Product

Economic Times Publishes My Puff Piece On Bitcoin

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Dear Editor of Economic Times: This has reference to the twin op-ed entitled “IT GIVES THE CREEPS” by Ateesh Tankha and Mythili Bhusnurmath in today’s edition of The Economic Times. This article reminds me of similar opinions expressed on these very pages in the 1990s regarding equity. Despite all the doomsday prophecies made by pundits … Read more

How RBI Emandate Can Become Consumer Savior

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Reserve Bank of India brought Emandate into force on 1 October 2021. As we saw in RBI Emandate: Revenue Killer Or Consumer Interest Savior?, this regulation impacts recurring payments and auto debits (“Standing Instructions”) set up with credit card and debit card. This was after a postponement of six 24* months at the behest of … Read more

RBI Emandate: Consumer Savior Or Revenue Killer?

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After being postponed by six months, RBI Emandate has finally come into effect from 1 October 2021. Applicable to recurring payments and auto debits, the new regulation has caused massive chaos for media companies, SaaS vendors and other businesses whose revenue model is anchored on automatically charging a credit card or debit card on file … Read more

RIP Google Plex – But Big Tech Can Still Disrupt Big Banks

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Bank accounts are not heavily branded, barring IndusInd Bank and a few more exceptions. The fifth largest private sector bank in India tries to create a strong brand for its bank account on the back of differentiators like return of canceled cheque. (For the uninitiated, banks return canceled cheques to customers by default in USA … Read more

CoWIN Certificate – Travel Ready Or Not?

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As soon as the UK government announced that it won’t accept CoWIN Certificate as proof of vaccination of Indian travelers, all hell broke loose on Twitter. Some people argued that CoWIN portal provides cloud-based, digitally signed vaccination certificate. UK cannot make sense of India's CoWin vaccine certificate, because India's QR coded, digitally signed document is … Read more

Teardown Of “Direct To Consumer” Business Model

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Both FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) and DTC (Direct to Consumer) companies manufacture their own products. (NOTE: In some markets, FMCG is called CPG or Consumer Packaged Goods. Source: McKinsey.) Both of them sell online and via brick-and-mortar stores. Their products are used by a Consumer i.e. private individual in his or her personal capacity … Read more

How To Revive Interoperability In UPI

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In Interoperability – The Sole Loser In UPI, we saw why interoperability has been compromised in UPI. In this post, we’ll explore ways to revive this noble goal. Some people advocate education campaigns to increase awareness of VPA and thereby revive interoperability. Once people know what a VPA is, first they would ensure better VPAs and … Read more

What Does Customer Centric Really Mean?

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Customer Centric means “thinking about the customer while designing your product and overall experience”. There are various facets to the customer: Tasks – as in jobs to be done Preference – as in taste Interest – as in vested interest Welfare – as in happiness All of the above Which facet should customer-centric credo think … Read more

Decoding The Tenuous Link Between GDP And TPV (Total Payments Value)

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Many people conflate the amount of payments processed in a country with the country’s GDP. This is wrong: GDP drives, but does not cap, TPV. Take the COO of a leading mobile payment fintech: April loss of business is $80bn approx vs cost of vaccinating India $8bn:RTGS – 🔻33%NEFT – 🔻34%UPI – 🔻3%IMPS – 🔻9%Credit Card … Read more