When you click the ‘pay’ button on an app or a website on your mobile device, you are setting off a flurry of activity behind the scenes. It’s a hubbub of handshakes, verifications, gateways, one-time passwords and networks yelling instructions at each other— an instant round-trip of signals that underpins modern commerce.This usually involves at least 14 distinct steps. When everything works, it all happens in an instant. But far too often in our country, once in every three financial transaction online to be precise, ends in a failure, according to the estimates of a number of online merchants and payment companies that ET Magazine spoke with. 64809304 It’s hard enough to get a user to the checkout counter. Huge efforts in marketing, user acquisition and lead generation go into creating that moment. And then to be unable to take the money from a user who wants to pay is simply infuriating to merchants. And it’s no less frustrating to the customer. 64809311 It is this agony that a new crop of payment offerings are aiming to eliminate. Their solution? Let the customer pay later. And they do this by extending the customer a small amount of credit on the spot, upon sign-up. Transaction success rate? 99%. Merchants are delighted. As for customers, they love the ability to settle their bills collectively once or twice a month rather than every time they transact. 64809322 “In five years we believe India will have 0% payments from cash on delivery (CoD) thanks to the pay later push,” says an optimistic Nitya Sharma, cofounder and CEO of Bengaluru-based Simpl, a provider of pay later solutions.India has 120 million people who shop online, according to a 2018 Assocham estimate. This is a subset of an estimated 240 million smartphone users and 1 billion subscribers with a mobile connection, according to estimates by Boston Consulting Group and Google.More than half of online transactions happen via cash, thanks to the CoD option most online retailers offer. Debit cards, credit cards and net banking make up for an estimated 46% of the pie. And the remaining 4% are newer er payment options like digital wallets. While the success rate of CoD at the checkout counter is indeed 100%, it suffers from an industrywide return rate of 30%-40%.Individual models vary, but broadly, paylater companies extend a short-term loan to consumers (often as little as `300), which are repaid typically in 15 day-cycles (as opposed to the monthly cycle typical of credit cards). They earn their revenue from a combination of late payment penalties, interest (around 3%) from late payers and a commission from merchants.When the founders of Simpl, Sharma and Chaitra Chidanand, returned from the US, they separately discovered that their earnings as topflight executives (he was a Wall Street banker, she worked as a coder in Silicon Valley; they are family friends), were great to open gilded bank accounts, but useless for credit.They both discovered India’s credit vaccum soon enough. Their credit card applications were turned down as neither had a credit history in India. This convinced them about the market for formal micro credit in India, and to start Simpl.Firms such as Simpl make their snap credit decisions using multiple layers of data. The first is an assessment or score the merchant has about the customer.The second is gathered is by trawling a customer’s social and financial fingerprints online. Companies also tend to offer progressively greater amounts in credit depending on the repayment history of the customer. 64809334 “The Pay Later option gives customers the flexibility to make instant payments through a single swipe checkout… This is a benefit for high-frequency Swiggy customers who can save valuable time during every transaction,” says Srivats TS, VP, marketing at India’s latest startup unicorn.According to Makemytrip’s cofounder, Rajesh Magow, the firm can look at what he calls trust scores (calculated by assessing transaction data and by using proprietary algorithms) to offer pre-determined credit limits to users, either itself or through financial services partners. Other large homegrown domestic firms such as Flipkart and Ola, too, offer in-house paylater offerings to reel in younger consumers and improve ease of use.