Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<ul><li><keyword id="8939913" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="jio-haptik" source="Orion">Jio Haptik</keyword> and <keyword id="3498585" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="cashe" source="Orion">CASHe</keyword> partner to enable automated instant credit lines on <keyword id="790242" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="whatsapp" source="Orion">WhatsApp</keyword>. </li><li>This will aid business owners and solopreneurs to access instant credit via WhatsApp. </li><li>Jio <keyword id="4380499" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="haptik" source="Orion">Haptik</keyword> and CASHe claim to provide revolving loans on WhatsApp within a minute.</li></ul>Jio Haptik partnered with financial wellness platform CASHe on Tuesday to enable instant credit line disbursals on Whatsapp. Jio Haptik is a WhatsApp chatbot solution provider, which was acquired by <keyword id="6355199" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="reliance-industries" source="Orion">Reliance Industries</keyword> in 2019. The overriding technology powering this solution is Haptik’s advanced conversational commerce capabilities and CASHe’s AI-powered bot. The Whatsapp chatbot matches the user’s inputs and automatically facilitates a formal application, along with a Know-Your-Customer (KYC) check. Once verified, it sets up a credit line in a few clicks through a guided conversational flow. The user’s details are generated and displayed based on the name entered – the only key input that the borrower needs to enter is at the start of the conversation. “Haptik is pleased to be partnering with CASHe, India’s leading financial wellness platform, with the aim of helping borrowers get access to loans and credit seamlessly and in under a minute. Since going live with our WhatsApp bot, CASHe has witnessed over 50,000 credit line issuances, more than ₹25 crore in loan disbursals, and more,” said Swapan Rajdev, co-founder and CTO, Haptik. However, this is not the first time that an Indian company is offering loans via Whatsapp. <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/how-to/need-a-loan-just-say-hi-on-whatsapp-and-get-rs-10-lakh-instantly-heres-how-to-apply/articleshow/86961211.cms?from=mdr">Last year</a> IIFL Finance, a non-banking financial company, offered an instant loan disbursement of ₹10 lakh on WhatsApp, where users could access it by typing ‘Hi’ in a chat box, in five minutes. Jio Haptik and CASHe, however, claim to provide revolving loans on WhatsApp within a minute. Revolving loans provide more flexibility with drawdowns and repayments as opposed to traditional loans. “With this solution on offer, we have successfully pivoted our credit model to adapt to the shifts in the lending space by offering instant sachet loans to existing and prospective borrowers through an engaging and conversational flow. The digital assistant on WhatsApp helps us to reach out to new customers and support the existing ones,” said <keyword id="12757264" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="yashoraj-tyagi" source="Orion">Yashoraj Tyagi</keyword>, CTO of CASHe. <keyword id="15651702" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="jio-on-whatsapp" source="Orion">Jio on Whatsapp</keyword> This August, <keyword id="58448" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="reliance-retail" source="Orion">Reliance Retail</keyword> launched a grocery delivery service called Jio on Whatsapp. In the September ending quarter, Reliance Retail said that <keyword id="8506093" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="jiomart" source="Orion">JioMart</keyword> on WhatsApp brought in 37% orders from ‘new’ customers on JioMart. “The business launched JioMart on WhatsApp native app during the quarter, a novel and disruptive initiative that brings the simplicity of instant chat service to the online shopping experience to millions of consumers. An impressive 37% of orders received from this platform are from new customers who had not shopped on JioMart before,” Reliance said. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/government-listed-private-companies-capex-to-touch-21-lakh-crore-in-fy23-icici-securities/articleshow/95858117.cms">Government, listed private companies’ capex to touch ₹21 lakh crore in FY23: ICICI Securities</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/recent-ipo-successes-could-lead-to-recovery-in-the-primary-market-ey/articleshow/95858664.cms">Recent IPO successes could lead to recovery in the primary market: E&amp;Y</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/sustainability/news/mumbai-delhi-ranked-lowest-among-6o-global-cities-for-public-transit-systems/articleshow/95857282.cms">Mumbai, Delhi ranked lowest among 6o global cities for public transit systems</a>

