After the surprise ouster of <keyword id="6356895" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Cyrus-Mistry">Cyrus Mistry</keyword> as chairman of Tata Sons, <keyword id="6360722" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="ratan-tata">Ratan Tata</keyword> has written to the employees of India's largest conglomerate, informing them that "in the interest of the stability of and reassurance to the <keyword id="6355725" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tata-Group">Tata Group</keyword>," he is returning as Chairman. 
Ratan Tata, 78, will take over the position while the group seeks a permanent replacement. A committee has been given four months to find the new chairman. 
 
 
 
"Tata Sons today announced that its Board has replaced Mr. Cyrus P. Mistry as Chairman of Tata Sons. The decision was taken at a board meeting held here today," the company said in a statement. 
 
Tata Sons is the holding company of the sprawling tea-to-steel Tata Group, which spans more than 100 companies in as many countries. Its empire ranges from Jaguar Land Rover and steel mills to aviation and salt. 
 
Mr Mistry, 48, took over from the company patriarch in December 2012, becoming the first chief of the conglomerate from outside the Tata family. He had been attempting to shake up the $100 billion conglomerate by changing the management structure to bring in new faces at senior levels. 
 Mistry belongs to Shapoorji Pallonji, which is the single largest shareholder in Tata Sons with 18.4 per cent stake. Shapoorji and <keyword id="631349" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pallonji-Group">Pallonji Group</keyword>, the majority shareholder in the Tata Group, has termed Cyrus Mistry's ouster from Tata Sons as illegal. It said it will contest the move, adding that the decision to remove Mistry was not unanimous. This was confirmed by senior lawyer Mohan Parasaran. 
 
Mr Mistry had been battling problems on a number of fronts in recent months, including a costly settlement with Japanese telecoms operator NTT Docomo and the sale of Tata Steel's loss-making business in Britain. 
 
The Tata Group includes one of India's largest IT firms, Tata Consultancy Services, and the biggest vehicle maker, Tata Motors. But the group's revenue slipped 4.6 per cent for the financial year ended March to about $103 billion, hurt by global economic uncertainty, a crash in commodity prices and volatility in currencies, according to Bloomberg News. And it is currently trying to sell its loss-making British steel assets.

Ratan Tata steps in as interim chairman, reassures “stability of Tata Group” in a letter to employees

There were no reasons given for the change of leadership of <keyword id="6356895" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Cyrus-Mistry">Cyrus Mistry</keyword> who had been brought in with much fanfare. But it is believed that <keyword id="46894" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tata-Sons">Tata Sons</keyword> was unhappy with Mistry's approach of shedding non-profit businesses, including the conglomerate's steel business in Europe, and concentrating only on cash cows. 
 Mistry, no doubt, had his task cut out. The Tatas are present in about 100 businesses ranging from automobiles to retail to power plants to software. But just two of them have been consistent performers — IT services exporter <keyword id="6357585" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tata-Consultancy-Services">Tata Consultancy Services</keyword> (TCS) and <keyword id="6354362" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jaguar-Land-Rover">Jaguar Land Rover</keyword>, the marque car company it bought from Ford Motor in 2008. 
 Several other of its companies are struggling. The domestic automobile business, despite accounting for roughly half of India’s trucks business, has long been under strain. <keyword id="6357147" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tata-Steel">Tata Steel</keyword>, once the brightest star in the Tata constellation thanks to the $12.5 billion acquisition of Anglo-Dutch competitor Corus in 2007, bore the brunt of a sharp plunge in prices since 2012 abetted by Chinese glut. 
 
The loss-making telecom business has been locked in a bitter and potentially costly battle with erstwhile partner NTT DoCoMo of Japan, which secured a $1.2 billion arbitration award in June 2016. Dozens of consumption-linked businesses such as Titan, Tata Global Beverages, Indian Hotels, Trent, and Rallis India are slightly better off, but their collective operating profit has grown only 4% CAGR in the past five years. 
 In FY16, nine of the 27 listed companies in the group reported losses and the earnings of seven others dropped. The only bright spot was that <keyword id="45008" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tata-Power">Tata Power</keyword> and Tata Chemicals reported strong earnings growth in FY16 after turning profitable the previous year. 
 
