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Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Housing for All 2022
Gov. Plans

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Housing for All 2022

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The much awaited Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana has been launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi that envisages the vision of Housing for All by the year 2022.  The article includes various aspects of the scheme covering the beneficiaries, eligibility and the process for applying under the scheme.

The government of India had earlier launched ‘Housing for All’ scheme, which has now been reformed as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.  The Scheme has been launched by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi on 25th June 2015.
 
The scheme comes with an aim of constructing more than two crore houses across the length and breadth of the nation within a span of next seven years.  This means the scheme which is started in year 2015 would conclude successfully in the year 2022. The target beneficiaries of the scheme would be poor and people living under EWS and LIG categories in urban establishments of the country.
 
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Housing for All 2022:
 
The PM Awas Yojana would start in the year 2015 and would be spread for implementation till the year 2022 and would be carried out in three sustainable phases:
 
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Phase 1:  The Phase 1 of PM Awas Yojana would span from April 2015 to March 2017 and a total of 100 cities would see the developmental work started and completed during this phase.
 
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Phase 2:  The Phase 2 of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana would span from April 2017 to March 2019 and during this phase, a total of 200 more cities would be covered and developed.
 
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Phase 3:  The Phase 3 of PMAY would span from April 2019 to March 2022 and during this phase the left over cities would be covered and developed.
 
Beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana:
 
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana would target specific groups from the society, which are:
  • Women, irrespective of caste and religion.
  • Economically Weaker Section of Society (EWS).
  • Scheduled Tribes (ST).
  • Scheduled Casts (SC).
  • The Government of India would be granting a subsidy to people from these. categories so that they buy a home for themselves and their families.  
  • The subsidy amount may range from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2.30 lakh.
 
The features of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana are as following:
 
The government would provide an interest subsidy of 6.5% on housing loans availed by the beneficiaries for a period of 15 years from the start of loan. The houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana would be allotted to preferably the female member of the family. Along with this, preference would be given to the female applicants, in general.  This scheme could well be termed as a pro-women scheme.
 
While allotting ground floors in any housing scheme under the PMAY, preference would be given to differently-abled and older people. The construction of houses under PMAY would be carried out through technology that is eco-friendly. Interest Rates, EMI Calculation and Subsidy in PM Awas Yojana
 
The niche of the scheme lies in the fact that the EMI paid by the home owners under the scheme would be reduced significantly.  The current rate of housing loan in India is at 10.50 per cent.  If someone buys a property currently on a loan of Rs 6 lakh for a tenure of 15 years today, he/she would have to pay an EMI of Rs 6,632 per month currently.  However, with 6.5 per cent subsidy under the scheme, the beneficiary would have to pay just Rs 4,050 per month as EMI.  Thus, there is a significant reduction of Rs 2,000 in the EMI itself.
 
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Compnents (Housing for All 2022):
 
An average of Rs 1 lakh would be granted by the Government of India to all the beneficiaries under the scheme. Through Credit Lined Subsidy Scheme, a subsidy of 6.5% would be given to each beneficiary belong from EWS and Lower Income Group categories. A central government assistance of Rs 1.5 lakh would go to every beneficiary for promoting housing stock and thus 35% of the units under the project would be earmarked for the Economically Weaker Section category.
 
In addition to the above, an Rs 1.5 lakh would be provided to all eligible urban poor who want to construct their own house in urban areas or wish to make necessary renovations in their existing houses.
 
ICICI bank Awas Yojana Loans at subsidized rates of 6.5 %
 
The ICICI bank has planned a scheme to provide millions of Indian, their own dream house, which currently they cannot afford right now. This scheme is in support to the Prime Minister’s housing scheme for the common masses namely the  Awas Yojana. Under this scheme, the ICICI will provide easy housing loans with low interest rates andeasy options of EMI so that the financially weaker sections of the population can also accomplish their dream of having their own house.
 
