ClearTax, one of India’s largest tax systems, has announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft to simplify tax filing for over 20 million gig workers in India. This project attempts to improve workers’ accessibility and convenience, particularly in fast-rising economies.
ClearTax is a user-friendly solution that allows gig workers to file their taxes over WhatsApp.
This innovative, frictionless, and user-friendly technique tackles a major issue for many blue-collar and gig workers in India’s informal sector.
This policy has had a significant and immediate impact. In just 5 weeks of its inception, approximately 98,000 gig workers could file their taxes using this new system.
Furthermore, these folks will reap significant immediate economic gains from this simplified plan.
ClearTax intends to expand this service to employers, allowing them to assist their blue-collar staff with tax filing and TDS refund requests. This extension intends to increase financial inclusion and tax compliance among a broader range of Indian employees.
In a groundbreaking move at the Global Fintech Fest 2024, Razorpay has announced the launch of its innovative Point-of-Sale (POS) software, ‘Razorpay DigiPOS’. This industry-first solution is set to revolutionize in-store payments across Apple Premium Reseller outlets in India by leveraging iOS devices such as iPhones and iPads.
The integration of DigiPOS ensures a seamless, intuitive, and efficient payment experience, eliminating the need for traditional Android devices and enhancing the overall customer experience.
For the first time, Apple Premium Reseller stores can now process payments using their iPads and iPhones, whether for card transactions, no-cost EMIs, or UPI payments.
This shift to iOS-based payments through DigiPOS is a significant leap forward, setting a new standard for in-store payment solutions in India. Razorpay DigiPOS offers a significant advantage by allowing businesses to access this new technology as a software upgrade for existing POS devices, eliminating the need for fresh investments.
This future-ready solution ensures businesses can easily integrate new payment methods as they emerge, maintaining a cutting-edge, seamless payment experience.
This collaboration with Apple Premium Reseller stores is poised to set a new benchmark in the retail payment landscape, making every transaction seamless.
Mastercard announced a collaboration with Gramophone, a leading agritech platform, to provide agri inputs to 2 million smallholder farmers in India via the Mastercard Community Pass platform. The collaboration will facilitate offline payments for farmers in rural and remote areas using the Community Pass financial inclusion card.
Gramophone is also likely to offer offline payments and credit to its existing five lakh farmers.
Community Pass offers a digital ecosystem for purchasers seeking sustainable sources of high-quality produce at competitive market pricing and supply chain financing and smallholder farmers seeking reliable markets, fair prices, and credit.
The platform unites multiple agro-sector stakeholders in a centralised agricultural marketplace, enhancing their aggregate positive influence on farming communities. Community Pass services will also feature an offline payment card and input credit, which will be available in the future months.
This relationship with Gramophone will ensure that farmers may get the necessary inputs at a fair price. The program will be carried out later this year, beginning with inputs and offline payments, and credit will be available early next year.
Mastercard Community Pass is a shared, interoperable digital infrastructure for rural people that has benefited over 2 million Indian farmers from 25 districts in eight states to date.
Hitachi Payment Services, India’s leading provider of payments and commerce solutions, announced India’s first Android-based cash recycling machine, which also serves as a Digital Banking Unit, providing one-stop services in a modern digital banking environment.
The Android-Based Cash Recycling Machine, HPDx-BU01, is a big step towards improving customer convenience and experience while boosting operational and cost efficiency in banks. The Android-Based Cash Recycling Machine was presented at GFF with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Its complete range of capabilities, which combine the benefits of traditional Cash Recycling Machines (CRMs) with the agility and flexibility of the Android platform, may be adapted to various financial needs. Using an advanced technological platform, it enables banks to develop a bespoke digital banking environment, offering a variety of banking and non-banking services,
based on business needs and local market demands. These services include QR-based UPI cash withdrawal and deposit, account opening, credit card issuance, personal loans, insurance, MSME loans, and FASTag application and recharge.
Among these services, the QR-based UPI cash deposit is a new feature in India.
It provides customers with the ease of card-less cash deposits 24 hours a day, seven days a week into their own and other people’s bank accounts. The unique approach dramatically improves consumer security and gives customers more power by eliminating the need for physical cards while also providing an improved user experience via intuitive touch screens.