The turnover of India’s largest conglomerate dropped to $103 billion in 2015-2016 from $108 billion the previous year. Net debt rose to $24.5 billion in March 2016 from $23.4 billion a year ago. 
 Much of Tata’s problems is owing to its elephantine structure. Cross-ownership of companies — Tata Sons owns stakes in businesses like <keyword id="42747" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tata-Motors">Tata Motors</keyword> or Tata Steel and these businesses own stakes in each other — has made it difficult for the group to make the most of its potential as a diversified conglomerate. 
 
The operational ethos of the behemoth is actually engrained in silos. "There is an inherent bureaucracy in the system that has gone unchallenged for years," says an insider.

Why did Tata Sons remove Cyrus Mistry as the Chairman?

<ul><li>Our weekly virtual chat features some of the most loved creative heads and directors who take us on a walk down memory lane, talking about some of the most talked-about and well-appreciated ads they have worked on.</li><li>In the latest episode, <keyword id="271660" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ram-Madhvani">Ram Madhvani</keyword>, Founder and Director, Equinox Films spoke to us about Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite film, <keyword id="2510610" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Airtel-Wynk">Airtel Wynk</keyword>’s ad and Happydent’s well-known Palace campaign.</li></ul>For Ram Madhvani, Founder and Director, Equinox Films, the world of advertising has been a great teacher. While the ad world helped people meet people who have all become a very important part of his life, including his wife, Madhvani, during a recent conversation said that advertising had also taught him work ethic. “I get a sense of responsibility from the world of advertising. Here things happen on time. Apart from that, I have also learnt a lot about communicating with the audience and the idea that its about what you say, how you say it and how you make people feel. I have learnt a lot of the craft of reaching out to the public, thanks to advertising,” said Madhvani, on the latest episode of BTS with Insiders. Madhvani who is known for his feature films including Neerja and Let’s Talk is also credited with directing some of the most loved ads in recent times that include multiple ads for Airtel including Har Ek Friend Zaruri Hota Hai, DOcomo, Coca-Cola, Asian Paints and Bisleri among many others. On BTS with Insiders, Madhvani spoke about 3 ads that he holds dear. <div type="javascript" title="Facebook" contenttype="Video"><cdata><![CDATA[]]></cdata></div> Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite More than a year after Amazon launched Kindle in India, it came out with a campaign to introduce Indian consumers to the e-reader through a long-form film. The ad was a celebration of people who love stories and books and depicts the joy of reading through the journey of a young man who travels to a village to leave children spellbound with the stories he narrates to them, the same stories he reads on his Kindle device. Speaking about why the campaign was special for him, Madhvani said, “Since Kindle is all about stories and filmmaking is all about stories, the Kindle film was a demo film about stories. And that’s how we sold it to the client. It was a tremendously exciting opportunity for us too. The film had amazing music by Tajdar Junaid with lyrics and the voice of <keyword id="21050" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Swanand-Kirkire">Swanand Kirkire</keyword>. The ad has been shot real, without any lights. Many of the shots have been done without permissions, even the one on the plane. I was scolded by a lady on the plane too. We wanted to make the shots real. My producers were able to set this up in a way that we were able to do this in a very small unit.” The intent was also to make the film feel real and more like a documentary. “While the ad is shot in Sri Lanka, its not meant to look like Sri Lanka. We had to shoot there because we didn’t get permission in Lakshadweep. But I have this quest for the Indian eye. I wanted to understand what an Indian aesthetic is and I realized when you’re framing stuff, apart from it being emotional, its chaotic. The West has told us about the S curve, the rule of thirds or about minimal framing. I had all these conversations with <keyword id="3945289" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="raj-deepak-das">Raj Deepak Das</keyword> who is a great motivator. He said, ‘We need a new language.’ So we decided all our frames should have foreground, mid ground and background and all the compositions are going to be chaotic,” he shared. The ad was well received and had over 5.3 million views on Amazon’s official Youtube channel in just 7 days and today Kindle is seeing a huge adoption among Indian readers. Airtel Wynk In 2014, Madhvani worked with Taproot on a campaign for Airtel’s music streaming app Wynk. The setting of the film was larger-than-life. It brought together over 700 musicians under one room and featured around 14 different genres of music. All the music featured in the ad were original compositions. The campaign also featured Sanya Malhotra. “A lot of this is thanks to Agnello Dias, Gopal Vittal and others from the marketing team of Airtel who allow us these acts of madness, believe these ideas and embrace them. That only comes due to the relationships you build with people. Great work comes from a certain creative greed and I can’t lead that. I can only smell that greed. I have realized great creative directors who want great work, people like Dias, Das, Prasoon Joshi and Sajan Raj Kurup, are all mast in their own creative zones and all I did was held on to their tail. In a way they are my co-directors,” added Madhvani. The film was shot in a day. All the musical parts were rehearsed and pre-recorded. “There were so many people, we had a lot of rushes and so many different genres of music. So it was a lot to handle. However, the entire team handled all of that really well and <keyword id="194866" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hemant-Chaturvedi">Hemant Chaturvedi</keyword>, our director of photography, gave it a rock concert feel. It was also Sanya’s first ad. She came with a completely spontaneous, unfrazzled talent and I would love to work with her again,” added Madhvani. Happydent’s ‘Palace’ In 2015, Happydent’s Palace commercial was named as one of the World's 20 best ads of the 21st century by the Gunn Report. The ad was conceptualized by Prasoon Joshi and directed by Madhvani. Speaking about how Joshi’s grand vision was executed, Madhvani said, “Its great working with Prasoon because he has a poet’s mind. It was meant to be a montage film and we had presented a commercial in Delhi which wasn’t a great commercial. And I had thought he would never give me Happydent. But it was really nice of him to trust me. I asked him if we could make a narrative film rather than a montage and he agreed. It was tough. The music was done by <keyword id="73991" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shantanu-Moitra">Shantanu Moitra</keyword> and the song was sung by Kailash Kher. Composers Vishal-Shekhar were in the next studio. When the duo came to see the commercial, they said they wanted to be a part of it. So they ended up giving the Qawwali claps in the film,” added Madhvani with a laugh. He also shared the day after the ad was released, Madhvani visited the Ogilvy office and he got a standing ovation there. “That was a really sweet moment. Also, Sameer Suneja (who is now the global CEO of Perfetti Van Melle) really supported us. We showed him an 85 as well as a 60 seconder because originally it was originally supposed to be 60 seconds long. But after watching the 85 seconder, he said he did not want to watch the other version. It took a lot of courage from the client as well as from Prasoon to back the idea and back me. So I take no credit except for just made sure that I executed it in a cussed kind of way,” explained Madhvani. While the shoot was supposed to happen in some palace in Rajasthan, it finally happened in Panvel due to lack of funds. However, that hardly affected the final outcome and the ad is still one of Happydent’s most iconic ads.

I take no credit for the Happydent Palace ad, except for making sure I executed in a cussed kind of way: Ram Madhvani

India's biggest conglomerate <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Tata&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Tata Group</a> launched an <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=e-commerce&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">e-commerce</a> venture on Friday, as it seeks to cash in on rising purchasing power in a market dominated by deep-pocketed international retailers and startups backed by global tech investors. 
 
The group said it developed its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=tata+cliq&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Tata Cliq</a> website over a year-and-a-half at a cost of "several hundred million dollars" to be a marketplace for in-house and partner companies to sell apparel and electronics. 
 
The move is in line with a second phase in Indian e-commerce development, with the some of the country's oldest and largest corporations entering an industry established in the last five years by startups <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=snapdeal&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Snapdeal</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=flipkart&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Flipkart</a> Online Services Pvt Ltd. 
 