Under this scheme, the ICICI will provide housing loans at subsidized rates of 6.5 % annually for the loan amount  of Rs. 6 lakh (maximum). This subsidy will be credit linked. This housing loan will be provided along with the partnership with National Housing Bank, which will administer the entire housing project. And the maximum loan tenure to get the subsidy is 15 years.
Nuclear Supplier’s Group (NSG)
Banking News · Career

Nuclear Supplier’s Group (NSG)

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Introduce 

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was signed in 1968 to prevent spread of nuclear materials, technology and weapons so as to develop co-operation among the nations. This treaty was signed by a total of 191 countries except India, South Sudan, Israel and Pakistan. This treaty recognized two groups of countries namely the Nuclear Weapon States (NWS) comprising US, UK ,China,France and Russia and the other being Non Nuclear Weapon States (NNWS).
As per this treaty:
  • NWS member countries had to commit for the complete nuclear disarmament
  • NNWS agreed to let go the developing or acquiring of nuclear weapons.
Reasons for India and other countries did not signed in NWS:
India and the rest of the countries dint sign this as they must dismantle all nuclear weapons and place them under international safeguards to become a NNWS member.Indian foreign policy was against this keeping in mind security concerns, for dismantling all our nuclear weapons will makes us more vulnerable if any untoward thing happens in the future.
 
Origin and Purpose:

NSG is a multinational body concerned with reducing nuclear proliferation by controlling the export and re-transfer of materials that may be used for development of nuclear weapons. NSG also sets global rules for international trade in nuclear energy technology.
It was set up in 1974 as a reaction to India’s first successful nuclear tests at Pokhran (Code Name – Smiling Buddha) conducted on 18 May 1974, to stop so called misuse of nuclear material meant for peaceful purposes.
Image result for pokhran nuclear test images
Why is India seeking to become a member of NSG ?
  1. India wants to become a player in this international arena where nuclear commerce norms are laid.
  2. If India becomes a member it will have better international market for export as well as for import of nuclear related materials.
  3. For building nuclear reactors, for providing energy we need nuclear materials. By becoming a member of NSG we can have better access of nuclear materials .
  4. All nuclear based programmes of India is being run on indigenous technology. By becoming a member of NSG we will have access to sophisticated foreign technologies.
  5. By becoming a member India can also sell it’s Indigineous technology thereby giving ‘Make In India’ a face-lift.
  6. Clean Energy – India is committed to reduce it’s dependence on fossil fuels and scale up nuclear power production.
Why are certain countries opposing/supporting India’s entry into NSG ?
India has been trying to get into NSG since 2008. While India is being backed by United States, Switzerland and Mexico for it’s membership of NSG (due to commendable efforts by NaMo), it is being opposed by China, New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan.
Basis of China, New Zealand, South Africa & Pakistan’s opposition:
A country which is a non-signatory of NPT, CTBT etc shouldn’t be given a NSG membership.

China is putting forward their arguments on the basis that if India is to be granted a seat in NSG ,then all other South Asian countries like Pakistan which were non-signatory of NPT should be granted a seat too.
Meanwhile Pakistan is opposing India’s entry merely because it doesn’t want India to possess high end technologies in the nuclear field. And Pakistan also fears that if India becomes a member it could prevent it from becoming a member just like how China is currently down voting India.

Current Status:
India could not get the membership of NSG.

Uncategorized

GST – Goods and Services Tax

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The Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014 was approved by the Upper House with 203 votes in favour and none against, after a seven-hour debate during which a rare bonhomie was witnessed among the ruling and the opposition parties. Six official amendments, including the scrapping of one percent additional tax, moved by the government were approved with cent percent votes.

Earlier, the bill was passed by the Lok Sabha. It will now go back to the Lower House to incorporate the amendments approved by the Rajya Sabha. The bill will also have to be approved by 50 percent of all the state assemblies. AIADMK was the only party to oppose the measure and its members staged a walkout from the House to register their unhappiness over the bill which lays the ground for the rollout of uniform Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime that will subsume all indirect taxes including central excise duty and state VAT/sales tax.
 
So here is a ready reckoner on the issues surrounding the proposed tax reform and it will mean for the Indian economy. But first, let’s know more
What is Goods and Services Tax (GST)?
              As the name suggests, it is a tax levied when a consumer buys a good or service. It is meant to be a single, comprehensive tax that will subsume all the other smaller indirect taxes on consumption like service tax, excise duty etc.
               This is how it is done in most developed countries. It will be a comprehensive nationwide indirect tax on the manufacture, sale, and consumption of goods and services. The aim is to have one indirect tax for the whole nation, which will make India a unified common market. GST will be levied and collected at each stage of sale or purchase of goods or services based on the input tax credit method and would make not just manufacturing but also the interstate transportation of goods more efficient.

Banking News · Career

BRICS – 2016 India

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BRICS is a group of five major emerging economies, comprising 43% of the world population, having 37% of the world GDP and 17% share in the world trade. South Africa was the last country which have joined the group in 2010 and completed the group as BRICS.