“The biggest competition for our credit is money lent typically by friends and family,” says Akshay Mehrotra, CEO and cofounder of Early Salary.This startup has raised $17.5 million in funding from investors such as Eight Road Ventures. The venture, previously focused on giving young professionals a salary advance, acquired Cashcare, a provider of consumer loans, in May this year, to boost its presence in the pay-later market. Other startups, too, have piqued the interest of investors keen on backing the next wave of tech-based lending in India. At least two of them, Simpl and Slice Pay, are weeks away from announcing fresh tranches, three VCs familiar with the development told ET Magazine, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “From both a merchant perspective and a customer perspective, pay later as a model helps significantly improve transaction success rates and may also improve frequency of buying,” says Hari Menon, CEO, Big Basket, a leading online grocer.Globally, this form of credit is not new at all. It has existed for years, but hasn’t had the same cachet as in India, where online transactions suffer from high friction and credit availability is poor. Companies such Bill Me Later (acquired by Pay Pal), Ali Pay in China, After Pay in Australia and Klarna in Sweden all offer some form of deferred payment to users. What’s different is that these firms offer it in credit-rich markets, relying on interest-rate arbitrage (lending at an interest rate higher than the cost of borrowing) as a driver for growth. 64809351 In India, this isn’t the case, contend entrepreneurs. For one, the nature of customers is different and the use of cash in ecommerce and broadly in the economy is much more widespread. Credit off-take, too, is in its infancy in India (consumer credit as a share of GDP in India is around 10%, compared to 30% in Brazil, 60% in China and 80-90% in the US), opening up a new opportunity for these ventures.Nearly four decades after Andhra Bank issued India’s first credit card, Indians have been slow to adopt it. For years, dated technology and networks held back their adoption. While debit cards and more recently mobile wallets have given us far easier access to cash, they come with a clumsy means of access online. Names and numbers have to tally, CVVs need to be entered correctly and one-time passwords need to show up in the time allotted (15% of the time this step fails).Broken payment gateways leave shoppers frustrated and companies tearing their hair out wondering how to hold on to these grumpy shoppers. In some cases, in online apparel and fashion, the failure rate at check out can be as high as 40%.A number of companies have come up trying to address the market through pay-later solutions in the last couple of years. Now they’re showing promising signs of growth. Companies such as Simpl, Lazy Pay, Epaylater, Early Salary, Slice Pay, Kissht and Mihuru all offer a one-click or one-tap payment experience for shoppers. They provide this short-term credit primarily to consumers below the age of 30. 64809358 Business leaders believe that the pay later concept may give fresh legs to their operations. Amazon, for example launched, a buy-now-pay-later program during its Great Indian Festival (Diwali 2017) sale that gave customers the option to buy products for Diwali and start paying in 2018. “(The interest in deferred payment) manifests itself more during festival period,” says Mahendra Nerurkar, director, Amazon Pay. “Based on last year’s learning … we are looking to partner with more banks to (offer more) cash-backs and deferred payment options.”India’s largest platform by the number of transactions— IRCTC — is also now offering a pay-later solution, through Mumbai-based Epaylater. “We want to provide a painless solution for merchants and consumers in what is historically a broken payment mechanism,” says Aurko Bhattacharya, CEO and cofounder of Epaylater. Some 70 lakh tickets are booked monthly on the railways’ platform and with a phased roll-out, some 7,000-8,000 tickets a day are now booked on the Epaylater platform.Entrepreneurs came into the business in different ways. Before starting Slice Pay (called Buddy in version 1.0), the founders, Deepak Malhotra and Rajan Bajaj, ran a household equipment rental startup venture that ran aground after seven months. That enterprise gave them valuable lessons when they geared up for a second go.Many young executives and students wanted to buy furniture and ACs, for example, for their houses, but couldn’t afford it. So they rented them but often ended up paying more over time than the actual cost of buying it. Relatively poorly paid and with little credit options, these young strugglers were the inspiration for Slice Pay.“Students are perhaps an ideal target,” says Bajaj of Slicepay. “Our target market has a rich and frequent history of online transactions.” The firm has disbursed some `125 crore in loans (sourced from finance partners, it doesn’t have its own capital pool, yet) to some 200,000 students in seven cities. It wants to be present in 30 cities in a year. 64809366 “We have an edge in catching students, who are the next big drivers of credit and consumption, early on,” he adds. Already, Slice Pay is thinking ahead; it has started doling out loans to young professionals who were its customers until they were in college. It wants to now provide them larger chunks of credit—and eventually become something of a bank for millennials.The opportunity to deepen India’s credit pool, is pushing some