Jio Haptik and CASHe partner to deliver instant credit lines on Whatsapp

<ul><li><keyword id="163007" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="muthoot-finance" source="Orion">Muthoot Finance</keyword> is one of the largest <keyword id="130134" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="gold-loan" source="Orion">gold loan</keyword> NBFC in India and it has been using its <keyword id="6354839" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="marketing" source="Orion">marketing</keyword> strategies effectively to make the brand a household name.</li><li><keyword id="9213956" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="abhinav-iyer" source="Orion">Abhinav Iyer</keyword>, GM, Marketing &amp; Strategy, Muthoot Finance tells us all the brand has been doing to not only grow its business but also to grow the category as a whole.</li></ul>It is no secret that Indians love gold. In fact, gold accounts for a large part of most Indian family’s wealth. While for years, securing loans against jewellery was looked at as a last resort, the last few years, especially the pandemic, has brought about an attitudinal shift in Indian consumers. Gold loans have been on a consistent rise over the last few years and this growth is coming from both micro enterprises and individuals. The pandemic hit many businesses and while things have been slowly moving towards normalcy, a lot of sectors still remain impacted, and people are still trying to find the balance. In such a scenario, gold loan has come up as both a convenient as well as a quick option to get cash. Over the years, there has been a shift in perception when it comes to taking a loan out on gold jewellery and one brand that has been trying to help the segment grow by trying to fasten this change is Muthoot Finance. Over the last few years, the brand has consistently stayed in the public consciousness with its marketing strategies. <keyword id="6357912" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="amitabh-bachchan" source="Orion">Amitabh Bachchan</keyword> has been a face of the brand for four years now. It has also been the Principal Team Partner for Chennai Super Kings, having turned it into a trusted, household name. <div type="Youtube" id="WZl9-VYIErY" title="Muthoot Finance - Haathi Pe Bharosa Karogey Toh Pakka Jeetogey - 2.5 Lakh Customers" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WZl9-VYIErY/mqdefault.jpg"></div> <div type="Youtube" id="ZpFUp9_P4X8" title="Muthoot Finance- Haathi Pe Bharosa Karogey Toh Pakka Jeetogey!" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZpFUp9_P4X8/mqdefault.jpg"></div> We recently caught up with Abhinav Iyer, GM, Marketing &amp; Strategy, Muthoot Finance to understand how the pandemic impacted the company’s business and the role the brand has been playing in not only educating consumers about the sector but also helping the sector grow. Muthoot Finance’s growth story While the pandemic was not kind to many sectors and businesses, Muthoot Finance was able to sustain its growth, Iyer tells us. The consolidated AUM has grown by nearly 80% in the last three financial years from 2017-18 to 2020-21. Its consolidated net profit has grown by 114% during the same period. In other words, it has more than doubled during the said period. “We have grown considerably when it comes to our book size in the last few years. This year too, we are looking at growing our book size by 15%. We have made similar growth in terms of percentages when it comes to our profitability too. We serve over 2.5 lakh customers every day through our network of over 5000 branches. Contrary to common perception that we are a South-based brand, we are today a national brand, and grown consistently over the last decade,” shared Iyer. The brand has also been on an expansion mode. Over the last 2-3 years, it has added over 200 branches across the country. “If stock prices are a testament, we have made a healthy northward stride. From every stretch of imagination, we have grown, in terms of our physical branch presence, our customer base and our profitability over the last two, three years. And our marketing strategies have contributed considerably to this healthy and sustained growth,” added Iyer. Creating a winning marketing strategy It is often said that during times of crises, marketing budgets are usually the first to get slashed. We saw a lot of brands that stopped communicating with its consumers during the pandemic. However, Muthoot Finance is one brand that does not believe in this. In fact, it believes in staying in the public consciousness, staying constantly engaged. It has a half-yearly marketing strategy where it comes up with a high decibel campaign every six months, a strategy that has worked well for it. The brand recently launched its campaign ‘Hathi pe bharosa karoge toh pakka jeetoge’, featuring Amitabh Bachchan. The brand also recently launched the second season of its radio campaign called Muthoot Finance Sunheri Soch. At a time when more and more brands are steadily increasing their spends on Digital, while decreasing spends on traditional mediums, Muthoot Finance is one brand that has been consistently using mediums like Print, Radio and Outdoor. Speaking about its latest radio campaign, Iyer said, “Storytelling is the oldest form of teaching’ and we also believe that radio has always been seen as a credible and authentic medium of communication, hence we chose it as our primary medium of communication to reach out to our target audience and new customers. We also wanted to have a female voice this season and bring freshness to the table, hence this year we are extremely delighted to partner with <keyword id="6355846" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="madhuri-dixit" source="Orion">Madhuri Dixit</keyword> for Season 2. We have extensively researched and customized our series to be launched via radio alongside strong amplification across all prominent digital channels. We recorded a significant increase in our new customer acquisition and queries post the launch of Season 1. Thus, we did not hold back ourselves in investing again in radio and celebrating the art of <keyword id="282281" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="storytelling" source="Orion">storytelling</keyword>." On why the brand continues to invest on traditional mediums while also investing on newer mediums like Digital, Iyer added, “We are a national brand with around 5440 branches across India. More than 70% of our branches are in semi-urban and rural areas. We have served nearly 70 crore customer (including repeat customers) since our inception. So from all those parameters, we are a large, spread-out, national brand. So its important that some of these mass mediums are always there as part of our media mix. It would never be possible for us to do away with any of the mass mediums because the reach from mass media is critical for us. Meanwhile, digital is also a very important cog in the wheel. In the last three years, our digital and our IT teams have been working tirelessly to ensure the technological upgradation of our products and services. We launched our Gold Loan at home offering during the pandemic. That was a huge value-add from a technology perspective. There was a time you had to visit a branch to repay your loan interest. Today, you can do that using any digital payment platform, our chatbot or our WhatsApp business account. So today, it is not compulsory for people to visit the branch physically for availing loans or paying their interest. We are also investing substantially on digital marketing. Atleast 10% of our marketing budget is invested into digital marketing.” He also added that TV still makes for the largest chunk, between 40-45% of its marketing budgets. On what it got right when it comes to its marketing strategy, Iyer said it was a combination of a few things. “In the last few years, we have been on a marketing transformation journey. Firstly, partnering with Mr Bachchan has helped us cut across geographies, gender and age groups. Secondly, we partnered with Chennai Super Kings in 2018 when they were just coming back after a short break. <keyword id="6354832" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ms-dhoni" source="Orion">MS Dhoni</keyword> is also someone who enjoys almost the same stature that Mr Bachchan does in Bollywood. He’s a trustworthy, dependable and balanced individual. So our partnership with CSK helped us in the Tamil Nadu market where we have about 900-950 branches. We have also been using transit medium very effectively and The Greater Kailash metro station and the Nandanam station in Chennai have our branding and it has completely transformed the stations. We also came up with a unique initiative during the Kumbh mela when we created huge gold lockers to help devotees keep their valuables at a safe place. This campaign helped us win numerous awards. Lastly, over the years, we have created a culture of launching half-yearly campaigns, new communications to bring about an attitudinal change in the minds of people. We try to be present throughout the years on all major ATL and BTL mediums. I believe these strategies have helped us grow as we are also trying to grow the category.” Owing to its presence in smaller towns and cities, the brand also focuses a lot on regional communications. The brand puts out its communications in 11 languages to ensure its reach is far and wide. Future areas of focus In what the scope for the segment is in the future, Iyer said, “Overall there are around 25,000 tonnes of gold (household jewellery) in the country and less than 5% of it is monetized. So there’s a huge potential for growth, both for us and the industry as a whole. So the focus would be on getting new customers to try and opt for gold loans. Its also a very simple product, you only pay interest for the number of days for which you have availed the loan. There is a whole lot of customer benefits which can help people benefit from the product. So our primary objective, even from a marketing perspective would be to grow the category significantly and help the category prosper by itself. We will also constantly keep working on bringing about an attitudinal change in people through our marketing and communications,” concluded Iyer.

Here’s how Muthoot Finance is bringing about a perception change around gold loans with its marketing initiatives

