member">RBI board member</keyword> and former <keyword id="6653" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="ICICI-bank">ICICI Bank</keyword> executive. 
 <keyword id="30067" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="RBI">RBI</keyword> set up the committee last September and it has now sought comments from the public on the <keyword id="1180163" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="draft-recommendations">draft recommendations</keyword> on or before January 24, 2014. Other key members of the panel include former <keyword id="44473" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Citigroup">Citigroup</keyword> CEO <keyword id="25396" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vikram-Pandit">Vikram Pandit</keyword> and <keyword id="2006826" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Axis-Bank-CMD">Axis Bank CMD</keyword> <keyword id="6356453" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Shikha-Sharma">Shikha Sharma</keyword>. 
 According to the report, every Indian resident over 18 years of age should be automatically issued a “universal <keyword id="2006829" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Electronic-bank-account">electronic bank account</keyword> at the time of receiving his/her <keyword id="485058" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Aadhaar-number">Aadhaar number</keyword>.” One can choose his/her <keyword id="2006832" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Preferred-bank">preferred bank</keyword> from the empanelled ones and need not pay any fee for opening an account. However, the bank can levy <keyword id="162862" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="transaction-charges">transaction charges</keyword>, the committee says. It also recommends setting up of a ‘unified’ redressal agency under the <keyword id="47209" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Finance-Ministry">finance ministry</keyword> to deal with <keyword id="786199" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="customer-complaints">customer complaints</keyword>. 
 About 90% of small businesses have no links to a <keyword id="154831" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="financial-institution">financial institution</keyword> and 60% of Indians do not have bank accounts, the report states. “Aadhaar is the key piece of infrastructure to enable a customer to be identified and authenticated so that repudiation and fraud risks are minimised and therefore, should become the universal basis for authentication,” it adds. 
 The panel has also suggested that a special type of <keyword id="6368751" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Banks">banks</keyword> should be introduced to provide payment services and deposit products to small businesses and low-income households. Such banks could be categorised as <keyword id="2006841" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Payments-banks">payments banks</keyword> and “they will be restricted to holding a <keyword id="2006842" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Maximum-balance">maximum balance</keyword> of Rs 50,000 per customer,” the report says. Even <keyword id="2006844" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Existing-lenders">existing lenders</keyword> can set up these payments banks as <keyword id="4128451" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="subsidiaries">subsidiaries</keyword>. The report also recommends setting up another category of wholesale banks that will provide funds to other banks and financial institutions that directly lend to low-income households. 
 On the face of it, the recommendations to introduce a multi-layered <keyword id="6354778" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Banking">banking</keyword> system make sound sense as these ‘proposed’ entities will be serving the <keyword id="2006855" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Financially-weak">financially weak</keyword> segment of the country and overall, the inclusion plan for 2013-2016 looks good. 
 