The market also welcomed global e-commerce firm <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=amazon&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Amazon</a>.com Inc in 2013, which has invested over $2 billion for growth. 
 
Local conglomerates only lately entered the fray. Reliance Industries Ltd started an online apparel shop last month, while Aditya Birla Group and Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd recently launched online retail platforms. 
 
For big business houses, e-commerce is an opportunity to capitalise on middle class growth and rapid internet adoption. By 2025, online merchandise sales will hit $220 billion in India from $11 billion last year, Bank of America Merrill Lynch estimated. 
 
But the market has fostered cut-price competition, with the top three players incurring millions of dollars in losses due to heavy discounts. 
Tata said its focus was profit margins and unit economics, and not just growing sales via discounts. 
 
"We don't want to get into the discount wars, we want to serve customers with great products and build a sustainable business," said Chief Executive Ashutosh Pandey of Tata Unistore, parent of the operator of Tata Cliq. 
 
To keep costs in check, Pandey said Tata would use its money establishing a large number of warehouses like other e-commerce players have done, and would instead build inventory networks around existing store locations owned by group partners. 
 
The group, whose businesses include steel production, tea packaging, information technology services and automobiles, has bet on new businesses in recent years with mixed success. 
 
Its retail businesses including sellers of gold ornaments, sunglasses, apparel and electronics have successfully expanded, but its mobile phone venture Tata Docomo is a marginal player.

Shout out to Flipkart, Snapdeal; Tata launches e-commerce site TataCLiQ

<keyword id="13722" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Lenovo">Lenovo</keyword> PCs and laptops would now be offered with interest-free <keyword id="6357050" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="EMI">EMI</keyword> option, an initiative to increase its market share. The 'Start up with Lenovo' initiative was being rolled out across Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, company Managing Director <keyword id="8992" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rahul-Agarwal">Rahul Agarwal</keyword> told reporters. 

	He said the company had earlier conducted "successful" pilot programme of the initiative in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Gujarat in the backdrop of the 10 per cent computer penetration in the country. 
 

	Under the initiative, Lenovo would offer a wide range of 'fully loaded' computers and laptops starting at Rs 24,990 with interest-free EMI, the company said. 
 

	Lenovo has tied up with Bajaj FinServ to offer nine EMIs, and it will involve a processing fee of Rs 749, the company said adding it has roped in Tata Docomo for providing free internet dongles as part of the initiative. 
 

	The initiative was keeping in with the Centre's Digital India effort, Agarwal said. 
 

	Asked about the 'commercial interest' behind the initiative, he said "there is always a commercial angle." 
 

	The 10 per cent computer penetration rate in the country was 'unfair' and there will also be benefits for competitors from Lenovo's initiative, he said adding "we need to have a large heart." 
 

	"The category will grow and if we give good products we will get a lion's share of that," Agarwal said when asked how this initiative will help the company's market share which was 18 per cent in Q1 of 2015.

	 
	(Image credits: Indiatimes)

Interest-free EMI option for Lenovo PCS and laptops in the market now

It is beyond doubt that mobile phones, especially <keyword id="6354775" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Smartphones">smartphones</keyword>, are transforming India. It has improved our income and hence our standard of living. Its ownership and effective use not only have an enormous economic impact, also resulted in significant improvements to the socio-economic fabric of our society at large. It is no longer limited to being only a communication tool. It has evolved to become a critical platform to deliver essential services. Hence it can be safely concluded that increased smartphone ownership will naturally bring-in socio-economic benefits. 

	In fact, for the first time in India, household ownership of mobile device is being used as an indicator of societal and economic wellbeing as it serves as an ideal proxy for mobile usage.
 Next time you see a person with a <keyword id="18312" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mobile-phone">mobile phone</keyword>, you can clearly draw the following conclusions about his/her social status. Read on to know what. 