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the new edition of <keyword id="9095853" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="insider-today">Insider Today</keyword>. Please <a href="https://www.insider.com/insider-today">sign up here</a>.<h2>QUOTE OF THE DAY</h2>"It was positive for me." — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazilian-president-jair-bolsonaro-tests-positive-for-covid-19-2020-7">Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro</a> announcing he has tested positive for <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword>, after months of flouting public health recommendations, rejecting masks, and doubting the seriousness of the pandemic.<h2>WHAT'S HAPPENING</h2><ul><li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/us/politics/mary-trump-book.html">Donald Trump paid someone to take the SAT for him.</a> That's one of the allegations in Mary Trump's book about her uncle. She also says Fred Trump emotionally brutalized his children, helping turn Donald into a monster.</li><li><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/07/06/florida-orders-schools-reopen-fall-even-virus-cases-soar/">Florida orders schools to reopen in the fall.</a> Even with virus cases surging, the state education commissioner ordered all public and charter schools to provide in-person classroom instruction.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/recurring-stimulus-checks-top-economists-pandemic-coronavirus-economic-recovery-2020-7">Top economists call for another round of stimulus checks.</a> 156 of them signed a letter saying millions need direct-cash payments to stay afloat. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also supports another pre-election stimulus and so does President Trump. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pompeo-says-us-certainly-considering-banning-tiktok-fox-news-2020-7">Pompeo says US is considering banning TikTok.</a> He warns that the Chinese company could be vacuuming up Americans' private data and giving it to the Chinese government. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/ice-says-international-students-taking-online-courses-have-to-transfer-or-leave-the-us-as-dozens-of-schools-shift-to-remote-learning-in-response-to-covid-19/articleshow/76824683.cms">ICE will ban international students if their colleges switch to online classes.</a> The order causes enormous difficulties for international students, who must now scramble to find other schools that will take them, and universities, which depend heavily on their tuition.</li></ul><h2>VIEWS OF THE DAY<div type="image" title="Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaks as U.S. President Donald Trump and White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump listen during an East Room event highlighting Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans for small businesses adversely affected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 28, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria" height="1443" width="2885" msid="76842765" hostid="261"></div></h2>Enough moralizing about companies that accepted the government's emergency loans.The US government finally released some details about the distribution of its emergency "Paycheck Protection Program" — specifically, which companies it gave money to and how much. This disclosure is good: The <keyword id="6361580" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="ppp">PPP</keyword> is taxpayer money, and taxpayers have a right to know where it went.But the disclosure has also triggered a wave of moralizing about which companies accepted the loans and whether they should have or not. Some companies weren't deserving of the money, the complainers say, either because they're owned by rich people or because they weren't as badly off as other companies. So they shouldn't have accepted it.This moralizing is unfair and silly.The PPP was designed to reduce the number of people laid off as a result of the pandemic and lockdowns. It did that. You can quibble with the design and execution of the program — it might have been better for the government to just pay a portion of employees' salaries for a while, for example, as <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/sunak-unveils-support-for-workers-self-employed">some governments in Europe did</a>. The rollout of the program could have been smoother and fairer, including with more stringent means-testing. Those complaining that companies owned by "billionaires" got funding should consider that the companies might still have chosen to fire people had they not been eligible.But bashing companies for taking money and maintaining their payrolls misses the point of the program.If the government had not doled out about <a href="https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/ppp-loan-statistics-through-june-6-2020-45420/">$500 billion to 4.5 million US businesses</a>, the already horrific layoffs in the US would have been far worse. The program was explicitly designed to give companies the incentive and means not to fire people, and it did that. Stop blaming companies for doing what the government wanted them to do. — HB<div type="image" title="Amy cooper" height="685" width="1369" msid="76842769" hostid="261"></div>Amy Cooper shouldn't go to jail.Amy Cooper has been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/nyregion/amy-cooper-false-report-charge.html?surface=most-popular&amp;fellback=false&amp;req_id=252042238&amp;algo=top_conversion&amp;imp_id=314206685&amp;action=click&amp;module=Most%20Popular&amp;pgtype=Homepage0Popular&amp;pgtype=Homepage">charged with filing a false report</a>, a misdemeanor that could cost her a year in jail. You know that Amy Cooper is the Central Park dogwalker who called the cops on a Black birdwatcher, and the fact that we don't need to explain that is why she shouldn't be criminally charged. What Amy Cooper did was despicable, and could easily have endangered the life and freedom of birdwatcher Christian Cooper. She absolutely should be punished. And she has been punished, as this <a href="https://twitter.com/jduffyrice/status/1280213555745259520">thread from the brilliant Josie Duffy-Rice</a> explains. Amy Cooper lost her job, her anonymity, and her reputation. Unless she invents a COVID vaccine, that 60 seconds in Central Park will be the first line of her obituary. The American carceral system is a catastrophe, and we should aspire to keep people out of it. If wrongdoers can be punished with public shame and economic consequences, that should satisfy us. Sending Amy Cooper to jail is punitive. It won't do society any good. Her public humiliation already taught us the lesson we needed to learn. — DPPresident Trump is losing the culture war. Does the President of the United States disavow the flag honoring a rebellion against the government he runs, a flag now abandoned by even NASCAR and the state of Mississippi? <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kayleigh-mcenany-trump-confederate-flag-nascar-briefing-bubba-wallace-2020-7">His press secretary cannot say.</a> The president, who seems uninterested in doing anything about the pandemic engulfing the nation, has become very interested in racial grievance. From his Mount Rushmore speech to his tweets about Black NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace, the president is trying to agitate his base with racial grievance.He's doing this for two reasons. He's convinced it will help him win re-election, since the strategy worked in 2016. As importantly, he clearly enjoys it. If there's any consistency to Trump over the past five years, it's that he takes such glee in fomenting division, especially racial division. But maybe it won't work this time. The broader American public <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/7/5/21313762/trump-mount-rushmore-speech-independence-day">increasingly values the Black Lives Matter movement</a>. Also important is what <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/opinion/trump-mount-rushmore-culture-war.html">columnist Jamelle Bouie notes</a> today, which is that white Americans are comfortable voting for racial grievance when they feel economically secure, but demand competence and calm during a crisis. (As Bouie recalls, Sarah Palin's thrilling proto-Trumpism failed badly in 2008 in the face of a global economic collapse.) Almost no one wants a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/culture-war-fighting-politics-healthy-dehumanizing-evil-centrism-bipartisan-2020-7">culture war</a> when the economy is collapsing and a pandemic is raging. Most people long for a steady hand and a plan. Donald Trump has neither. — DPPolitically diverse writers and artists co-sign a letter in support of "The free exchange of information and ideas."Harper's magazine today published "<a href="https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/">A Letter on Justice and Open Debate</a>," co-signed by over 140 writers, artists, and luminaries of impressively-diverse <keyword id="6358883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="politics">politics</keyword>.Their message is an affirmation of the "need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences." Essentially, that provocative, even unpopular opinions and arguments shouldn't lead to career cancellations. The co-signers express their support for the "Powerful protests for racial and social justice" that "are leading to overdue demands for police reform, along with wider calls for greater equality and inclusion across our society." But, they caution, "this needed reckoning has also intensified a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity."Citing recent examples: "Editors are fired for running controversial pieces; books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity; journalists are barred from writing on certain topics; professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study; and the heads of organizations are ousted for what are sometimes just clumsy mistakes."The letter calls out Trump and "the radical right" as genuine threats to free speech and democracy, but also warns of a growing culture of "an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty."Among the broadly-defined "left" co-signers are socialist academic and author Noam Chomsky, Vox co-founder Matt Yglesias, The Nation's Jeet Heer, and New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg.Of the center, right, and undefinable include New York Times columnists David Brooks and Bari Weiss, New York magazine political reporter Olivia Nuzzi, and chess champion and Russian dissident Garry Kasparov.Artists such as legendary jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling, "Handmaid's Tale" author Margaret Atwood, and Salman Rushdie — who spent a decade on the run because Iran's theocratic government <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/books/review/joseph-anton-a-memoir-by-salman-rushdie.html">ordered him killed over a novel he wrote</a> — also co-signed. - Anthony FisherIt's Groundhog Day. "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/world/coronavirus-updates.html?action=click&amp;module=Top%20Stories&amp;pgtype=HomepageHomepage">Demand for Testing Soars in U.S., Creating a New Crisis</a>" — July 7. "<a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2020/05/01/coronavirus-testing-delays-in-the-united-states-what-happened">Coronavirus Testing Delays in the United States: What Happened?</a>" — May 1<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/health/coronavirus-testing-us.html">"Despite Promises, Testing Delays Leave Americans 'Flying Blind'"</a> — April 6"<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/10/coronavirus-testing-lab-materials-shortage-125212">U.S. coronavirus testing threatened by shortage of critical lab materials.</a>" — March 10The US tests too few people, delivers test results too slowly, doesn't sample-test throughout the population, and lacks essential testing supplies. That was true in March, and it's true today. Four months, and we've solved nothing. — DP<div type="image" title="Hong Kong" height="1304" width="1739" msid="76842772" hostid="261"></div>And just like that, Hong Kong is slipping behind the digital iron curtain.There were some in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/business/china-hong-kong-security-law-business.html?referringSource=articleShare">business community who did not fear</a> China's new Hong Kong security law. They felt that the law would stop the protests that have ravaged Hong Kong's economy, at least that's what they said in public.Now, though, it seems clear that even Hong Kong's internet is going to look more like the internet on the Chinese mainland. Authorities have informed companies like Google and Facebook that they need to take down posts, or turn in data about customers. <a href="https://t.co/DFZ1bAbX2q">So far Facebook and WhatsApp</a> have paused sending any information to authorities. Google refused to take down posts. According to the law, their employees could be arrested if they don't comply. China's internet is famous for its surveillance and self-censorship, for being a place where netizens are forced to speak in code to criticize the government. Hong Kongers have already started picking up that double speak to protect themselves, and it's unclear how long US internet companies will stick around to be a party to repressive activity they don't support on the mainland. As Hong Kong slips behind the digital iron curtain, they may exit stage left. — Linette Lopez<h2>BUSINESS &amp; ECONOMY</h2>The economic recovery is stalling as the coronavirus resurges.The health crisis and economic crisis are largely one and the same. The "lockdowns" of the spring exacerbated the economic impact of the pandemic, but most of the decline has been the result of people sensibly taking precautions to avoid getting sick. Our economy won't fully recover until we get the coronavirus under control. Not surprisingly, therefore, as the coronavirus resurges, the economic recovery is stalling or rolling over. Two charts from <a href="https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2020/07/six-high-frequency-indicators-for.html">Bill McBride at Calculated Risk</a>:Diners: <div type="image" title="Calculated Risk diners" height="337" width="449" msid="76842775" hostid="261"></div>Commercial <a href="https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2020/07/six-high-frequency-indicators-for.html">air travelers</a>:<div type="image" title="calculated risk commerical air travelers" height="336" width="448" msid="76842776" hostid="261"></div>Calculated Risk has similar charts showing other real-time economic indicators. <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dU6rKWOLLOQ/XwITNmJRZvI/AAAAAAAA1Vo/bvs0VhqgiWkWNv2tTOE1ISxIwN8_FChbACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/MovieJuly52020.PNG">Movie theater attendance</a>, one of the worst, is still flat-lined near zero. <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tjshYKNZuXM/Xv4m-0cNIeI/AAAAAAAA1Us/Qjm1oJq2qro4KRo6x-8MIxM6SVlG8lQjwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/HotelJuly22020.PNG">Hotel occupancy </a>is doing relatively well, at about half of normal. <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PQhuG8rqvIs/XwIUIe3--gI/AAAAAAAA1Vw/0fYBhoT3yDs7-jEfRVCbmV-NqvdFv7FpACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/GasolineJune262020.PNG">Gasoline consumption</a> has recovered to about 90% of normal. Even when we can't really "travel," Americans still love to drive. — HBPalantir has filed paperwork for an IPO. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/palantir-ice-explainer-data-startup-2019-7">Here's how the secretive big-data company cofounded by Peter Thiel makes its money</a>.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/top-25-industries-bailed-out-by-federal-ppp-loans-jobs-2020-7">The top 25 industries bailed out by PPP loans</a>. Insider crunched the numbers on nearly 5 million loans. <h2>LIFE<div type="image" title="Trump Epstein" height="1500" width="2000" msid="76842780" hostid="261"></div></h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/search-jeffrey-epsteins-little-black-book-for-the-first-time-2020-7">Search Jeffrey Epstein's black book.</a> There are 1.510 names in it, and Insider made a searchable list. <h2>THE BIG 3*</h2><div type="image" title="markle harry" height="1332" width="1776" msid="76842783" hostid="261"></div><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-antibodies-study-herd-immunity-unachievable-spain-2020-7">Coronavirus antibodies disappear in some patients</a>. A huge Spanish study found that some people who tested positive for the virus tested negative for antibodies just weeks later, suggesting immunity is incomplete and herd immunity may be impossible. <a href="https://www.insider.com/prince-william-prince-harry-formally-cut-ties-princess-diana-fund-2020-7">Prince William and Prince Harry formally cut ties with Princess Diana's Memorial Fund</a>. Harry will put his half into a charity of his choice, while William's half will go into a royal foundation. <a href="https://www.insider.com/things-in-your-bathroom-to-get-rid-of-according-to-interior-designers">13 things in your bathroom you should get rid of.</a> Insider asked interior designers, who said dump the extra bathmats, soap bars on the sink, small mirrors, among other items. *The most popular stories on Insider today.

