Most digital/IT related services have survived the negative economic impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, with a sharp drop in e-commerce and online travel and event booking transactions, the digital payments industry has been hit hard by the COVID-19 lockdown in the last 2 months. UPI transactions decreased from 1.3 million in December 2019Read more
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The Steering Committee on Fintech Related Issues (‘Committee’), set up by the Ministry of Finance, recently issued its report (‘Report’)[1], in which it takes stock of developments in the fintech space, globally and in India. It makes 45 recommendations to enable fintech, particularly in critical sectors of the economy, and to promote ‘ease of doingRead more
News has it that Facebook is foraying into online remittances and will introduce a tethered digital asset named “Libra” to fuel this system. Libra will be linked with the INR (i.e. the Indian National Rupee) and each Libra will always convert to 1 INR. How will this play with the April 2018 RBI circular that imposed a deRead more
There has been recent public uproar regarding levying of an extra charge in the name of ‘internet handling fee’ and caught in the midst of it are online digital merchants/service providers like Paytm, Bookmyshow and others. Generally a merchant has to pay a cost (which is linked to the value of sale) to the bankRead more
An edited version of this piece by Nehaa Chaudhari was first published by Inc42 and is available here. About ten days ago, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) appointed Committee of Experts chaired by Justice Srikrishna (Srikrishna Committee) released its final recommendations on what India’s data protection framework should look like. It alsoRead more
In February 2017, Whatsapp had announced its plans to introduce a UPI-based payments service in India. Since then, a number of developments have taken place with respect to the payments service, including a discussion on privacy concerns surrounding the application’s use of customer data. This post provides a timeline of all the developments that haveRead more
The Government’s Position on Cryptocurrency While the novelty factor of cryptocurrency and the blockchain technology has not abated since 2009, Indian regulators have only recently begun evaluating the financial and security risks posed by virtual currencies such as Bitcoin. The Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley, announced in his 2018 Budget Speech that the government doesRead more
[This article was first published on MediaNama, here] Starting 05 April 2018, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) banned banks and other financial sector organizations that it regulates from extending services or dealings to individuals or businesses engaging in virtual currency related transactions. Existing services extended will need to be discontinued within a time period yet toRead more
Anish Krishnan, interning with us at TRA for January – February 2018 and Nehaa Chaudhari, Lead – Policy have put together a timeline on key developments on #cryptocurrency law and policy in India. February 10th: Sebi chief states Rules on cryptocurrencies should be out soon. Tyagi, who is part of the committee formed by the government toRead more