History of BRICS.
Image result for BRIC images in 2009
Earlier four nations joined hand to form a group in order to give a recognition to the world rising economic powers.The acronym BRIC (Brazil,Russia,India and China) was first used in 2001 by Goldman Sachs in their Global Economics Paper, “The World Needs Better Economic BRICs” on the basis of econometric analyses projecting that the economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China would individually and collectively occupy far greater economic space and would be amongst the world’s largest economies in the next 50 years or so. BRIC started after the meeting of the Leaders of Russia, India and China in St. Petersburg on the margins of G8 Outreach Summit in 2006. The 1st BRIC Summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on 16 June 2009.After inclusion of South Africa , it attended the 3rd BRICS Summit in Sanya, China on 14 April 2011.
BRICS Initiative
Image result for BRICS country images in world map
The BRICS Forum, an independent international organisation encouraging commercial, political and cultural cooperation between the BRICS nations. BRICS works on the two important pillars – issues of mutual interest through meetings of Leaders as well as of Ministers of Finance, Trade, Health, S&T, Education, Agriculture, Communication, Labour, etc. and practical cooperation in a number of areas through meetings of Working Groups/Senior Officials.
BRICS Summit -2016
8th BRICS summit concluded in India on 16th oct 2016 with the adoption of the Goa Declaration which pledged opposition to the terrorism.

The theme of India’s BRICS Chairmanship was Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions. 

During Indias BRICS Chairmanship, BRICS adopted the five-pronged approach:

(i) Institution building to further deepen, sustain and institutionalise BRICS cooperation 
(ii) Implementation of the decisions from previous Summits 
(iii) Integrating the existing cooperation mechanisms 
(iv) Innovation,i.e.,new cooperation mechanisms and
(v)Continuity,i.e.,continuation of mutually agreed existing BRICS cooperation mechanisms.


In a strongly worded statement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “the most serious direct threat to our economic prosperity is terrorism. Tragically, its mother-ship is a country in India’s neighbourhood.”

According to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi “the most serious direct threat to the economic prosperity is terrorism “.The declaration called for resolution of the civil war in Syria, in accordance with the “legitimate aspirations of the people of Syria” and sought action against U.N.-designated terrorist groups like IS and Jabhat al-Nusra.

The Goa Declaration also called for all nations to counter radicalism, and block sources of financing international terrorism, “including through organised crime by means of money-laundering, drug trafficking, criminal activities, dismantling terrorist bases and countering misuse of the Internet including social media by terror entities through misuse of the latest Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)”

BRICS has emerged one of the successful organisation which have attracted other nations also to join hand and work on the foot mark for the development of their respective economy. Presence of China and India has made this group powerful in terms of economy and military powers. Recently on 26 september 2016, The Department of Science and Technology under the BRICS – grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – framework organized the first ‘Young Scientists Conference’ in Bengaluru. The conference will see 50 young scientists meet over the next four days.  The BRICS Young Scientist Forum  (BRICS – YSF) was started last year. On the Ocassaion of 8th BRICS summit at Goa , U-17 Football Tournament, Youth Summit, Young Diplomats’ Forum, Film Festival etc were organised to promote the culture , Sport and communication and enhanced people-to-people (P2P) contacts of BRICS member states, especially youth.

From India’s prospective BRICS is an important platform in term of development of its markets.Co-operation on the economic front is one of the focus areas of India’s policy towards BRICS. India can also penetrate into African Markets with the help of BRICS organisation.India need to decide how she can utilize the BRICS platform at an international arena.
Banking News

Helicopter Money

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Invention of Helicopter Money
 The Concept of  Helicopter Money was coined by popular american economist Milton Friedman in 1969 in his paper “The Optimum Quantity of Money” for the governmments looking to lift their economies out of a slum.
What is  Helicopter Money?
Helicopter money were proposed as an alternative to Quantitative Easing (QE) when interest rates are close to zero and the economy remains weak or enter recession. The term ‘helicopter money’ is used to refer  a wide range of different policies, including the ‘permanent’ monetization of budget deficits.It is expansionary fiscal policy financed by central bank money.
History of  Helicopter Money
Originally used by Friedman to illustrate the effects of monetary policy on inflation and the costs of holding money, rather than an actual policy proposal, the concept has discussed by economists as a serious alternative to monetary policy instruments such as quantitative easing. According to its proponents, helicopter money would be a more efficient way to increase aggregate demand, especially in a situation of liquidity trap, when central banks have reached the so-called ‘zero lower bound’.
Modern concept of helicopter money
 For the modern concept of helicopter money, we use balance sheets of the central bank, of the Treasury, and of the consolidated government, which combines the first two.
Basic structure of fiscal and monetary authority balance sheets.
Treasury balance Sheet The Central bank’s balance Sheet
Assets Liabilities Assets Liabilities
Value of future       Tax revenue