Stop trying to shame companies that took PPP loans

Seeking to encash strong housing demand, realty firm <keyword id="45432" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Godrej-Properties" source="Orion">Godrej Properties</keyword> will acquire multiple land parcels this fiscal having sales revenue potential of around Rs 15,000 crore post-development. Last fiscal, Godrej Properties was very aggressive on land acquisition and added 18 new land parcels with sales potential of Rs 32,000 crore post-development. In an interview with PTI, <keyword id="13508599" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="godrej-executive" source="Orion">Godrej Executive</keyword> Chairman <keyword id="6504610" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="pirojsha-godrej" source="Orion">Pirojsha Godrej</keyword> said the company will continue to add new land parcels for future developments, but it will scale down the pace. Asked about the FY24 guidance for new business development, which means outright land purchase and joint development agreements (JDAs) with landowners, he said, for now it has been set at Rs 15,000 crore in this fiscal. However, <keyword id="259304" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="pirojsha" source="Orion">Pirojsha</keyword> said the company would easily achieve higher numbers. On reasons behind setting a lower target for new business development, Pirojsha said, "Last year was an exceptional year. Not necessarily we will have such numbers every year." Further, he added: "We don't even want to add Rs 30,000 crore worth new projects every year. To achieve sales bookings of Rs 14,000 crore in a year, we dont need to actually add new projects worth Rs 30,000 crore." Pirojsha Godrej said the company is in discussion with many landowners across major cities for both outright purchases as well as entering into JDAs. On the performance during the last fiscal, he highlighted that it was very strong on all important metrics like sale bookings, cash collections from customers, completion of projects and new business development. Sale bookings rose 56 per cent last fiscal to an all-time high of Rs 12,232 crore and almost all were housing properties, he said. Cash collections grew 41 per cent to Rs 8,991 crore last fiscal year, while project deliveries touched a record 10 million square feet. Godrej Properties added "18 new projects in FY23 with a total estimated saleable area of nearly 29 million square feet and total estimated booking value of around Rs 32,000 crore." Among big-ticket deals in FY23, the company acquired an 18-acre land parcel in Kandivali, Mumbai for Rs 750 crore to develop a luxury housing project with an estimated revenue potential of about Rs 7,000 crore. Regarding the current fiscal, Pirojsha said the company has set a target of Rs 14,000 crore worth of sale bookings for now. The cash collection target has been set at Rs 10,000 crore for current fiscal, while the deliveries of projects would rise to 12.5 million square feet, he said. Asked about the market, Pirojsha said the recovery in the real estate sector has been very good post second wave of the COVID pandemic despite increase in interest rates on home loans. He expected demand to sustain in the coming years. Pirojsha noted that the Delhi-NCR market has been performing very well in terms of both sales volumes and pricing. To encash this, he said the company plans to launch many projects in Delhi, Noida and Gurugram. Godrej Properties, an arm of business conglomerate Godrej Group, is one of the leading real estate developers in the country. It mainly focuses on Delhi-NCR, <keyword id="6361772" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="mumbai-metropolitan-region" source="Orion">Mumbai Metropolitan Region</keyword>, Bengaluru and Pune for development of residential projects. During the full 2022-23 fiscal, the company's net profit increased to Rs 571.39 crore from Rs 352.37 crore in the previous year. Total income also grew to Rs 3,039 crore last fiscal from Rs 2,585.69 crore in 2021-22. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/8-things-that-google-bard-can-do-but-chatgpt-cannot/articleshow/100187360.cms">8 things that Google Bard can do, but ChatGPT cannot</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/how-to-silence-fake-calls-from-unknown-numbers-on-whatsapp/articleshow/100186824.cms">How to silence calls from unknown numbers on WhatsApp</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/survey-reveals-three-out-of-four-indians-suffer-from-nomophobia-heres-what-it-means/articleshow/100073985.cms">Survey reveals three out of four Indians suffer from NoMoPhobia: Here’s what it means</a>

Godrej Properties on land-buying spree for housing projects: to acquire ₹15k cr projects in FY24