	1. <keyword id="3118523" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="mobile-ownership">Mobile Ownership</keyword> and the Human Development Index
 

	Households that own a mobile phone appear to be enjoying an economic consumption premium over those who do not own a mobile. It has been observed that as smartphone usage has increased in India, there has also been a corresponding improvement in the Human Development Index (HDI). Therefore, it can be said that mobile ownership is one of the important determinants that have a multiplier effect on the HDI. 
 

	• It is interesting to note that the state of Kerala, which has the country’s highest HDI at 76.4, enjoys a 79 percent rural mobile ownership, also amongst the highest in the country. It is important to mention here that Kerala is the only state with almost 100 percent <keyword id="18006" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Literacy">literacy</keyword>, which is an important composite of the Human Development Index. 

	• Andhra Pradesh, India's fourth-largest state by area and fifth-largest by population, reports a HDI of 59 percent and a rural mobile ownership at 55.1 percent. The state reports a lower HDI as well as rural mobile ownership compared to neighbouring southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. With a population of 84 million where 2/3rd live in rural areas, indicates that nearly 55 million rural households do not own a mobile. 
 

	• Uttar Pradesh, one of the oldest states in the country with the fourth largest economy in India reports an HDI of 53 percent and a rural household mobile ownership of 55.4 percent. 

	 
	 
	 
 

	2. Mobile Ownership &amp; the Economic Consumption Expenditure Premium
 

	It is observed that mobile owning households in India enjoy economic premium prosperity over households that do not own a mobile in India (2009-2010). 
 

	• Indian households that own a mobile device enjoy a 62 percent economic prosperity premium compared to those without a mobile. 
 

	• This premium is even more pronounced with respect to urban communities where mobile phone-owning households are – on average – 85 percent better off in economic terms.

	 
	 
	 

	3. Literacy
 

	Literacy, which an important indicator of social development in a nation, also reveals interesting trends and depicts covariance with mobile ownership. 
 

	• It is observed that mobile ownership touches 80 percent on an average once a household attains secondary education. 
 

	• It can also be observed that mobile ownership increases by 10 percentage points once a household becomes just literate i.e. the head of the family can read and write but as not attended any formal schooling. 
 

	• Furthermore, the probability of owning a mobile is more than 1.5 times in case of a post graduate household compared to a household that is not-literate. 
 

	• On the other hand, the proportion of rural not-literate households owning a mobile is 40 percent whereas it is 20 percent higher in urban not-literate households. The rural-urban divide in terms of mobile ownership narrows down as educational attainment improves amongst Indian households. 
 

	4. <keyword id="6354525" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Healthcare">Healthcare</keyword>
 

	Owning a mobile has made it possible for households to instantly access basic healthcare services that have contributed to reduced mortality rates. 
 A good example of how the mobile device can be used to deliver basic healthcare services would be <keyword id="117647" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sparsh">SPARSH</keyword> - India’s first sexual and reproductive health services application launched by Tata Docomo in association with the Family Planning Association of India. For individuals seeking advice with puberty, menstruation, pregnancy and contraception, the service disseminates information via Interactive Voice Response (IVR), SMS and Out Call technologies, giving users privacy and providing timely information (critical in life-threatening situations). Note: The study has been jointly conducted by Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) and <keyword id="6359475" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tata-Teleservices">Tata Teleservices</keyword> Ltd. 
	 
	Image credits: indiatimes, mobile multipliers

What does a smartphone state about the social well-being of a country?