Easebuzz, a leading verticalized SaaS payments platform, has launched a groundbreaking Business-to-Business (B2B) invoice management and payments platform in partnership with NPCI Bharat BillPay Ltd. (NBBL). The platform was unveiled at the prestigious Global Fintech Festival (GFF) 2024 in Mumbai in the presence of the Honourable RBI Governor, Shri Shaktikanta Das.
This innovative platform aims to bring seamless interoperability to the B2B payments ecosystem, simplifying business transactions and enhancing operational efficiency.
The launch showcased NPCI’s demonstration of the platform’s interoperability by successfully processing a cross-platform invoice payment on the Easebuzz platform and its integrated payment gateway.
Key features include a robust payment gateway, an accounting suite, compliance tools, fraud detection, and capabilities for E-Invoicing, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), GST Payment, and Maker-Checker workflows.
This collaboration between Easebuzz and NPCI Bharat BillPay marks a significant milestone in the evolution of B2B payments in India, promising to streamline and enhance the efficiency of business transactions across industries.
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi released a commemorative postage stamp celebrating 75 years of the Supreme Court of India. The stamp was unveiled during the inaugural session of the District Judges Conference held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.
The commemorative stamp symbolizes the Supreme Court’s invaluable contribution to India’s judicial system and,
its pivotal role in shaping the legal landscape of the Nation. The Supreme Court, established on January 28, 1950, has been at the forefront of upholding the rule of law, safeguarding the rights of citizens, and ensuring the administration of justice across the country.
The Department of Posts, under the Ministry of Communications, is proud to issue this commemorative stamp, which is a testament to the Supreme Court's enduring legacy in India’s judicial history.
This event marks a significant milestone in the history of the Indian judiciary, celebrating seven and a half decades of the Supreme Court’s commitment to upholding justice.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Dr D Y Chandrachud; Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of Law & Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, and other distinguished dignitaries were present at the event.
V Satish Kumar took over as the chairman of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's largest oil firm.
Kumar, who is director (marketing) at IOC, was given additional charge of chairman following delays in finding a full-time chairman.
He also held the additional charge of Director (Finance) for one year from October 2022, a period characterised by geopolitical tensions due to the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
With a career spanning 35 years, Kumar has served in various regions across the country and held key positions, leading IOC's efforts to maintain its leadership in the marketing of petroleum products.
He has also gained extensive experience in engaging with multinational oil companies, serving as non-executive chairman of Indian Oil Petronas Pvt Ltd, a joint venture between IOC and Petronas (Malaysia), and as non-executive chairman of Indian Oil Mauritius Ltd, a subsidiary of IOC.
Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit assumed the appointment of Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Central Air Command on 1 September 2024.
Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit was commissioned into the fighter stream of IAF on 6 December 1986.The Air Officer is an Experimental Test Pilot and a Qualified Flying Instructor with more than 3300 hours of flying experience on a variety of aircraft,
in the IAF inventory. He is an alumnus of the prestigious National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College (Bangladesh) and National Defence College. He has actively participated in numerous operations and exercises such as Op-Safed Sagar and Op-Rakshak.
In recognition of his meritorious services, he has been awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, Vayu Sena Medal, and Vishisht Seva Medal, by the Hon'ble President of India.
India's Nishad Kumar secured a silver medal in the men's T47 high jump final at the Paris Paralympics. Kumar, who previously claimed silver in Tokyo, recorded his season-best jump of 2.04 meters to finish in second place. Townsend-Roberts of the United States claimed the gold medal with a season-best jump of 2.08 meters, pulling ahead of India's Nishad Kumar.
Russia's Georgii Margiev took home the bronze.
The 2024 Paralympics features India’s largest contingent to date, with 84 athletes competing across 12 sports. This increased participation reflects heightened medal expectations, as the nation aims to surpass its record-breaking performance at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, where India secured 19 medals.
Preeti Pal clinched the bronze medal in the 200m T-35 race. With this medal, Preeti created history as she became the first-ever Indian woman athlete to win 2 medals in the track & field event at the Paralympics, or Olympics.
Preethi Pal clocked a personal best timing of 30.01s in the final to take the third position.
The 23-year-old Indian athlete had won a bronze in the women’s 100m T35 class earlier for India’s first-ever Paralympic medal in a track event.
Xia Zhou and Guo Qianqian of the People’s Republic of China bagged the gold and silver medal, respectively, in the 200m event. Xia Zhou completed the race in 28.15s while Guo Qianqian registered a personal best of 29.09s.