Top cryptocurrency broker <keyword id="14344592" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="voyager-digital" source="Orion">Voyager Digital</keyword> on Wednesday filed for bankruptcy in the US, after top crypto hedge fund <keyword id="14202326" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="three-arrows-capital" source="Orion">Three Arrows Capital</keyword> (3AC) did the same last week, in which Voyager has made significant investments which the company is yet to get back. It had significant investments in Singapore-based hedge fund 3AC, which failed to make payments on a loan of 15,250 Bitcoins and $350 million USDCs -- that makes the loan worth more than $650 million. "This comprehensive reorganisation is the best way to protect assets on the platform and maximize value for all stakeholders, including customers," said <keyword id="495840" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="stephen-ehrlich" source="Orion">Stephen Ehrlich</keyword>, CEO of Voyager. The prolonged volatility and contagion in the crypto markets over the past few months, and "the default of Three Arrows Capital on a loan from the company's subsidiary, Voyager Digital, require us to take deliberate and decisive action now," he said in a statement. Earlier this week, Voyager suspended all trading, deposits, withdrawals and loyalty rewards on its platform. Voyager has approximately $1.3 bn of crypto assets on the platform and more than $350 million of cash for customers. The proposed plan of reorganisation "contemplates an opportunity for customers to elect the proportion of common equity and crypto they will receive, subject to certain maximum thresholds", said the company. The company said it has over $110 million of cash and owned crypto assets on hand, which will provide liquidity to support day-to-day operations. Voyager said it was actively pursuing all available remedies for recovery from 3AC. The development came as popular crypto tokens such as <keyword id="12177405" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="bitcoin-and-ethereum" source="Orion">Bitcoin and Ethereum</keyword> nosedived by nearly 70 per cent from their record highs amid the economic meltdown. The <keyword id="167953" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="monetary-authority-of-singapore" source="Orion">Monetary Authority of Singapore</keyword> last week slammed Three Arrows for providing false information and breaching an asset under management threshold. The mega fund, founded by Credit Suisse traders Zhu Su and Kyle Davies, once managed an estimated $10 billion in assets. SEE ALSO : <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/enterprise/news/facebook-insta-and-google-took-down-over-21-million-posts-in-may-while-whatsapp-and-twitter-banned-over-19-lakh-bad-accounts/articleshow/92698950.cms">Facebook, Insta and Google took down over 21 million posts in May while WhatsApp and Twitter banned over 19 lakh ‘bad’ accounts</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/retail/news/your-acs-fridge-and-washing-machines-may-get-cheaper-soon/articleshow/92698315.cms">Your ACs, fridge and washing machines may get cheaper soon</a>

Crypto broker Voyager Digital files for bankruptcy a week after it suspends trading

A group of minority shareholders of <keyword id="51758" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="dish-tv" source="Orion">Dish TV</keyword> has sent a notice to call an Extraordinary General meeting (EGM) of the direct-to-home service provider, raising concerns over corporate governance issues, seeking reconstitution of the board and removal of two independent directors questioning their independence. The notice sent by 77 shareholders of Dish TV, representing 10.15 per cent shareholding, proposed to nominate K Badri Narayanan, <keyword id="17427302" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="satis-kumar-yanmandra" source="Orion">Satis Kumar Yanmandra</keyword>, Jeet Sen Gupta as independent directors on the board of the <keyword id="60807" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="essel" source="Orion">Essel</keyword> Group firm. Besides, it has also sought the removal of two independent directors -- <keyword id="1624320" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="shankar-aggarwal" source="Orion">Shankar Aggarwal</keyword> and Rashmi Aggarwal -- from the board of the company. "The existing independent directors have a long-term association with Dish TV and Essel group which cast doubt over their independence," the shareholders wrote in the notice. Dish TV is embroiled in a tussle between its largest shareholder Yes Bank Ltd (YBL) and the promoter family led by its former chairman Jawahar Lal Goel over board representation in the company. The company is unable to pass its annual statements from the last two years and the feud has led to the departure of its former promoter-backed chairman Jawahar Lal Goel. Informing about the development to the stock exchanges, Dish TV said it is examining the communication from the minority shareholders. "... will take necessary steps as per applicable law and procedures," said Dish TV in a regulatory filing. Besides, the minority shareholders have also raised several other issues questioning the investments made by the company such as in its OTT platform Watcho. "Dish TV made a significant investment of Rs 1,218 crore (which is 20 per cent of total netblock of the fixed assets, intangibles, investments and capital WIP of Rs 6,012 crore) in the FY20 (Intangible Assets), for Watcho, its flagship OTT platform," they said. The investments were qualified in FY2020 (the year of the investment itself) and in FY2021. "Upon lenders and investors questioning the investments, the company had made an impairment of Rs 203 crore in FY2022," it said. During FY20, the Essel group companies defaulted with multiple lenders, including bank loans to Essel group companies secured by the pledge of Dish TV Shares, they said. "It is our apprehension, that anticipating a loss of majority shareholding due, to the invocation of pledged Dish TV shares from bank and other lenders, the aforesaid funds may have been diverted by the promoters for other purposes," the letter said. On the removal of the two existing independent directors, the minority shareholders said, "They have long-term association with Dish TV and Essel group which cast doubt over their independence." Rashmi Aggarwal held directorship in other Essel group entities -- Dish Infra, <keyword id="2682539" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="zee-media" source="Orion">Zee Media</keyword>, and Essel Forex -- till Feb 2019, while <keyword id="17427303" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="shankar-agganval" source="Orion">Shankar Agganval</keyword> held directorship in Essel Infraprojects Ltd till November 2018. Essel Infraprojects is a defaulter entity with YES Bank and several other lenders and his association is a "red flag", the notice added. Besides, they have also raised other corporate governance issues and alleged that the board is not acting in line with good corporate governance standards. It does not have a "fair representation" of the incumbent significant shareholders of banks and financial institutions holding 45 per cent shareholding in the company. "The board is purportedly acting at the behest of certain minority shareholders holding merely 4 per cent of the shares in the company," they alleged. Moreover, they also raised concerns over the continuation of Jawahar Lal Goel as additional director after a proposal for his re-appointment as MD was rejected by the shareholders. "It was only after the intervention of the shareholders that he subsequently resigned as additional director," they said. In December last year, shareholders of Dish TV again rejected the proposal for the adoption of audited standalone and consolidated financial statements for FY21 and FY22 in the AGM. Earlier, the shareholders of the Direct-to-Home service provider had rejected the proposals to approve the balance sheet of the company for the last two fiscals in the 34th AGM conducted on September 26, 2022. In June 2022, shareholders in an extraordinary general meeting rejected the proposal for the reappointment of Goel as its managing director. In September, shareholders of Dish TV rejected four resolutions in the AGM, including the adoption of the company's financial statements for FY21 and FY22, and the appointment of independent director Rakesh Mohan. Dish TV shareholders, on December 30, 2021, also rejected all three proposals, including the adoption of financial statements and the reappointment of Ashok Mathai Kurien as director. Goel resigned from the board of the company on September 19. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/heres-how-indians-paid-for-non-cash-transaction-in-fy22/slidelist/100274422.cms">Here’s how Indians paid for non-cash transactions in FY22</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/how-to-transfer-your-whatsapp-chats-without-using-google-drive/articleshow/100270586.cms">How to transfer your WhatsApp Chats without using Google Drive</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/8-things-that-google-bard-can-do-but-chatgpt-cannot/articleshow/100187360.cms">8 things that Google Bard can do, but ChatGPT cannot</a>