Tata Sons slams Cyrus Mistry’s claims, accuses him of twisting facts. Read the full letter here

Welcome to our new Payments Insights newsletter, a morning email with the top news and analysis on the digital payments industry, produced by <a href="https://intelligence.businessinsider.com/welcome?utm_source=House&amp;utm_medium=Edit&amp;utm_term=PINSIGHTSutm_content=link&amp;utm_campaign=BIIMobile" target="_blank">BI Intelligence</a>. 
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<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right click-to-enlarge" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><a title_source="Klarna" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/52b2711ceab8ea6a3a3e69d8-960/klarna-2.jpg"></a>Klarna</div></div>PAYMENTS CONSOLIDATION IN EUROPE TO CREATE A PAYPAL RIVAL THAT SERVES 43K MERCHANTS: Klarna, a Sweden-based online payments company recently valued at $1 billion, announced the acquisition of a German competitor, SOFORT. 
Together the two companies will be the largest independent online payments service in Europe. Combined, the companies serve over 43,000 merchants and 25 million users in 14 European countries. 
Sources close to the deal say that acquisition was in the ballpark of $150 million, according to the New York Times. 
BOTH COMPANIES OFFER PAYPAL-LIKE SERVICES: Klarna allows customers to buy goods online and pay for them later (similar to PayPal's Bill Me Later service). The company primarily operates in Nordic countries. SOFORT's service allows customers to pay for their e-commerce purchases instantly online by deducting the amount from their checking accounts. The company has a firm grasp on the Western European market, particularly in Germany.
THE COMPANIES AIM TO LEAD THE EUROPEAN MARKET: The structure of the deal looks like more of a partnership. The two companies plan to continue to operate as stand-alone businesses, retaining their products and using separate brands.
The point of the deal is to consolidate control in Europe to compete more effectively against European players like Sage and fend off global payments companies that are looking to extend their reach in European markets. A particular example - earlier this year PayPal announced that it would begin to sell PayPal Here, its mobile card reader, in the U.K., PayPal's second largest market with over 18 million customers. 
"We believe this newly established group has ... an enormous potential to emerge as a leading European provider of online payments," said Dr. Michael Riemenschneider, SOFORT's chairman. 
Its also worth noting that both Klarna and SOFORT offer services that allow customers to avoid using credit card payments, which puts them in direct competition with credit card networks like Visa. <a href="https://klarna.com/press-info#/pressrelease/view/klarna-and-sofort-join-forces-to-become-one-of-the-leading-independent-european-online-payments-providers-942522" target="_blank">(Klarna)</a>
In other news... 
India works towards financial inclusion with biometrics: A big problem for payments in India is that the country doesn't have strong public records which can make it difficult for Indians to buy SIM cards and open bank accounts. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is changing that by building a record of citizens in India based on their biometric data. The UIDAI has already issued over half a billion identifiers. This is a huge step towards opening up the payments market in India <a href="http://www.pymnts.com/briefing-room/underbanked/developing-markets/2013/Biometrics-Solve-Financial-Uncertainty-In-India/?utm_source=December+18%2C+2013&amp;utm_campaign=December+18+NL&amp;utm_medium=email" target="_blank">(PYMNTS)</a>
<a href="http://www.pymnts.com/briefing-room/underbanked/developing-markets/2013/Biometrics-Solve-Financial-Uncertainty-In-India/?utm_source=December+18%2C+2013&amp;utm_campaign=December+18+NL&amp;utm_medium=email" target="_blank"></a>Mozido Announced that it would start offering a peer-to-peer proximity payments service for mobile users. The service allows users to transfer funds to people in their immediate proximity using the Low Energy Bluetooth communication standard. <a href="http://mozido.com/mozido-unveils-proximity-payments-service-mobile-phones-uses-low-energy-bluetooth-technology/" target="_blank">(Mozido)</a>