Except for the Aadhaar part. 
 But before we go ahead, let us have a look at Aadhaar and what all it offers. Launched by the <keyword id="86474" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Unique-Identification-Authority-of-India">Unique Identification Authority of India</keyword> (<keyword id="6355252" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="UIDAI">UIDAI</keyword>), the <keyword id="804646" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Aadhaar-scheme">Aadhaar scheme</keyword> was initially introduced to ‘promote inclusion and benefits of the <keyword id="1389586" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="marginalised-sections">marginalised sections</keyword> of the society that has no <keyword id="2006861" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Formal-identity-proof">formal identity proof</keyword>.’ Even today, Aadhaar-enabled services are essentially linked to various <keyword id="580043" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="government-welfare-schemes">government welfare schemes</keyword> – so that its beneficiaries can access the same in a hassle-free manner. 
 However, the ‘<keyword id="2006816" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Banking-for-all">banking for all</keyword>’ initiative in its ‘suggested’ format cannot be a marginalised movement, aimed to serve only the under-banked/unbanked regions or the weaker section or those below the <keyword id="141042" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="poverty-line">poverty line</keyword>. It has to have a <keyword id="2006866" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Unified-structure">unified structure</keyword> across the country – involving every Indian citizen. In other words, it will be much like the ‘<keyword id="49358" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="voter-card">voter card</keyword>’ mechanism we have in place right now. At the age of 18, an Indian is entitled to get a voter card irrespective of the <keyword id="2006868" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Financial-divides">financial divides</keyword>. Going forward, if the central bank intends to follow the same principle and wants to bring the entire population of the country under its <keyword id="2006870" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Inclusion-umbrella">inclusion umbrella</keyword> (after all, one cannot leave one section of the citizens out of a <keyword id="2006871" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mass-initiative">mass initiative</keyword> just because they are financially more stable), opening an account at the stipulated age should become mandatory and that means a mandatory <keyword id="1953676" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Aadhaar-validation">Aadhaar validation</keyword>. 
 And that brings us back to the basic question – what is the legal status of Aadhaar in India? Is it just a <keyword id="107911" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Financial-inclusion">financial inclusion</keyword> tool for the economically weak or do the government agencies intend to turn it into an ‘all-inclusive’ tool required for every social and <keyword id="672932" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="economic-activity">economic activity</keyword> – right from <keyword id="427269" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Marriage-registration">marriage registration</keyword> to <keyword id="854003" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="land-registration">land registration</keyword>, from banking to <keyword id="6368952" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="shopping">shopping</keyword> and more? 
 The RBI has already asked banks to ensure <keyword id="1953683" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Aadhaar-authentication">Aadhaar authentication</keyword> for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Now-RBI-Wants-Aadhaar-Validation-For-Card-based-Transactions/articleshow/26473660.cms">card transactions</a> at merchant locations. “All new card present infrastructure has to be enabled for both <keyword id="1953693" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="EMV-chip-and-PIN">EMV chip and PIN</keyword> and Aadhaar (<keyword id="1953679" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Biometric-validation">biometric validation</keyword>) acceptance,” the central bank stated in a notification on November 26 last year. 
 Although the <keyword id="6354977" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Supreme-Court">Supreme Court</keyword> has ruled that the <keyword id="6356006" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Aadhaar-card">Aadhaar Card</keyword> is not mandatory to get <keyword id="1739662" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="government-benefits">government benefits</keyword> and services, and the <keyword id="1878758" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="National-Identity-Authority-of-India-Bill">National Identity Authority of India Bill</keyword> is yet to get Parliamentary nod, Aadhaar seems to be enjoying a more hallowed status and getting its teeth deep into every key financial transaction one can think of. That might not be quite desirable at this stage as divulging <keyword id="441301" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="biometric-data">biometric data</keyword> (required for Aadhaar Card) is still considered voluntary and <keyword id="2006881" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Secure-storage">secure storage</keyword> of the same cannot be guaranteed even now. 
 The rest of the recommendations by the committee dwell on the structure and requirements of the <keyword id="2006882" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Proposed-banks">proposed banks</keyword>, <keyword id="6597293" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="priority-sector-lending">priority sector lending</keyword> and deposits, and classification of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs). 
 Interestingly, the payment banks will be required to meet the standard <keyword id="35038" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="crr">CRR</keyword> terms and must also deposit the balance proceeds in approved <keyword id="838337" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="SLR-securities">SLR securities</keyword> with duration of no more than three months. As they won’t be permitted to assume any kind of <keyword id="854662" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Credit-risk">credit risk</keyword>, which literally rules out any risk of default, the <keyword id="2006891" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Minimum-entry-capital">minimum entry capital</keyword> for them will be Rs 50 crore instead of the Rs 500 crore required for full-service commercial banks in the country. Also, the wholesale banks cannot accept deposits bigger than Rs 5 crore from a single depositor. 
 The RBI had launched a three-year financial <keyword id="2006853" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Inclusion-programme">inclusion programme</keyword> in April 2010, which prompted banks to open outlets in 200,000 villages. The current recommendations seek to deepen such access and experts even feel that the new banking licences, to be announced soon, can be categorised accordingly. But both the government and the RBI should ensure that the programme becomes ‘inclusive’ in the true sense of the term and validation issues should not throw a spanner in the works.

Aadhaar Gaining More
Teeth, To Play Key Role In ‘Banking For All’