Dish TV minority shareholders seek EGM, removal of two independent Directors

Good morning! I'm Aaron Weinman and on this day last year, Coca-Cola lost $4 billion in value because <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/euro-2020-cristiano-ronaldo-coca-cola-market-value-snubs-drink-2021-6-1030526880">Cristiano Ronaldo removed Coke bottles</a> from his press table at the European Championships.Now, let's get into today's news.If this was forwarded to you,<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/10-things-on-wall-street"> sign up here</a>. Download Insider's app <a href="https://www.insider.com/app">here</a>.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-lashing-out-recession-work-from-home-tesla-twitter-2022-6"></a>1. It's anyone's guess whether Elon Musk will buy Twitter. The billionaire agreed to acquire the social-media platform for about $44 billion in April, but acts like he wants to walk away from it as he continues to moan about fake accounts.Musk's making an appearance at a Twitter all-hands meeting on Thursday, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-to-attend-all-hands-meeting-at-twitter-2022-6">according to an internal memo viewed by Insider</a>, giving Twitter workers a chance to field questions to the billionaire.One burning inquiry — and lively point of discourse — surrounds the financing attached to the acquisition. The deal comprises Musk's gargantuan $21 billion equity commitment, and the $12.5 billion margin loan that he secured against his stock in Tesla (and that he's since paid back).The last piece of debt is the $13 billion in bridge loans, part of which would be taken off banks' balance sheets and sold as high-yield bonds or leveraged loans in the capital markets.Banks that underwrote this <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-elon-musk-was-able-to-buy-twitter-despite-risks-2022-4">stand to pocket millions of dollars in fees</a> each in what's been an otherwise paltry year for capital-markets dealmaking.But assuming Musk goes through with a deal for Twitter, this "bridge financing" will not be so easy to offload onto third-party investors like hedge funds, institutional investors, and collateralized loan obligations, the latter being the largest buyer (more than 60%) of leveraged loans, bankers familiar with the deal told Insider.Bond and loan investors, above all else, love something Twitter does not have — cash flow. Musk's lack of a business plan and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-lashing-out-recession-work-from-home-tesla-twitter-2022-6">erratic behavior also has investors spooked</a>, which makes selling this debt a tall order, should that day ever come.This is one of the reasons why well-known leveraged-finance banks like Credit Suisse, RBC, Deutsche Bank, and Citi passed on underwriting the term loans, the bankers familiar with the transaction said.Banks don't want to be left holding onto this debt should the investor community say "thanks, but no thanks."You can listen to me talk about this on <a href="https://share.spooler.fm/ZVvWpO/DedneB.html">The Refresh from Insider</a>.In other news:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/point72-quant-denis-dancanet-chess-helped-career-wall-street-tech-2022-6"></a><div type="image" title="Denis Dancanet, president of P72's Cubist Systematic Strategies group, in his head shot against a blue backdrop." height="599" width="799" msid="92207792" hostid="261"></div>2. Denis Dancanet defected to the US via a chess tournament before becoming one of Wall Street's most-powerful quant execs. He also built two startups, including one that's constructing flying cars. Dancanet's story is the latest from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/quantrepreneurs-wall-street-quant-traders-build-silicon-valley-unicorn-2022-3">Insider's series</a> that highlights <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/point72-quant-denis-dancanet-chess-helped-career-wall-street-tech-2022-6">top quants who quit the Street to build something new</a>.3. Lawyers at Wall Street's go-to firms are making boatloads of cash. One attorney with "outrageous discretionary spending" <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/money-diaries-big-law-attorney-making-500000-salary-spending-2022-6">told Insider how he allocates his paycheck</a>.4. Staying with rich folks, these heavy-pocketed people are tackling inflation with bets on music royalties and farms. Four investment strategy heads told Insider <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wealth-management-alternatives-investing-portfolio-inflation-recession-2022-6">what is hot and what's not for the country's wealthiest folks</a>.5. This Wall Street copper is warning about WhatsApp and Signal use. Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, told Bloomberg that banks and hedge funds should monitor these encrypted apps as these messaging services are <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-13/wall-street-s-top-cop-says-texts-can-hold-firm-ending-bombs?sref=ipW5reFz">where his team will look for nefarious activities</a>.6. Sen. Dan Sullivan will testify about his proposal to stop index fund managers from voting on shareholder proposals. The Republican from Alaska wants these proposals to have explicit consent from the larger institutional investors. <a href="https://www.banking.senate.gov/hearings/considering-the-index-fund-voting-process">The testimony</a> comes as BlackRock and other money managers face <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3d9436f4-f341-4885-817a-b2dd340c9868">heavy criticism from mostly conservatives over their liberal-leaning initiatives around ESG</a>.7. Thoma Bravo shaved 3% off the price it's paying for software company Anaplan, the Financial Times reported. In return, the buyout group increased the fee it would pay Anaplan <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/117ebfdd-5d94-4cd0-9dc3-01de3c5c14c1">if the deal falls through to $1 billion from $586 million</a>.8. HSBC could unlock almost $27 billion in value should it split off its Asian business, as a big shareholder has called for. The British bank could spin off its Asian business, or its Hong Kong retail bank through IPOs, according to a report from In Toto Consulting <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-12/hsbc-could-unlock-26-5-billion-in-asia-spin-off-report-says?cmpid=BBBXT061322_DEALS&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_term=220613&amp;utm_campaign=deals&amp;sref=ipW5reFz">published by Bloomberg</a>.9. Celsius said it's pausing account withdrawals and transfers. The crypto lender has doled out more than $8 billion to clients but <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-lender-celsius-freeze-withdrawals-transfers-accounts-market-tumble-bitcoin-2022-6">bitcoin and other digital currencies have nosedived in recent months</a>.10. Israeli startup Odeeo just scored $9 million in seed funding. Here's key slides from the deck that helped the mobile game advertiser leverage demand for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-game-advertising-odeeo-raised-9-million-pitchdeck-2022-6">a segment that could top $6 billion this year</a>.Done deals:<ul><li>Bain Capital Credit and J.C. Flowers &amp; Co. <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220613005146/en/Insigneo-Financial-Group-Fast-Growing-Independent-Wealth-Platform-to-Receive-100-Million-Investment-Led-by-Bain-Capital-Credit-and-J.C.-Flowers">invested $100 million</a> in wealth management platform Insigneo Financial Group.</li><li>Alpine Investor-backed Trilon Group <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220613005206/en/Ramey-Kemp-Associates-and-Trilon-Group-Announce-Strategic-Growth-Partnership">acquired Ramey Kemp Associates</a>, a North Carolina-based transportation consultant.</li></ul>Event invite: The fourth installment in Insider's "Financing a Sustainable Future" series is today, June 14 at noon Eastern. This event, in partnership with Bank of America, focuses on corporate governance, perhaps the most difficult measure of ESG reporting. Check out the previous <a href="https://events.insider.com/financing-a-sustainable-future?utm_source=AaronNewsletter&amp;utm_medium=&amp;utm_campaign=2022-6-14_Principles_BankofAmerica">three events and register for today's event here</a>.Curated by Aaron Weinman in New York. Tips? Email <a href="mailto:aweinman@insider.com">aweinman@insider.com</a> or tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/aaronw11">@aaronw11</a>. Edited by Hallam Bullock (tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/hallam_bullock">@hallam_bullock</a>) in London.

Wall Street: Elon's $13 billion quagmire

New Delhi, June 16 (IANS) Mobile payments in India initiated by payment apps comprising account-to-account transfers and payments made from stored-value accounts rose 163 per cent to $287 billion in 2019, said a report on Tuesday. By comparison, point-of-sale transactions completed using debit and credit cards, including online and in apps, rose 24 per cent to $204 billion, according to the S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence's 2020 India Mobile Payments Market Report. Card and mobile payments as a percentage of India's GDP rose to 20 per cent in the quarter ended December 31, 2019, the results showed. In fact, card and mobile payments exceeded ATM withdrawals for the first time in 2019, according to the report. "High growth rates in cashless payments seen in recent years are unlikely to repeat amid an economic slowdown due to the novel coronavirus pandemic," Sampath Sharma Nariyanuri, Fintech Analyst at S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence, said in a statement. "However, we expect mobile payments to be more resilient and will gain a bigger lead over card payments, as their uptake will accelerate due to ongoing social distancing measures and concerns over usage of cash and plastic." S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence estimates that card purchases and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) mobile payments represented only 21 per cent of $781 billion in in-store transactions in 2019. Google Pay and PhonePe led UPI payment apps as the two apps handled over seven billion transactions in total, representing more than two-thirds of UPI transactions in 2019. As banks are expected to reduce their exposure to unsecured lending amid the ongoing pandemic, payment apps will have an opportunity to play a mainstream role in providing loans and insurance. Google and Amazon are already offering a far greater breadth of payments in India than in other large markets such as the US, Germany, the UK and Japan, said the report, adding that with the expected entry of Facebook's WhatsApp, US technology companies will extend their dominance in India. --IANS gb/na