CaixaBank, Spain's third largest bank, announced a partnership with Visa Europe and mobile carriers Telef?nica, Orange, and Vodafone to offer NFC contactless mobile payments throughout Spain. Of the country's 300,000 NFC point-of-sales, CaixaBank currently operates 110,000. <a href="http://www.visaeurope.com/en/newsroom/news/articles/2013/mobile_contactless_in_spain.aspx" target="_blank">(Visa Europe)</a>
A new venture between MasterCard, eServGlobal and BICS aims to expand the market for mobile remittances. The venture, called HomeSend, already has contracts with mobile operators that will allow is to reach 1.2 billion subscribers and 300,000 cash agents. <a href="http://newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/mastercard-eservglobal-and-bics-create-remittance-joint-venture/" target="_blank">(MasterCard)</a>
WELCOME TO PAYMENTS INSIGHTS. This is our new newsletter covering all things payments. Don't forget to <a href="http://e.businessinsider.com/join/biipaymentsform" target="_blank">sign up</a> and get it every morning in your inbox. Please email <a href="mailto:johnh@businessinsider.com">johnh@businessinsider.com</a> or BI Intelligence director <a href="mailto:mballve@businessinsider.com" target="_blank">mballve@businessinsider.com</a> with news and tips.
The Indian mobile operator Tata Docomo will further expand its mobile remittance services, called mRupee, to 26 cities and over 4,000 retail outlet in India. It's an mPesa competitor. <a href="http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/press-releases/286788/tata-docomo-expand-flagship-money-remittance-service-mrupee-26-cities-fy14" target="_blank">(Information Week)</a>
DISINTERMEDIATION FEARS: "In Aite's annual survey of IT executives at large financial institutions, two sweet spots for IT spending are the digital wallet (and the fear of being disintermediated by competitors such as Square) and mobile banking, including tablet apps for consumers and small businesses ..." <a href="http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/178_242/top-8-ways-banks-will-spend-their-2014-it-budgets-1064420-1.html" target="_blank">(American Banker)</a>
The FBI holds 144,000 Bitcoins (~$100 million): The government agency acquired this enormous share of Bitcoin after seizing Silkroad, a Bitcoin-based black market. <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/12/fbi_wallet/" target="_blank">(Wired)</a> 
PayPal's new digital gifts store will start offering digital gift cards from global brands with the help of Epay, a division of Euronet Worldwide, Incorporated. The partnership will help PayPal expand its gift card offerings and Euronet Worldwide its reach in the U.K., U.S., and Germany. <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20131217-906393.html" target="_blank">(Wall Street Journal)</a>
Mobile Point-of-sale technology provider I Love Velvet has is reported to have acquired weXpay according to Mobile Payments Today. <a href="http://www.mobilepaymentstoday.com/article/224945/US-mPOS-provider-I-Love-Velvet-goes-international" target="_blank">(Mobile Payments Today)</a> 
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[CHART] <a href="http://e.businessinsider.com/521df5d31e240a9c3f3102401ddax.33/UrBJy-YQhtDM_gGwB3f63" target="_blank">LINE Provides A Great Example Of How Mobile Messaging Apps Can Make Money</a>
[CHART] <a href="http://e.businessinsider.com/521df5d31e240a9c3f3102401ddax.33/Uq71lztu_uhr_qXhB3d9f" target="_blank">The Average Global Internet User Spends Two And A Half Hours Daily On Social Media</a>
[CHART] <a href="http://e.businessinsider.com/521df5d31e240a9c3f3102401ddax.33/Uq71lztu_uhr_qXiBac54" target="_blank">The Global Smartphone Market Is Still Accelerating, And Will End The Year Just Shy Of 1 Billion Units Shipped</a>

You Searched For "docomo india" and got 8 results

Ratan Tata steps in as interim chairman, reassures “stability of Tata Group” in a letter to employees

BI India Bureau

Why did Tata Sons remove Cyrus Mistry as the Chairman?

BI India Bureau

I take no credit for the Happydent Palace ad, except for making sure I executed in a cussed kind of way: Ram Madhvani

Samarpita Banerjee

Shout out to Flipkart, Snapdeal; Tata launches e-commerce site TataCLiQ

Reuters

Interest-free EMI option for Lenovo PCS and laptops in the market now

BI India Bureau

What does a smartphone state about the social well-being of a country?

Usha Rani Das

Tata Sons slams Cyrus Mistry’s claims, accuses him of twisting facts. Read the full letter here

BI India Bureau

Two Online Payments Companies In Europe Link Up To Create A PayPal Rival With 25 Million Users

John Heggestuen