Solutions to Change

By Anagha Vinod Technological innovation has changed the world drastically. FinTech, which is short for financial technology, means embracing the novel digital technology for the efficient delivery of financial services. The services offered not only include payment and borrowing but also crowdfunding, cryptocurrency, robo advising and insurance. This has helped in fostering financial inclusion as more and more people started adopting the method of mobile payments considering its convenience. The FinTech industry includes start-ups and some of the big companies in the world. These companies have taken a strong root in countries like India and China. Despite all these, FinTech also has its flip side. It is important to determine how much the industry should be regulated and how high should the barriers to entry be. The main factors which influence the market structure can be categorised into two viz., supply factors and demand factors. Most of the barriers to entry come unde...

By Ragavi R (Imae source:  echalliance.com) Jeremy Bentham, a utilitarian philosopher in the 18 th century invented the institutional form of surveillance model called “Panopticon”. Panopticon is a model where the inmates in a prison are watched by a single guard and the inmates are unaware that they are being watched. What is the link between Panopticon and Data Protection Regulation? Well, the answer lies in the way how the 21 st century business and its ecosystem functions. ‘Uber’, one of the largest taxi companies, owns no cars. ‘Facebook’, the popular media owner, owns no content. ‘Alibaba’, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. Even though the statement sounds pessimistic, it provides an insight into the fact that we are racing towards a “data world”. The collection, organisation and processing of data have become ubiquitous. According to the Information Technology Act 2000, the definition of “data”, is the representation of knowledge, inform...

by Subirthana M S On May 2019, BJP President Amit Shah reacting to former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Omar Abdullah’s statement that J&K should have a separate Prime Minister, said that if the BJP comes to power again with Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister, Article 370 that gives special provisions to the state of J&K will be removed for sure. In response to BJP’s 2019 manifesto, attempting to do away with Article 370, Omar Abdullah — the Vice-President of National Conference — on April 2019 had demanded a separate Prime Minister and President for J&K. He pointed out that until 1965 Kashmir had its own President (sadar-e-riyasat) and Prime Minister (wazir-e-azam). He said his party will work with anyone who promises to protect Article 370 and Article 35A and claimed to restore the internal autonomy that existed during the accession of Kashmir to India. BJP as a party has also been very vocal about the abrogation of Article 370. This menti...

By Anupama Ghosh (Image source: the quint) The largest democratic exercise of the world came to an end with the voting in the seventh and the last phase of the General Elections on May 19. While the country awaits the results of the elections to be announced on May 23, the results of the various exit polls are out.  Most of the exit polls predict an easy win for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)- led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The veracity of the exit polls will only be known on May 23 when the results will be announced. However, there is no denying the fact that these poll predictions pose a number of serious questions for the major players of Indian polity — the larger national as well as prominent regional parties. Congress — No Lessons Learnt? The Grand Old Party of India crumbled to its lowest in the 2014 General Elections, when it managed to win only 44 seats. Marred by the corruption allegations during the regime of UPA II, followed by the d...

By Juanita Justin (Image source: Business Line) The Election Commission of India (ECI) is an autonomous constitutional body that is responsible for conducting smooth, free and fair elections and monitoring the election processes of the political parties and candidates. It enforces the code of conduct as soon as the dates for the Assembly election in a state or the Lok Sabha polls are announced, and it stays effective until the completion of the poll process. Article 324 of the Indian Constitution provides the electoral commission with the power to monitor the Central/State governments, the candidates, their political parties and the polling processes. The violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) does not warrant any punitive action. However, some steps were taken under the Representation of People Act 1951 to grant certain provisions of the MCC legal sanctity and label them as illegal practices punishable with a jail time for up to two years, a fine or both. The ECI ha...

By Jayashri Ramesh Sundaram (Image Courtesy: LiveMint) In February 2019, bringing relief to digital wallet companies, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) extended the deadline for them to meet the Know Your Customer (KYC) norms. KYC guidelines help prevent fraudulent activities like money laundering and risks that may arise in the light of expanding technology. An emerging market dealing with money, especially in the digital space, is prone to risk and this attracts warnings by the RBI. Hence, it should be of no surprise seeing the RBI taking measures to prevent fraud via digital wallets. But what has come to everyone’s surprise is the announcement of deadlines to meet KYC with only a non-descript regulation without stating a clear road map. Along with this, RBI specifying on the subject of interoperability mandates the incorporation of Unified Payment Interface (UPI) into the application for the feature to be enabled in respective e-wallets. This post will examine the fu...