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A CrowdStrike software issue caused a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mass-it-outage-companies-operations-airlines-affected-microsoft-crowdstrike-2024-7">global Microsoft IT outage,</a> disrupting a number of industries.</li><li>Experts warn the incident highlights the fragility of tech systems and AI's potential risks.</li></ul>The massive IT outage that rocked companies around the world highlights just how deeply intertwined society and the systems powering it are with Big Tech — and how a single misstep can trigger widespread chaos.It also exposes the fragility of those systems and raises the question: Does Big Tech deserve our trust to properly safeguard a technology as powerful as AI?The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/major-disruptions-airline-bank-london-stock-exchange-microsoft-outage-2024-7">software issue occurred an update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike</a> on Friday, and it resulted in a Microsoft IT outage that disrupted airlines, banks, retailers, emergency services, and healthcare providers around the world. A software fix has been deployed, according to CrowdStrike, but many systems were still offline on Friday as companies grappled with bringing their services back online, some of which required manual updates.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gary-marcus-openai-skeptic-wants-sam-altman-chatgpt-force-good-2024-6">Gary Marcus</a>, an AI researcher and founder of Geometric Intelligence, a machine learning AI startup acquired by Uber in 2016, told Business Insider that the Microsoft-CrowdStrike outage should be a "wake-up call" to consumers — and that the impact of a similar issue with AI would be tenfold."If a single bug can take down airlines, banks, retailers, media outlets, and more, what on earth makes you think we are ready for AGI?" Marcus <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/GaryMarcus/status/1814297728039743875">wrote</a> in a post on X.AGI, also known as artificial general intelligence, is a term for a version of AI that can achieve human capabilities like reasoning and judgment. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-cofounder-agi-coming-fast-needs-limits-john-schulman-2024-5">OpenAI cofounder John Schulman</a> previously predicted it was just a few years away.Marcus, who has been critical of OpenAI in the past, told BI that could prove to be problematic with the current systems in place, and consumers are handing over enormous amounts of power to Big Tech companies and AI.Dan O'Dowd, founder of safety advocacy group, The Dawn Project, has campaigned against Tesla's self-driving systems. He told BI that the situation with CrowdStrike and Microsoft is a reminder that critical infrastructures are not secure enough or reliable. He said Big Tech companies evaluate systems based on if they work "pretty well most of the time," because there's a rush to get products to market.Some of that has already been made apparent when it comes to AI.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-dump-announcements-feels-never-ending-gartner-analyst-2024-5">Companies across the board have released a deluge of AI products</a> and offerings in the last six months, some of which have begun to transform how people work. But the AI models, which are prone to hallucination, have also spit out some well-publicized errors along the way, like Google's AI Overviews, which <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-search-ai-overviews-glue-keep-cheese-pizza-2024-5">told users to eat pizza with glue,</a> or Gemini's inaccurate portrayals of historical people.Companies have also taken turns announcing <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/big-tech-keeps-messing-up-ai-releases-microsoft-google-adobe-2024-6">flashy new products and then delaying or rolling them back</a> because they weren't ready — or when public launches reveal issues. OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Adobe have all rolled back or delayed AI offerings this year as the AI race heats up.While some of these mistakes or product delays may not seem like a big deal, the potential risks could be more severe as technology advances.The US Department of State commissioned a risk assessment report on AI, which was published earlier this year. The report indicated <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-report-risks-human-extinction-state-department-expert-reaction-2024-3">AI poses a high risk of weaponization,</a> which could take the form of biowarfare, mass cyber-attacks, disinformation campaigns, or autonomous robots. The results could lead to "catastrophic risks" including human extinction, the report said.Javad Abed, assistant professor of information systems at Johns Hopkins' Carey Business School, told Business Insider that incidents like the Microsoft-CrowdStrike outage continue to occur because companies still view cybersecurity as a "cost rather than a necessary investment." He said big tech companies should have alternative vendors and a multi-layered defense strategy."Investing an additional million dollars in such a critical aspect of cybersecurity is far more prudent than facing the potential loss of millions later," Abed said. "Along with continuous damage to reputation and customer trust."Public trust in institutions has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-americans-confidence-in-technology-firms-has-dropped-evidence-from-the-second-wave-of-the-american-institutional-confidence-poll/">steadily declined</a> for the past five years, according to a 2023 study by the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization. This erosion of confidence is particularly pronounced in the technology sector. Big Tech companies, including Facebook, Amazon, and Google, saw the sharpest drop in trust, with an average decline in confidence ratings of 13% to 18%, according to Brookings.That trust is likely to continue to be tested as both consumers and the workers at the companies impacted by the IT outage face the reality of how a software update gone wrong can cause things to come to a screeching halt.Sanjay Patnaik, a director at the Brookings Institution, told BI the government has dropped the ball and failed to properly regulate social media and AI. Without adequate defenses in place, the technology could become a national security threat, he said.Big Tech companies have had "free rein," Patnaik said. "And today is a day companies are starting to realize that."Marcus agreed that companies can't be trusted on their own to build reliable infrastructure and the outage should be a reminder that "we're playing double or nothing when we allow AI systems to be unregulated."

The Microsoft-CrowdStrike outage could spur a Big Tech trust reckoning and threaten tech giants' plans for AI