Mobile payments in India jumped 163% in 2019: Report

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A year ago, Kabul residents navigated blast walls and roadside bombs. Now, five months into Taliban rule, Afghans fear hunger. </li><li>Some Afghans, out of desperation to feed their families, tell Insider they have donated a kidney for money or donated dangerous amounts of blood. </li></ul>In November, Jahish Sahar Samir posted to Facebook an offer to sell 100 books – a collection of poetry anthologies and novels that had been years in the making – for a mere 4,000 Afghanis, or about $38. On Dec. 4, Samir posted another offer: "One kidney for sale."Immediately, the 27-year-old novelist and teacher was inundated with messages of shock and disbelief, discouraging his plan. "No one could believe it," he said in an interview. "They all thought I was joking. None of them took it seriously."But like many Afghans this winter, Samir was growing desperate.Over WhatsApp, Afghans have shared pictures of signs that say "kidneys for sale."(When Insider tried the number provided, it appeared to not be working.) Meanwhile, long lines have been reported at blood banks, where a single draw can earn the donor about $47 – enough to feed a family for a few weeks. In some cases, people have reported donating their blood at a rate well beyond what's considered healthy and safe. In cities, streets have been lined with televisions, refrigerators, carpets and other household items that residents are putting up for sale. Before the Taliban took control of <keyword id="11892774" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="afghanistan" source="Orion">Afghanistan</keyword> on Aug. 15, Samir taught Dari literature at a private school in Kabul and was a member of Kabul's Pen Society, a collective of poets and writers. But the school closed down and, since then, Samir has found it increasingly tough to find money to feed his family. <div type="image" title="United Nations unloading supplies for Afghans." height="4068" width="5425" msid="89013652" hostid="261"></div>"Life has become this daily challenge," he said. "The costs just keep piling up. <keyword id="11894142" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="food" source="Orion">Food</keyword>, rent and finding ways to keep warm during the winter, it's all just so much."A year ago, Kabul residents navigated blast walls and roadside bombs. Now, all across the country, Afghans fear hunger. With the arrival of winter, the UN says nearly nine million people are at the risk of <keyword id="12398318" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="famine" source="Orion">famine</keyword> and up to one million children could die from the cold and hunger. Last month, the World Food Programme reported that<a href="https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000134768/download/?_ga=2.101758657.1575008015.1639474595-1055501472.1562658913"> 98 percent</a> of Afghans don't have enough to eat. <h2>'We're afraid of dying of hunger'</h2>During the 20-year US-led occupation of Afghanistan, young people like Samir were held up as models of the well-read, ambitious generation that would eventually lead the country. But along with the rest of the country, they now feel abandoned by the international community, the propped-up Afghan government that fled under the cover of night, and now the ruling Taliban. Facing unspeakable hardship as winter has descended, they have been forced to resort to previously unfathomable measures to make money.In the first weeks after the Taliban takeover, the number one issue on most people's minds was the economy. Half a million Afghans lost their jobs overnight, according to the International Labor Organization, while the foreign assistance that has bolstered the country for two decades also disappeared. When asked about the arrival of the Taliban, taxi drivers, money exchangers, and shop owners largely said the same thing: "We're afraid of dying of hunger." With banks limiting withdrawals to $400 a week due to a shortage of paper money — printed in Europe — Afghans can no longer turn to family and neighbors for short-term loans. For Afghans abroad, unclear rules on remittances and changing policies from services like Western Union and MoneyGram have made sending money back home extremely challenging. <div type="image" title="Afghans are facing a hunger and humanitarian crisis" height="2304" width="3072" msid="89013653" hostid="261"></div>"I go every day to Western Union only to be turned away because they can't send money to Afghanistan," one young Afghan-American said during a recent Twitter Spaces discussion on the personal effects of the <keyword id="12539929" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="humanitarian" source="Orion">humanitarian</keyword> crisis in the country.As the value of the currency has fallen at least 20 percent and prices of basic staples continue to climb, shops have struggled to stay open and keep their employees on their payrolls. After the Taliban takeover, Samir put aside the novel he was working on and began selling energy drinks on Kabul's dusty streets. With many Afghans hunkered down at home, or lining up at the airport and hoping to board evacuation flights, business was slow. Most people didn't have the money to spend on energy drinks."It was challenging for me to find money," he remembers. He next turned to something simpler and cheaper – shoe polishing. But even that didn't work.Just a few weeks earlier Samir, who also dabbled in amateur photography, might have been seen wandering Kabul's streets taking pictures. But it was another world now. The <keyword id="11896449" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="united-nations" source="Orion">United Nations</keyword> recently put out a request for $<a href="https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20220111-un-calls-for-5-billion-in-aid-for-afghanistan-in-2022">4.4 billion</a> to address the humanitarian situation over the next year. USAID has also<a href="https://twitter.com/StateDeptSpox/status/1481021006705790979?s=20"> pledged</a> $308 million "to support vulnerable Afghans" in 2022. The Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs at UNOCHA, Martin Griffiths, said the money is needed to "stave off wide-spread hunger, disease, malnutrition and ultimately death."<div type="image" title="Afghans wait in food aid line." height="3644" width="4859" msid="89013654" hostid="261"></div>Though there has been an organ trade in Afghanistan for a decade or more, it was usually an option for the poorest and most desperate people that was largely hidden from public view – discussed only in hushed tones. Now, Afghans who had a degree of economic stability less than a year ago are also thinking about becoming donors to cash. In 2020, at least<a href="https://www.adb.org/countries/afghanistan/poverty#:~:text=In%20Afghanistan%2C%2047.3%25%20of%20the,day%20is%2034.3%25%20in%202019."> 47 percent</a> of the population lived below the poverty line, despite billions in annual foreign aid. But the current crisis has hit the entire population, even those who once had steady jobs and reliable incomes.<h2>The 'One kidney' village</h2>A few years ago, one village in the outskirts of Herat, Se Shanba Bazar, became known locally as "the one kidney village" because so many people there had become kidney donors. For men who could not find work in Herat city – in western Afghanistan – or across the border in Iran, selling a kidney became a last, desperate option for men to support their families, earning in excess of $3,000, some of those who were interviewed said. In 2021, Tolo <keyword id="11893589" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="news" source="Orion">News</keyword> reported that, since 2016, at least<a href="https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-169833"> 200 kidneys</a> had been sold illegally every year in province of Herat. At the time, donors were receiving upwards of $3,200. <div type="image" title="Afghans are selling everything they own—including their blood—as a hunger humanitarian emergency spreads across the country." height="3340" width="4453" msid="89013656" hostid="261"></div>Up until last year, the main cause for people selling their kidneys was poverty caused by the 20-year <keyword id="11904994" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="war" source="Orion">war</keyword>. Today, according to interviews, the main cause has been the twin crises of unemployment and access to cash that have come since the Taliban takeover. One difference, people said, is that now women are coming forward as donors. Meanwhile, the black market for kidneys continues to operate. "We do kidney transplants here every week," said a receptionist at Afghan Arya hospital in Herat. "It's a deal between the buyer and the seller. People sell their kidneys to make money. Poverty is real and huge here." One activist in Herat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid being targeted, said she was aware of three men and two women who underwent the surgery in the last week. <h2>'I just kept going back to put food on the table'</h2>For years, Ali Reza's job in a local salt factory in Mazar-e Sharif, in northern Afghanistan, earned him more than $150 a month, which was just enough to provide for his seven-person household. But after the Taliban took over the city on August 14 – one day before they claimed Kabul – everything changed. Within weeks, the city that was once a hub for local and global business, became a center for the evacuation of vulnerable Afghans.Thousands of people were leaving the country from Mazar on a daily basis. Among them, were the very businesspeople who had helped sustain the city's status as Afghanistan's economic hub in the North.As business owners left the country, their offices, factories and shops began to shut their doors, many with no forewarning, leaving tens of thousands of people without a reliable income. The salt factory Ali Reza worked in for years, was one of the first businesses to shutter once the owner left the country shortly after former President Ashraf Ghani fled and the Taliban took control of the government in Kabul.Initially, Ali Reza did like millions of Afghans before him, and turned to day labor as a source of income in hard times. But with the United Nations warning that male unemployment may double to<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/12/1108372"> 29 percent</a> by 2023, the competition even for menial, physically-grueling work, is high. At one of Mazar's busiest roundabouts, every day brought long lines of men advertising their desire for work. "There were hundreds of people lined up and only a few got work each day," he said.As Mazar's harsh winter crept closer, Ali Reza grew desperate. Finally, a friend told him that people had started selling their blood to private blood banks.He was conflicted. With some skills and a few years of schooling, donating his blood seemed shameful. But the need to feed his young kids and elderly mother trumped his reservations and wounded pride. <div type="image" title="Afghan man sits in the snow as he waits for work." height="2347" width="3130" msid="89013658" hostid="261"></div>It turned out that his blood type, O, made him a universal donor. Since October, Ali Reza has sold more than 1,500ccs of blood at a rate of 5,000 Afghanis or $47, which is enough to provide for his family for about three weeks."The nurses kept saying they don't have enough O donors, so I just kept going back to put food on the table," he said.Already, he is donating at a dangerous rate. The Red Cross recommends donors wait at least eight weeks between donations, and that they should not donate more than six times per year. Ali Reza has already donated three times since October.He says that if the economic situation doesn't stabilize, more people will be forced to follow him in selling their plasma, "Things have to get better, or more and more Afghans will have to sell parts of their body."Elsewhere in Mazar, another local man, Nematullah, has made a similar calculation. In the last two months, he has twice donated his blood. Unlike Ali Reza, the 32-year-old has no formal education to fall back on and once construction work dried up in Mazar, he too found himself unable to feed his family. In prior years, he was able to travel to neighboring Iran for construction and interior design work, but the COVID-19 pandemic, the declining value of the Iranian riyal and Tehran's increasing crackdowns against undocumented migration from Afghanistan have all made that much more difficult.Now, he is relegated to waiting for the phone to ring when plasma is needed."A relative of ours works at a private hospital, he put my name on the blood donation list," Nematullah says of the competition for donating blood among cash-strapped Afghans in Mazar and other cities.He said he has heard about kidney donation. "Of course, I'm thinking about it, if the situation doesn't get better," he said.