The same Chinese duo beat Preethi Pal for the top two spots in the 100m sprint as well.
In a historic step towards developing sports infrastructure in Bihar, Hockey India announced that upcoming Hockey Women’s Asian Champions Trophy 2024 will be held in Rajgir from November 11 to 20. The tournament will take place at the newly constructed Rajgir Hockey Stadium, where India will defend their title against teams from China, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, and Korea.
The Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, expressed his enthusiasm for hosting the event, stating that the Bihar government is extremely pleased to welcome the eighth Hockey Women’s Asian Champions Trophy to Rajgir. He assured that every effort will be made to ensure the tournament's success.
Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections in August went up by 10 percent from the same period last year to Rs 1,74,962 crore, according to official statement of government. This growth was observed across all categories: Central GST (CGST), State GST (SGST), Integrated GST (IGST), and cess.
A year before, the gross GST revenue collected in the month of August, 2023 was Rs 1,59,069 crore.
For the month of July, the collections were totalled at Rs 182,075 crore. So far in 2024, the total GST collection has been 10.1 percent higher at Rs 9.13 lakh crore, as against Rs 8.29 lakh crore mopped up in the corresponding period of 2023.
In April, the total GST mop-up surged to a record high of Rs 2.10 lakh crore. In August 2024, domestic revenue grew 9.2 percent to about Rs 1.25 lakh crore. Gross GST revenues from import of goods were up 12.1 percent to Rs 49,976 crore.
Refunds worth Rs 24,460 crore were issued during the month, registering an increase of 38 percent over the year-ago period.
After adjusting refunds, net GST revenue increase was 6.5 per cent at Rs 1.5 lakh crore during the month under review.
GST was introduced on July 1, 2017, and states were assured of compensation for the revenue loss till June 2022, arising on account of the GST rollout.
Rubina Francis shot down India's fourth medal from the shooting range, showing tremendous calm and composure in a high-class field to clinch a bronze in the women's 10m air pistol SH1 event in the Paris Paralympics. Competing in a top-class field consisting of the defending champion and world record holder among others,
the 25-year-old Rubina held her own to score a total of 211.1 for a third-place finish in the eight-woman final.
Iran's Javanmardi Sareh won her third successive Paralympics gold with a total score of 236.8 while world record holder Ozgan Aysel of Turkey took the silver with 231.1 in a fierce competition between the two favourites.
Rubina's medal was India's fourth in shooting and fifth overall at the Paris Paralympics. She is India's first woman pistol shooter to win a Paralympic medal.
Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki has been honored with the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2024, often referred to as Asia's Nobel Prize, for his significant contributions to environmental protection and the promotion of peace through animation. The announcement was made by Studio Ghibli, the renowned animation studio co-founded by Miyazaki.
The global announcement of the 2024 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees was made by the Manila-based Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation. This year’s recipients include three individuals and one group, all recognized for their exceptional contributions to society. The official award ceremony is scheduled to take place in Manila this November, according to The Japan Times.
In recognition of his unstinting support for the success of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and his attachment to the Olympic ideal dear to Pierre de Coubertin, President Emmanuel Macron was presented with the Olympic Order in gold. This distinction pays tribute to his untiring engagement and vision for the Olympic Games, which made the edition in Paris an unforgettable event.
President Macron, in agreement with the Organising Committee and the French authorities, turned into spectacular reality, with a ceremony along the River Seine featuring iconic monuments like Notre-Dame, the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. This historic moment focused the eyes of the world on Paris, France and the Olympic Movement, thus becoming a symbol of unity and peace.
CredAble, the country’s leading FinTech company, announced Revolving Short-Term Loans at the Global Fintech Fest (GFF 2024), a game-changing credit line that is destined to change the rules of finance for enterprises of all sizes.
Building on CredAble’s legacy of financial innovation and laser-sharp emphasis on the expanding demands of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises,
the Revolving Short-Term Loans solution is intended to change how credit is supplied to small businesses and establish new standards of excellence in this field. CredAble’s new product, the Revolving Short-Term Loan, is a unique and pioneering pay-as-you-go working capital credit line that allows small businesses to pay interest only on money spent.
This one-of-a-kind customised and dynamic finance product combines real-time digital assessment with the freedom of collateral-free borrowing.
CredAble has made significant progress in closing the MSME credit gap in recent years by leveraging scaled technology, risk and compliance experience, and a comprehensive portfolio of working capital lending products.