<ul><li>Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban Mission to make Indian cities ‘garbage free’ last year.</li><li>About 2.24 billion tonnes of waste was generated in 2020, and if all this waste is put on trucks they would go around the world a little over 24 times.</li><li>India was ranked at the bottom position of the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2022, with 151st position in <keyword id="6359012" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="waste-management" source="Orion">waste management</keyword>.</li></ul>It was less than a year ago that Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban Mission to make all cities of India ‘garbage free’. Indian micro, small and medium enterprises (<keyword id="6358354" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="msme" source="Orion">MSME</keyword>) are struggling everyday in order to make that dream of Swachh Bharat into a reality. India faces major environmental challenges associated with waste generation and inadequate waste collection, transport, treatment and disposal. The current systems in India are not able to cope with the volumes of waste generated — about <a href="https://waste-management-world.com/recycling/recycling-in-india-a-market-in-transition/">960 million tonnes</a> of it — by an increasing urban population, and this impacts on the environment and public health. “As per Material Recycling Association (MRAI) India’s recycling rate stands at 30%. The data associated with this recycling rate is largely dominated by highly recyclable materials such as ferrous and non-ferrous scrap, paper, rubber, and tyre etc,” Anurag Asati, co-founder of a waste management company The Kabadiwala, told Business Insider. He noted that the recycling of materials such as plastics is “not very well documented” as a lot of recyclables in the daily garbage and litter does not get collected/recycled because of its low value. Some of it is also informally recycled by waste pickers and kabadiwala associations. The Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban Mission plan relies on a multi pronged strategy — segregate solid waste on source; follow the 3Rs of Reducing, Reusing and Recycling; scientifically process all types of municipal solid waste; and remediate legacy dumpsites for effective solid waste management. This may help, but the growing consumerism is just adding more challenges to the bucket. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Consumerism, fast fashion are making waste management expensive" comment="subhead" text="Consumerism, fast fashion are making waste management expensive">Consumerism, fast fashion are making waste management expensive</cmsannotation> About <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopment/brief/solid-waste-management">2.24 billion tonnes</a> of waste was generated in 2020 as per The World Bank’s data, and if all this waste is put on trucks they would go around the world a little over <a href="https://www.globalrecyclingday.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Amazing-things-made-out-of-recycled-goods-2020.pdf">24 times</a>. “With rapid population growth and urbanization, annual waste generation is expected to increase by 73% from 2020 levels to 3.88 billion tonnes in 2050,” the global organisation added. Increasing consumerism and fast fashion trends have pushed consumers to purchase more, leading to an increased contribution to solid waste. “99% of what we buy is discarded <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/10/1021972">within six months</a>, which is one of the key reasons for these alarming numbers,” Monisha Narke, founder of RUR Greenlife said, citing data from the United Nations. That type of waste is difficult to recycle too as they are difficult to collect, Asati of The Kabadiwala said. “Disposal of material like multi-layer packaging, single-use plastic, styrofoam, old clothes is difficult because the collection and processing of this kind of waste requires a lot of effort and resources which makes it expensive,” he noted. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Lack of awareness, budget and consistent policy is an issue too" comment="subhead" text="Lack of awareness, budget and consistent policy is an issue too">Lack of awareness, budget and consistent policy is an issue too</cmsannotation> Lack of awareness, budget, financial viability and infrastructure are some other challenges that India’s waste management system is facing. According to the World Bank, effective waste management is expensive, often comprising 20%–50% of municipal budgets. The lack of land in metropolitan areas like Mumbai and other Tier I cities is making recycling even more difficult and expensive, Narke noted. India was ranked at the bottom position of the <a href="https://epi.yale.edu/epi-results/2022/country/ind">Environmental Performance Index </a>(EPI) 2022, with 151st position in waste management, 165th position in climate policy. The country also scored low on rule of law, control of corruption and government effectiveness. Apart from the basic awareness, India also needs clearer policies around solid waste management systems in India. “MSME policy and schemes in the waste management sector should be clearer and conducive as it will help form proper structure and processes. Frequent changes in the policies makes it difficult to modify the service/product in the given time frame,” Asati added. He emphasized that the government helps promote MSME and green entrepreneurship culture, but there needs to be more focus on tax rebates, subsidies in land and electricity. “The government can also provide community spaces for storing and material recovery facilities for waste management,” Narke added. SEE ALSO <a class="tout-title-link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/adani-enterprises-maruti-suzuki-infosys-among-stocks-to-watch-out-for-on-june-27/slidelist/92481042.cms">Adani Enterprises, Maruti Suzuki, Infosys among stocks to watch out for on June 27</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/oil-prices-could-slump-to-75-a-barrel-in-a-recession-or-jump-to-150-if-european-sanctions-slam-russian-supplies-bofa-says/articleshow/92474354.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Oil prices could slump to $75 a barrel in a recession — or jump to $150 if European sanctions slam Russian supplies, BofA says</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/tesla-is-laying-off-workers-who-only-just-started-and-withdrawing-employment-offers-as-elon-musks-job-cuts-begin/articleshow/92470514.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Tesla is laying off workers who only just started and withdrawing employment offers as Elon Musk's job cuts begin</a>

MSMEs can aid waste management in India but need more hand holding

Weight loss drugs' messy rise: How Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro really affect patients &mdash; and what comes next 

"What do you mean '<keyword id="168301" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="convergence">convergence</keyword>'? Many believe we're in the 'Era of Individuality'!" This was my thought at first when I dived into the future of technology and came across this concept, and for good reason. In today's digital age, all you need is an internet connection and an idea to take on the largest, most established company out there; in any field of business. The only challenge? It needs to be a radical, path-breaking idea. 
 However, the challenge faced by any radical idea tends to be the same: acceptability – or in other words – achieving a critical mass of users. This is especially true of <keyword id="2461546" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="FinTech">Fintech</keyword> - which deals with money; when it comes to their hard-earned money, people are always apprehensive. They prefer the more trusted alternative over the more innovative or convenient one. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/In-a-first-Ola-launches-credit-for-ride-share/articleshow/55461416.cms">FinTech is an amalgamation of the two polar opposites of industry specialists – Finance and Technology. </a>It's rare to find a single person with the right mix of knowledge involving coding, <keyword id="25455" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="finance">finance</keyword>, law, and marketing to pull off a FinTech start-up on their own. Even larger companies venturing into this space face difficulties. Banks which are trying to take on mobile wallet companies by launching their own wallets are having difficulty in adopting technology to create a product intuitive enough for their consumers. 
It's rare to ﬁnd a single person with the right mix of knowledge involving coding, ﬁnance, law and marketing to pull oﬀ a FinTech start-up on their own. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Flipkart-Snapdeal-and-Shopclues-agree-Demonetization-has-been-a-boon-in-disguise/articleshow/55477332.cms">ALSO READ: Flipkart,</a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Flipkart-Snapdeal-and-Shopclues-agree-Demonetization-has-been-a-boon-in-disguise/articleshow/55477332.cms">Snapdeal</a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Flipkart-Snapdeal-and-Shopclues-agree-Demonetization-has-been-a-boon-in-disguise/articleshow/55477332.cms">, and Shopclues agree: Demonetization has been a boon in disguise</a> 
 The answer to this predicament is – convergence. Entities, both individuals, and organizations, from different industries, are coming together to re-define FinTech. Where banks failed, network carriers succeeded. <keyword id="15492" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vodafone">Vodafone</keyword> collaborated with Safaricom to launch a product called M-Pesa in <keyword id="6360004" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kenya">Kenya</keyword> and <keyword id="89578" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tanzania">Tanzania</keyword>. These countries had massive sections of their population which were unbanked. M-Pesa brought branch-less banking by allowing transfer and payments through pin-verified SMS systems. Now Kenya has more than 15m subscribers who transact as much as 60% of the country’s GDP over the mobile platform. 
 
India also has large sections of the unbanked population. Half a decade ago, precisely, only 35% of the Indian populace, had bank accounts. One of the key moves by the Indian government to change this was to tie in LPG subsidy with bank accounts. By mandating that every individual had to create a bank account to avail this subsidy, the Government effectively boosted the banking population in a matter of 6 months. Today the bankable population in India stands at over 53% - and has a tremendous scope of betterment. 
Half a decade ago, precisely, only 35% of the Indian populace, had bank accounts. 
 
Financial inclusion does not end at opening bank accounts, it's just the starting point of a multi-layered process. The process of financial inclusion encompasses the technology, tools, products and the understanding to use them. When these come together to create value for an individual to navigate the complexities of life, we can celebrate the success of our efforts. How do we achieve that success? 
 At <keyword id="1461157" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="MetLife-Foundation">MetLife Foundation</keyword>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/EXCLUSIVE-Olas-COO-talks-about-all-the-aces-to-take-on-competition-from-Uber-in-2017/articleshow/55477059.cms">we've invested time, resources and efforts to create a platform to aggressively drive </a>financial Inclusion worldwide. We call this Inclusion Plus. We're inviting your solutions, and business models to come re-shape the world and help unleash the potential of India as a financially inclusive nation. This is our platform to give you the convergence needed to achieve this goal. 
We've set out to change and empower a nation and we know this is no mean feat. We also know it's impossible to go at it ourselves. 
 