Facing hunger, some desperate Afghans are selling their kidneys for money

Mumbai, Jun 22 () Amid an organisational restructuring to tide over the COVID-19 woes, apparel maker Raymond has seen about 1,100 employees either resigning or being sacked since April as part of cost-control measures, retrenched employees claimed, but the firm refuted their assertions on non-payment of full dues. About a dozen employees spoke to said the Raymond management sought resignations from them, failing which they were threatened with termination. While some 400 were coerced into resignation, around 700 who did not do so were sacked. Similar notices have been served to 400 more now, they claimed. The Gautam Singhania-led company had 7,087 employees on its rolls as of March 2019, according to the annual report. A company spokesperson, however, refuted the numbers saying queries on the issue "are factually incorrect, malicious and misrepresented with vested interests." "We would further like to state that in line with the prevailing market conditions and unprecedented challenges, the company has undertaken the process of cost rationalisation to minimise the impact on business due to the pandemic. "Basis this rationalisation exercise certain roles were identified to be redundant and the same was communicated to the employees concerned, post which they submitted their resignations," the company spokesperson said. The staff alleged that their salaries were cut by up to 65 per cent since April and before the resignations were sought, and only the basic pay was being paid to those serving notice period. On this, the company spokesperson said, "as per the employment contract, they have been put on the notice period of three months and are being paid in compliance with the terms and conditions. All the said measures and actions are taken as per the laid down procedures and are in the overall interests of all stakeholders." Raymond on June 10 informed exchanges that all its retail stores remained shut during the first and second phase of the coronavirus lockdown with gradual reopening thereafter, while its suiting and shirting fabric manufacturing plants remain shut due to subdued demand. The firm was looking at debt raising and alternate working capital to manage liquidity. "In line with the prevailing market conditions and unprecedented challenges, we have undertaken a process of cost rationalisation and various cost control measures related to sales and marketing, manpower, rentals and others to minimise the impact on business due to the pandemic," it had informed the bourses. spoke to a dozen of the employees but all of them requested not to be named fearing reprisal, as they are serving the three-month notice period after termination by the over 90-year-old group that has two verticals--Raymond Apparel which sells brands like Park Avenue, Parx, Colour Plus; and garmenting and shirting business under Raymond Suitings. The staff allege that their salaries were slashed by up to 65 per cent in April before the resignations were sought from them through WhatsApp calls/messages in early May. During the notice period, they are being given just about their basic pay after deducting income tax on the full salary, resulting in only 25-27 per cent payment.The HR department sent termination messages to only those who didn't tender resignations voluntarily, they said, alleging the huge salary cut that preceded was not conveyed to them personally in writing but was posted on the company website. In mid-April, Singhania in a video message exhorted the staff "to survive at any cost by conserving cash at any cost and to make sure to focus on our collections," and said he'd not draw a penny in salary during the lockdown. According to the employees, Raymond announced huge salary cuts ranging from 20 per cent (who are still employed), 50 per cent to those who are benched now and a hefty 65 per cent to those who have been terminated now. Employees fear more jobs will be lost from the 50 per cent bracket. "What is more, though the official reduction is 65 per cent, we are only getting 25-28 per cent as they are deducting tax on the full salary and what is paid is not even the full basic pay," six of them told requesting not to name them. These employees have spent between 18 months and 12 years with the group in high positions as heads of marketing, logistics, supply-chains. Barring three, all of them have liabilities like home loans, school fees and rentals to pay, among others. "Late April, I was told my division would be recast as some positions have become redundant but was assured of my position. But within 10 days I received a WhatsApp call saying my position too has become redundant and that I have to resign in the larger interest of the organisation, which I refused. Within hours, I was terminated," a person who headed marketing at one of the divisions said. Another person said over 20 jobs were lost from his division, and more are on the way out. "They did not spare even a few who have a couple of months to retire," said the person cited above who was in the supply chain division for the past decade. "The pay-cut announcement was made in May but effective April! he said, adding, "a legal notice is being prepared seeking either re-employment or full salaries." "We aren't opposed to retrenchment. Our only demand is to pay us full salaries during notice period," said another person from the supply chain side and is the only earner in his family with a home loan and two school-going kids. Accusing the management of frequently changing HR policy, another employee said most culling is driven by favouritism. There is no union as the majority of those sacked are in the management cadre, he alleged. "We were even ready for the 65 per cent salary cuts as we have given everything to this company in all these years. Over 1,100 of us were sacked by a company that had won the best-place-to-work-with award just two years ago," said a person from Raymond Suitings who was heading a department. He also said Clause 17 of their appointment letter specifies those serving the three-month notice will be given full salary. BEN AA ANZ ANU ANU

You Searched For "cashe whatsapp loan" and got 10 results

Jio Haptik and CASHe partner to deliver instant credit lines on Whatsapp

Eetika Kapoor

Here’s how Muthoot Finance is bringing about a perception change around gold loans with its marketing initiatives

Samarpita Banerjee

Stop trying to shame companies that took PPP loans

David Plotz,Henry Blodget,Ant…

Godrej Properties on land-buying spree for housing projects: to acquire ₹15k cr projects in FY24

PTI

Crypto broker Voyager Digital files for bankruptcy a week after it suspends trading

IANS

Dish TV minority shareholders seek EGM, removal of two independent Directors

PTI

Wall Street: Elon's $13 billion quagmire

Aaron Weinman

Mobile payments in India jumped 163% in 2019: Report

IANS

Facing hunger, some desperate Afghans are selling their kidneys for money

Ali Latifi,Tamana Ayazi,Mujta…

Raymond cuts workforce to tide over COVID-19 woes

PTI

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides