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Global tech giant Google on Tuesday said that by Diwali it plans to expand the operations of its payments platform, and would add major retail chains restaurants and cab aggregators to the platform. The tech giant has also re-branded 'Tez' as 'Google Pay' as part of its efforts to take the digital payments app to more online and retail merchants across the country. “ Building for India has helped Google build for everyone all around the world... Our partnership with RailTel is an example where millions of people are accessing the Internet from hundreds of railway station in India. We have also taken Google Station to other countries like Indonesia, Nigeria, Thailand and Mexico," Google General Manager (Next Billion Users initiative and Payments) Caesar Sengupta said. Previously, Google h ad partnered with RailTel to offer Wi-Fi access across 400 railway stations in the country. "Earlier this year, we partnered with APSFNL. We expect to sta...

Axis Bank Share India’s third largest private sector bank Axis Bank on Tuesday said it would soon be able to process payments over the popular chatting application ‘WhatsApp’. The bank also termed the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) as a “huge opportunity”. “ We are the market leaders in terms of innovation, and we do believe that UPI is a huge opportunity. We are working in terms of creating a differentiated environment for our customers,” Axis Bank Executive Director -Retail Banking, Rajiv Anand said. Click Here To know More – Axis Share Price 

Tez (fast), the India-specific payments app built by Google, turned slow on the first day of its launch on Monday, and this angered users, who complained that they could not sign up on the service. Hundreds of users took to Twitter and other social networks to vent their displeasure, with a few of them even offering Tez a one-star rating on Google’s Play Store. Within a few hours of its launch it had notched up close to 600 one-star ratings and only a little more than 700 five-star ratings. A Google spokesperson told Business Standard that the large number of failed registrations were due to a surge in the number of users trying to sign up on the service. A team at Google India was working round the clock to identify and fix bugs that users were unearthing. The launch was significant as Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley unveiled the app, highlighting that it tied in well with the government’s move to digitise payments and bring in more people into the formal econ...

The refinancing of the infrastructure projects through dedicated finance companies — infrastructure debt funds (IDFs) — has failed to grow in a big way in the last two years, despite regulatory reforms. Limited number of operational projects with one-year track record and reluctance of banks to provide low-risk infra loans are holding back growth of IDFs, according to rating agency ICRA. IDFs are investment vehicles for channelising investment to the sector, sponsored by the commercial banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) in India for facilitating the flow of long-term debt to the sector. An IDF can be set up either as a trust (infrastructure debt fund – mutual funds) or as a NBFC. Currently, there are three IDF-NBFC’s operating in India — India Infra Debt Limited, IDFC Infrastructure Finance Limited and L&T Infra Debt Fund. Rohit Inamdar, group head, ICRA, said there has been changes in the regulatory landscape yet the limited number of operational projects wi...

Financial News Neeraj Singhal, promoter and vice-chairman of Bhushan Steel, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in August 2014. Singhal’s arrest came days after the agency had arrested S K Jain, the then chairman and managing director of Syndicate Bank on bribery charges. Soon after, the Bhushan Steel account was referred to a joint lenders’ forum. It was part of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) asset quality review in 2015 before being declared a non-performing asset (NPA) by the end of 2015-16. Three years later, Bhushan Steel is one of the 12 companies recommended for insolvency proceedings by the RBI. Another complicated case is that of Era Infra Engineering, against which as many as 18 winding-up pleas are pending in courts. The shares of this company were suspended by the bourses over a year ago, implying its troubles are much older. Essar Steel first defaulted on debt repayment in 1999. It went into a corporate debt restructuring in 2002 and c...

Former Reserve Bank of India governor C Rangarajan says 'some haircut' is inevitable in the process of resolving the big load of bad loans at government-owned banks. A haircut is the term for the writeoff a lender accepts on a debt payment when a borrower can't repay what is due at a point in time. Needed here, said Rangarjan, since the size of non-perofrming accounts (NPAs) had become so big. "The clean-up has to be done and perhaps some haircut is inevitable. The question is whether the banks are ready for a haircut and how that is managed. The best result is with the haircut, the loan should once again become good," said Rangarajan, also chairman of the prime minister's economic advisory council in the earlier government. NPA resolution was important, he said, to stimulate the economy and investments. He felt the process, if decided on, would take at least a year to complete. NPAs at public sector banks (PSBs) have mounted to a little over Rs 6...

More than 1.5 crores candidates took up the bank exams of IBPS (Institute of Banking Personnel Selection) in the last three years and vacancies in the Indian  banks  equaling 68000 were occupied. When it comes to making a career choice that promises security and financial stability, bank jobs in India have always been roped in first. Public sector banks are getting a tough competition from private banks. As a result, they are reaching out to rural and semi-urban areas. Despite the rise of Information Technology, millions of people still prefer bank jobs and apply for various positions in public sector banks. Here’s the list of upcoming bank exams and jobs in 2017. It also features other government exams. Listed are the important details regarding the bank exams and jobs for the year 2017-18:  Read More

Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's)   landslide victory in the key state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) is likely to intensify the government's war against black money / cash, suggests the latest Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BofA-ML) equity strategy report co-authored by Sanjay Mookim and Anand Kumar. The crackdown, the report suggests, could entail more transaction disclosure, increased tax on cash, restrict cash holdings (remaining un-implemented proposal of SITon black money). This war on cash, BofA-ML feels, will be beneficial for banks as it would result in more financial inclusion, more fees and potential lending. Better reporting can allow private banks to compete with the public sector units (PSUs) for SME (small and medium enterprises) business, it says. Also Read: UP poll result has made a mockery of the criticism that demonetisation got: Chris Wood "Loan waivers (if large enough and if replicated outside of UP) can be taken negativ...