 
This article was originally authored by <keyword id="3857253" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="krishna-thacker">Krishna Thacker</keyword>, Director, MetLife Foundation

The Impact
of Convergence on FinTech

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-government-laptop-ban-middle-east-airline-airport-tsa-dhs-2017-3" target="_blank">Department of Homeland Security's ban on large electronics </a>is now officially in effect.The ban, which was announced on Tuesday, forbids passengers from bringing any electronic devices larger than a cell phone into the cabin of certain flights to the US.Airlines were scrambling for answers to the operational nightmare created by the ban, after getting just 96 hours to comply or&#xa0;risk losing their license to fly into the US. There are still a lot of unanswered questions about the ban's motives, its effectiveness at deterring a terrorist attack, the huge loopholes left open by the Trump administration, and how airlines are expected to comply with the ban and a Federal Aviation Administration prohibition against checking lithium-ion battery devices.Here's what we know so far.<h2>What's the ban?</h2>The ban requires passengers to place all electronic items larger than a cell phone in their checked luggage so the devices cannot be accessed in flight. This includes laptops, tablets, e-readers, portable DVD players, gaming devices larger than a smartphone, and travel-size printers and scanners. However, necessary medical devices are exempt.The new policy covers only non-stop flights to the US coming from one of 10 airports in the Middle East and North Africa - including a few of the busiest transit hubs in the world: Istanbul, Turkey and Dubai in the UAE.Flights from the US to these destinations will not be affected.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>As a result, a total of nine airlines, including industry heavyweights such as Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, and Turkish Airlines, will have to deal with the consequences of the ban.But not all flights from these airlines into the US will be affected by the ban. For instance, Emirates offers flights to New York's JFK International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey that stop in Milan, Italy and Athens, Greece . On Thursday, Emirates confirmed that passengers on these flights will be permitted to have their laptops and other electronic devices with them in the cabin.In addition, no flights operated by US or European airlines will be affected directly by the ban because none offer non-stop service to the US from that region of the world. However, several US carriers including American, United, JetBlue, and Alaska could see their business take a hit. This is because airlines such as Qatar, Turkish, and Emirates feed passengers directly into their respective domestic networks.<h2>How will the ban work?</h2>The ban calls for all large electronic devices to be packed with checked luggage at each passenger's point of origin. This means that those transiting through the affected airports will be without their devices from the onset of their trip. For instance, if you are traveling from Mumbai, India to Atlanta, GA via Doha, Qatar, your laptop will have to be checked in Mumbai even though it's not one of the airports on the banned list.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>However, those flying with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/emirates-us-electronics-ban-laptop-safety-2017-3" target="_blank">Emirates through Dubai will have the benefit of a work-around</a> that will allow passengers to have access to their laptops until it's time to board their flights. For passengers, Emirates' complimentary laptop handling service will allow them to have access to their devices during the first leg of their journey along with their layover in Dubai.Passengers who use the service will be required to declare their large electronic devices to security agents before boarding US-bound flights. The devices would then be packed in secure boxes and stored in the aircraft's cargo hold. The boxes would be returned to the travelers once they reached the US.Other airlines such as Qatar Airways have indicated they will implement extra security measures to ensure the security of the devices. Although none have yet to clarify what those measure are.According to US officials, there's no set date for the end of the ban and its need will be periodically reviewed.<h2>Why the ban?</h2>According to senior administration officials, the decision to implement these security measures is a result of intelligence showing a risk for terrorist activity involving commercial aviation."Evaluated intelligence indicates that terrorist groups continue to target commercial aviation and are aggressively pursuing innovative methods to undertake their attacks, to include smuggling explosive devices in various consumer items," an official said on Monday.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Whatever this intelligence consists of, it was substantial enough for the national-security apparatus to act. But confusing matters was that the&#xa0;UK issued a similar ban Tuesday but excluded four airports - Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Doha, Qatar, and Casablanca, Morocco - featured in the US ban.In addition, several aviation industry analysts who have spoken with Business Insider question whether a ban of this type would even be effective in countering a terrorist attack. Doha, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi are major international transit hubs with extensive multilayered security procedures. US-bound flights are also screened in dedicated facilities using well-trained security professionals who often have experience in law enforcement or the military.In fact, Abu Dhabi International Airport is equipped with a US Customs and Border Protection pre-clearance facility where passengers and bags headed for the US are screened by US customs officials.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Also, areas of world known to be hotbeds for terrorist activity have been left off the list banned countries. For example, Pakistan International Airlines' flight from Lahore to JFK International by way of Manchester, England is not covered by the ban. Which means, it's possible for terrorists to simply bypass the banned airports and reach the US through any number of European transit hubs. &#xa0;<h2>The lithium battery&#xa0;problem</h2>The electronics ban will have a few unintended side effects. One of the most serious is the&#xa0;large number of lithium-ion batteries in the cargo hold of an airliner.According to the Federal Aviation Administration, it's behavior with potentially catastrophic consequences."FAA battery fire testing has highlighted the potential risk of a catastrophic aircraft loss due to damage resulting from a lithium battery fire or explosion," the agency wrote in an alert in February. "Current cargo fire suppression systems cannot effectively control a lithium battery fire."Administration officials told journalists on Monday that they were working with the FAA to maintain a safe flying environment, but they did not state specifics. Business Insider asked DHS for specifics on Tuesday but has not yet heard back from officials.This is particularly concerning for Michael Mo, the cofounder and CEO of KULR Technologies, a company that specializes in thermal-management systems for batteries.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>"Lithium-ion batteries are inherently volatile. It's statistics. It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when one of these things blow," Mo told Business Insider in an interview. "So when that happens, it's better to have humans nearby to react and put out the fire."According to Mo, the only saving grace here is that spare batteries and power banks are still prohibited. Which means only batteries fitted inside devices will be stored with cargo. Even though it's not perfectly safe, these batteries tend to be more stable and less likely to combust.With the laptop ban still in its infancy, more details will likely emerge in the near future. Stay tuned.If you're currently a business traveler affected by the US laptop ban, you can share your story with transportation@businessinsider.com.<div></div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tax-state-local-income-federal-sales-property-return-refund-credit-2017-3">These are the states you should live in to pay the least taxes</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="FrdGtiYTE6B0BUnwtYMggVyClJkrK5hW" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