Account at Central Bank Other Assets

 Bonds held by the Central  Bank

Bonds held by the Public

 Treasury Bonds

Other Assets

 Currency

Government’s Account

Accounts of the Commercial Banks (Reserves)

Equity Capital

 

Consolidated Balance Sheet of the Government
Assets Liabilities
Value of future

Tax revenue

 

Other Assets

 Bonds held by the

Public

Currency

Accounts of the

Commercial Banks (Reserves)

Central  Bank Equity Capital
India’s Views on helicopter money 
India’s former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan are against helicopter money . As most of the Indian economist claimed that the helicopter money would be ineffective because people would not spend the money. Many believe that Helicopter money would undermine trust in the currency ,which ultimately would lead to hyperinflation.
Environment

Huge dead Zone discovered in the Bay of Bengal

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Scientists have discovered a huge dead zone in the bay of Bengal. The area, estimated to be around 60000 square km, is reported to contain little or no oxygen.

The area is also said to host microorganisms, which remove a large amount of nitrogen from the ocean. Though dead zones can be found in other oceanic bodies as well. there has been no indication of nitrogen loss there.

Key Facts

1. Researchers from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s National Institute of Oceanography reported that though some amount of oxygen does exit in the bay of Bengal, the concentrations are lesser that what standard techniques could detect.

2. The oxygen level is stated to be around 10000 times lesser that the amount found in the air-saturated surface waters.

3. The microbes present in the Bay of Bengal are in fact capable of removing all the nitrogen from the water but traces of oxygen stop them from doing so.

4.Though there is some evidence of nitrogen-removing microorganisms existing in other well known dead zones well, they are reported to work at much slower rate.

According to Wajih Naqvi, the former director of National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), if the last amount of oxygen is removed from the ocean then, the bay would become a cause of nitrogen removal from oceans across the world.

Complete removal of nitrogen could affect the nitrogen balance in marine life and also the rate of their productivity.

About Dead Zones

1. Dead zones are large areas in the ocean that have low oxygen concentration,
2. The marine life in these areas mostly suffocates and dies or if they are mobile like the fish then, they leave the area.
3.Though at many times, dead zones occur naturally, scientists are also of the opinion that they are created due to incrreased human activity.
4. The main cause of the zones created by humans is nutrient pollution, Excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) can result in the overgrowth of algae, which later decomposes in the water consuming excess oxygen, depleting the supply available for the marine life.

Dead zones can be found in virtually every oceanic body, the largest encompassing almost the whole bottom of the Baltic Sea. Another large dead zone is located in the Gulf of Mexico. Other dead zones occur off the western coasts of North and South America and off the coast of Namibia and western coast of India.

Global warming triggered by climate change is predicted to lead to and expansion of these dead zones. However, it is not certain whether the climate change would lead to the removal of the last traces of oxygen from the bay as well.

Opportunites

DRDO Successfully flight tests Smart Anti- Airfield Weapon system in Odisha

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The Defence and Research Development Organization (DRDO) has successfully flight tested the Samrt Anti-Airfield weapon (SAAW) from an Indian Air Force aircraft.

In a statement, the DRDO said, the flight test was conducted at the integrated test range in Chandipur Odisha. it was flight tested on 24 December 2016.

SAAW – Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon

1. Developed by DRDO, SAAW is an indigenously designed and developed the 120 KG class Smart Weapon.
2. This lightweight high precision-guided bomb is one of the world class weapons systems.
3. The system is capable of engaging ground targets with high precision up to a range of 100 kilometres.

As per reports. SAAW’s captive and relese trial were tracked by Rader and Telemetry ground stations at Interim Test Range (ITR) during the entire duration of the flight. An official release said, “the performance of all systems were satisfactory with all the mission objectives achieved”.

The Rs 56.58 crore SAAW project was sanctioned by the Union Government in September 2013. Earlier in May 2016, the DRDO conducted the first test of the weapon system from indian Air Force Jaguar DARIN- II aircraft in Bengalur.

DRDO Chairman Dr. s. Christopher congrratulated both DRDO and IAF team for the successful mission.

Banking News · Career

Just 1% Indians pay Income Tax: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh kant

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NEW DELHI: Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant  said just one per cent of India’s more than 1.25 billion population pays Income Tax and the country cannot afford as high as 95 per cent of its economy making cash transactions.

Addressing a Workshop on Cashless Transaction organised by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Kant said India cannot afford as high as 95 per cent of its economy making cash transactions if the economy has to be taken from USD 2 trillion to USD 10 trillion by the year 2030.

“Besides, only 1 per cent of the more than 1.25 billion population pays Income Tax,” he said.

Kant said there are more than a billion mobile phone subscribers in India and more than one billion Aadhaar biometrics have been created so far, according to an official release.

He said with an aim to push India among the top economies of the world, the government has enrolled nearly 26 crore people under the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and more than 20 crore RuPay cards issued.

The time is here to make a transition to cashless transactions, he said.

Addressing the function, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju asked NDRF personnel to adopt cashless transactions and utilise their vast reach across all corners of the country to spread the message of digital payments.
Rijiju said the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and state police forces personnel must take the lead as the nation is poised to join the leading economies of the world.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to take India from being the world’s fifth largest economy at present to among the world’s top three economies in the next ten years, he said.

The Minister said though it is difficult to move to digital payments initially but once it is started, one can easily adapt to the cashless mode of payments.

He said the Prime Minister has encouraged the citizens to switch over to the ‘less cash’ transactions.

In his speech, Director General of the NDRF R K Pachnanda said cashless transactions not only make everyday life easier but was also gainful as the government has introduced several incentives to make the cashless transactions popular.

He asked the NDRF personnel to imbibe the principle, “Each One, Teach One” to spread the message across a wider cross section of people.

Career

Post demonetisation, which digital payment method to use?

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Since November 8, every Indian has only one thing on mind: the dilemma of choosing a safe, secure, convenient and cashless payment option. Currently available cashless payment systems include credit/debit cards, e-wallets such as Paytm, Unified Payment Interface (UPI), IMPS, USSD, RTGS, and NEFT. Which one should you use and for what kind of transactions? Here’s how you can decide.

We have compared them all on eight different parameters to help you choose what suits you best:

1. Time taken to complete a transfer/payment;
2. The maximum amount you can transfer;
3. The financial details/information (e.g. account number etc) that you need to complete the transfer;
4. How is the transaction validated/authenticated;
5. Whether you will earn interest on the money kept in reserve in the payment system? 6.Whether you need to specify who the money is being transferred to in advance i.e. register the beneficiary (recipient) of the money (beneficiary registration);
7. What infrastructure/technical support is a must for the transfer to happen
8. And lastly, what are the costs involved There is no single ‘best’ payment option for everyone and all transactions. However, you could try to pick a payment option suitable for your purpose. Below is an overview of the comparison analysis.

VALUE OF TRANSACTION
One way of choosing a payment option is to base your decision on the value of the transaction. As opening user accounts, creating passwords for various payment solutions is very cumbersome; a practical way would be to choose at least two of these applications — one for high- value transactions and other for small value transactions.

You could divide the payment solutions into two categories and choose from RTGS/NEFT/debit and credit cards for transactions of over, say, Rs 10,000 and from- IMPS/UPI/USSD/e-wallets for payments below Rs 10,000. However, the value of transaction is not the only deciding factor: safety and ease of use are some of the other important parameters.
AUTHENTICATION
In terms of authentication, standard security procedure, which is two-factor authentication, is followed in case of all these alternatives. It refers to login ID and password set up by you coupled with something that only you can provide — a PIN or an OTP (normally sent to your registered mobile number or email address). In the upcoming versions of UPI, an additional level of authentication i.e. biometric authentication (using your smartphone scanners) is ..

NETWORK SAFETY
Apart from this, how safe your transaction is would also depend upon where and which network (public/private Wi-Fi or mobile data) you are using to make the payment transfer. Most people have several apps installed on their smartphones and almost all phone apps require access to various information/data stored on your phone. In such instances, smartphones could be more susceptible to hacking/internet virus/malware etc depending on the type of firewall installed on them.
Consequently, it would be wise to restrict using your smartphone to make money transfers to smaller amounts. The Reserve Bank of India has already limited the maximum amount that can be transacted via e-wallets and USSD to smaller values – Rs 20,000 per month and Rs 5000 per transaction, respectively.