The US government's laptop ban is now in effect - here's what we know so far

The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/A-psychologist-explains-how-to-organize-your-computer-desktop-for-optimal-productivity/articleshow/49824356.cms">digital age</a> revolves around interacting and sharing information online through photo-sharing, status updates, user reviews among others. Despite such aggressive content sharing, everyone has concerns about privacy and security – so do businesses. Previously, to avert predictable threats, one only had to strengthen their boundaries – an approach that has demonstrated success in the past. Today, however, trends such as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/8-best-Indian-web-only-series-of-2015/articleshow/50268799.cms">social media</a>, mobility and the Internet of Things (IoT) are blurring organizational boundaries, turning enterprise security into a high-wire act without a safety net. 
 Enterprises that believe a one-size-fits-all security solution will protect their business, brand or reputation are setting themselves up for unpleasant surprises. A Kaspersky study found that 94% of companies surveyed had experienced cyber attacks from outside their perimeter in 2014. The cost of such an attack is nothing to sneeze at either – with damages from a single attack estimated to be as much as US $2.54 million (1). However, external threats are not the only cause of concern. Several cyber attacks aimed at infiltrating enterprise systems have used cleverly disguised malware on systems of trusted vendors/third parties. For instance, the Target security breach in 2014 was executed using malware that was installed in the systems of a trusted vendor. The hackers were able to access Target’s point-of-sale systems using the credentials of the vendor, resulting in the theft of credit card details of nearly 40 million customers (2). Thus, as the sophistication of <keyword id="569084" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Cyber-threats">cyber threats</keyword> increases, no domain – internal or external – is safe. Clearly, we need to take a fresh look at how we go about ensuring cyber security. 
 
Digital Security – A new approach 
 
There are several available and upcoming next-gen technology tools such as predictive threat analytics, machine learning, and real-time analytics of network and device behavior that can change how security solutions work (3). However, businesses struggle to orchestrate these tools into a cohesive solution. Hence, successfully securing any business requires a completely different and strategic approach – one that can protect internal assets and monitor external threat through innovation, automation and customization. 
 
Humanics – Re-imagining security 
 Ideation and innovation are what set companies such as <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword>, Apple, <keyword id="6354576" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Facebook">Facebook</keyword>, <keyword id="6354616" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Twitter">Twitter</keyword> and <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> (GAFTA) apart. This new breed of digital age companies constantly seeks new ideas that deliver new experiences and possibilities for their customers. Let us see how this process, called ‘humanics’, can be used to design successful security solutions. 
 
Showcase opportunities 
 
Organizations need specialized talent to deal with the rising sophistication of cyber threats. Unfortunately, the demand for cyber security professionals is often met with an acute supply shortage. While the number of information security professionals is over 1.6 million in 2015, this number is set to increase to over two million by 2017 (4). Enterprises should leverage this and generate interest in cyber security by advertising opportunities and allocating more budgets for security departments. 
 
Collaborate effectively 
 
Fighting cyber threats requires joining forces with allies to mount a stronger defense. In the battle against cyber crime, an enterprise’s allies are government-sponsored security threat and information sharing programs, industry associations for security intelligence services sharing, forensics services, reputation services, etc. Public-private partnerships help to collate resources, strategies, knowledge, and best-practices on mitigating security risk. A good example of this is the diplomatic and technological collaboration between the US government and the financial industry in handling the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on American banks in 2012 (5). 
 
Strategize from the top 
 
Organizations need to create a robust strategy for handling enterprise security. For instance, corporate policies should include an organization’s processes, systems, frameworks, interventions, and goals for ensuring security. Additionally, enterprises should prioritize initiatives that generate awareness amongst employees, i.e., how to safeguard enterprise data, recognize fraudulent emails, identify hacking attempts, and employ sound judgment when dealing with third parties. For example, one of the factors that contributed to the nightmarish attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment – a ‘hacktivist’ response to the release of the satirical film ‘The Interview’ – was email messages containing malicious content sent to company executives. These were either ignored or misidentified as spam. The ensuing hack led to disclosure of confidential employee information, hacked Twitter accounts, and theft of over 100 terabytes of data (6). 
 
Trust but verify 
 
A winning tactic in the battlefront against cyber crime is generating user awareness. Studies show that driving awareness by investing in user training programs can effectively reduce cyber infections from user behavior by 45-70% (7). However, this still requires investment in user behavior analysis and anomaly detection to help organizations better understand patterns of behavior and weed out malicious or duped human actors that cause cyber incidents. 
 
Mechanics – Redefining security 
 
If the first step in enterprise security innovation is ideating, the next is deploying agile, flexible and automated software to make it a reality, that is, ‘mechanics’. As cyber threats become more diverse, enterprises need a multi-layered approach that can protect their networks, perimeters, endpoints, and data (3). Enterprises need to focus on multiple security layers comprising of: 
 
Basic best-practices – These have been around for a while but are not necessarily well practiced. These include: 
 
1) Vulnerability management – Create a structured and virtuous cycle of assessment through scanning and testing that is supported by fast and responsive remediation, thereby ensuring that quick action is taken for all identified threats. 
 
2) Security operations and support – Operate all the protective controls in the enterprise across the perimeter and end-points effectively. 
 
3) Security monitoring and incident management – Vigilant security monitoring supports risk management efforts by monitoring applications, devices, networks and systems in real-time. Further, by collecting and analyzing historical data and security incidents, one can determine newer threat patterns. 
 
Advanced layers – These are needed to identify unknown attack patterns, such as: 
 
Cyber threat intelligence – Get actionable insights by evaluating the threat landscape. This can help your organization assess the probability of risk and mount a strong defense. 
 
Access governance – A strong access governance framework can track and mitigate internal risk from inappropriate privileges and unintentional access to sensitive data. 
 
Security analytics and patterns – This function blended with threat intelligence helps extract and manage Security Big Data while providing threat intelligence capabilities. Further, this leverages advanced technologies that aggregate data from management systems, security feeds, etc., and display information in a single dashboard. 
 
Conclusion 
 
In today’s digital world, complete security for data and information remains elusive. Enterprises continue to struggle to find holistic ways of protecting their data while monitoring potential threats. The answer lies in merging ideation with software and practices, i.e., ‘Humanics’ with Mechanics, to find the best-fit solution for effective enterprise security. 
 
References 
 
1. Kaspersky IT security Risk Survey 2014 
<a href="http://media.kaspersky.com/en/it_security_risks_survey_2014_global_report.pdf">http://media.kaspersky.com/en/it_security_risks_survey_2014_global_report.pdf</a> 
 
2. Case Study: Critical Controls that Could have Prevented Target Breach, August 2014 
<a href="https://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/casestudies/case-study-critical-controls-prevented-target-breach-35412">https://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/casestudies/case-study-critical-controls-prevented-target-breach-35412</a> 
 
3. The Need for Efficient Cybersecurity Innovations is Evident in Every Sector, says Frost &amp; Sullivan, March 2015 
<a href="http://ww2.frost.com/news/press-releases/need-efficient-cybersecurity-innovations-evident-every-sector-says-frost-sullivan/">http://ww2.frost.com/news/press-releases/need-efficient-cybersecurity-innovations-evident-every-sector-says-frost-sullivan/</a> 
 
4. Why Cybersecurity Companies are ‘Renting’ Cyber Talent to Keep up with Demand, Sept 2015 
<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevemorgan/2015/09/28/hot-cyber-rental-market/">http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevemorgan/2015/09/28/hot-cyber-rental-market/</a> 
 
5. Cybersecurity partnerships, NYU school of law, October 2014 
<a href="http://www.lawandsecurity.org/Portals/0/Documents/Cybersecurity.Partnerships.pdf">http://www.lawandsecurity.org/Portals/0/Documents/Cybersecurity.Partnerships.pdf</a> 
 
6. Sony got hacked hard: what we know and don’t know so far, March 2014 
<a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/12/sony-hack-what-we-know/">http://www.wired.com/2014/12/sony-hack-what-we-know/</a> 
 
7. The Last Mile in IT Security: Changing User Behaviours, Nov 2014 
<a href="http://v1.aberdeen.com/launch/report/research_report/9910-RR-Changing-User-Behaviors.asp">http://v1.aberdeen.com/launch/report/research_report/9910-RR-Changing-User-Behaviors.asp</a>

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