Transaction limit for UPI is slightly higher than these but still limited in comparison to NEFT/RTGS etc.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR MAKING THE DIGITAL TRANSACTION
All the digital and cashless payment alternatives mentioned above require internet connectivity except for USSD — the only payment system usable on smartphones or feature phones without internet connection. National Unified USSD Platform (or NUUP) is a mobile banking service based on USSD technology launched by NPCI. NUUP or *99#, as it is commonly called, is perhaps more suitable for the population with limited  or no internet connection at minimal charges that are capped by TRAI at Rs 0.50 per transaction.

PRESENCE OF THIRD PARTY OR INTERMEDIARIES

Paying through an e-wallet means presence of a third party between the payer and the payee. One should keep in mind, that regulations governing e-wallet providers are different from those governing banks. However, there is an added advantage in case of e-wallets i.e. they provide an e-commerce platform as well (e-wallets such as Paytm and Freecharge also sell goods and services online just like Amazon and Flipkart), which is not
the case with any other alternative discussed here.

The sudden cash crunch due to demonetisation of Rs1000 and Rs 500 notes required a payment platform that was used by all. In our case, ewallets such as Paytm and Mobikwik were quick to grab this opportunity. Paytm currently has over 160 million users and is accepted by around 15 lakh merchant locations, as reported on December 13, 2016. These figures are huge in comparison to the user base of similar solutions provided by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) such as Unified Payment Interface and USSD based National Unified USSD Platform (those figures are in lakhs and thousands).

INFORMATION REQUIRED TO MAKE THE PAYMENT

Sharing financial credentials on virtual platforms tends to always have some inherent risk. Cyber crimes in India have surged around 350% between 2011 and 2014, according to a joint study by Assocham and PwC released in August 2016. Requirement of the hour is robust and resilient security protocols coupled with minimum amount of credentials shared on these platforms.

Unified Payment Interface, or UPI, provided by various banks could be considered safer than other modes in this respect. In case of UPI, one needs to enter only the Virtual Payment Address, or VPA, of the recipient, which is more secure and easy than sharing credentials such as account numbers and IFSC codes.

How it Works

In UPI, money directly goes to and from your bank account kicking out the intermediary i.e. e-wallet operators. Money stays in your account until the transaction is complete, which means you earn interest on it. To make a transaction on this platform, a Virtual Payment Address, or VPA, is generated, which can be unique for all your linked bank accounts on the interface or only one account — your choice. In case you want to have a different VPA for every account, be ready to remember all of them.

All you are sharing with other people/merchants is your virtual ID, instead of important credentials. Launched with a bang, this e-payment tool is yet to gain popularity in the already congested digital payments market. One reason may be that it has been taken as just another app for digital payments by users. Once the flexibility of this application is better understood, its user base is expected to go through the roof, beating e-wallets.

Costs Due to demonetisation, the government has been frequently slashing fees or commissions charged by various e-payment solution providers to encourage a cashless economy. As of date, these are the maximum fees/commission your bank/intermediary could charge to transact virtually. However, charges are leviable on use of debit card: charges for online payments of up to Rs 2,000 are capped at 0.75% and for payments above Rs 2,000 charges are capped at 1%. Transaction charges on credit cards average around 2.5%.
As for e-wallets, currently there are no charges for transactions. However, fees could be charged if you transfer money back from your wallet to your bank account. As of now, there are no such charges. The objective of having no charges in case of UPI and ewallets such Paytm is capturing user base. Once a substantial chunk of the market is captured and sustained by them, these payment systems could increase their fees gradually, although such an increase is unlikely before this cash crunch is over.

In terms of cost, for instant digital payments up to Rs 1 lakh, UPI and e-wallets seem like better option and above Rs 5 lakh, NEFT is cheaper, but there is a trade off with the time taken to complete the transaction.

 

Career

‘Dakshin Prahar’ held in all stations of Southern Air Command

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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A six-day ‘Dakshin Prahar’ exercise was conducted at all stations under Southern Air Command from December 19 to put to test and practise all the contingency plans of the Command.

During the exercise, the ability and readiness of the Command and all Air Force Stations under it were rigorously tested through simulated contingencies both by day and night, thereby enabling the commanders to assess the situation, plan and execute air operations with the assets at their disposal, a defence press release said.

This exercise also enabled the field Commanders validate the efficacy of their operational and ground defence plans.