conventional fintech players to think ahead. Lazy Pay, a venture from PayU, the payment gateway from Naspers, is backed by a reported $50 million funding from its parent and is in a tear to bring in users on its pay later unit. Since April 2017 when it started, it has signed up 100-plus merchants and crossed half a million consumers for its service. “When we started off, our average loan size was `2,500, now that’s up to `25,000,” says Pallav Jain, business head of Lazy Pay.Entrepreneurs can dream big because aspirational young consumers want more, but are hamstrung for credit. “Every time it is the end of the month, I need to consider a movie and lunch with friends a luxury,” says Ashwini S, a 22-year-old contact centre manager. “These pay later options help me extend my finances without worrying about going completely broke.”However, these are often granted to those who fall between the cracks — often too young to have a strong Cibil score or other credit history. Other critics argue that the regulation around these companies is hazy—and regulating these firms may be challenging in such a fluid environment. Then, there are questions around the business model itself. Can loans for as little as `300 make sense dispensing, given the costs associated with it, even if technology minimises overheads? 64809371 “The ticket sizes in these companies are generally very small and since the space is under-regulated and defaults not linked to a poorer CIBIL score, they could easily be ignored by the young target audience,” argues Mahesh Makhija, Partner, Business Advisory Services, at EY.According to multiple bankers ET Magazine reached out to, default rates in the credit card business are 3-4%. They said pay later busineses would see delinquencies as high as 4%, even if their ticket sizes were on average far smaller. While some firms such as Epaylater are platforms and lean on regulations governing their financial partners (from the RBI), others such as Early Salary, which have an NBFC unit, will need to report their data to the Central bank directly.Then, some industry voices also worry that in its current structure, where the mobile phone number is the point of access and identification, unscrupulous applicants can game the system, using multiple numbers to take several small loans and vanish. “An Aadhaar identification layer may provide some protection, but for an emerging space, this adds another layer of authentication and will lead to some erosion in the user base,” says the cofounder of a fintech firm in a related space.This poses challenges to a market where massive volumes are key to survival. “To make a mark in the business, these guys need to sign up at least five or six million users to stay afloat,” says a vice-president with a private sector bank in Mumbai. “This is a hard ask for any startup, forget one that is just starting and can expect to be hit by a wave of regulation.” 64809378 The other bugbear for all credit providers is how to tackle defaults. In the case of these ventures, they are going with traditional recovery means, starting with texts and automated calls, followed by manual calls to pursue defaulters. More serious means of recovery agents are rarely used, since users tend to cough up their dues by step one. Also, recovery agents are typically used when dues are far larger. When the outstanding is a few thousand rupees, it’s too expensive to deploy recovery agents.Faced with these challenges, startups are already thinking beyond purely a pay-later model. Perhaps sensing the limitations, several of them are pushing to look further afield. For example, Early Salary has a NBFC licence in its kitty and another player Epaylater wants to follow suit. “We want to use our learnings with the pay-later model to provide a wider and larger range of convenient credit to our customers,” says Jain of Lazy Pay.Some startups such as Simpl, want to push this tech into the offline world too. Epaylater has signed up with IDFC Bank to offer its credit services on the UPI network, to expand its offline presence. Any merchant accepting UPI or Bharat QR can be roped in to offer credit to consumers.

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By Dileep PremachandranIn the 13 years that Brian Oliver spent as sports editor of The Observer, there was one sporting event he made it a point not to miss — football’s African Cup of Nations. The biennial competition was afforded the same gravitas as the European continental showpiece, with boots-on-ground reporting, features and interviews. Oliver himself soaked in the spectacle and was awed by the skills he found on the streets, where kids would nonchalantly juggle balls made from rags, orange peel and anything else that came to foot. 1990s was the decade when African football served notice. Cameroon’s odyssey at Italia ’90 set the tone, and the Nigerian displays in ’94 and ’98 made us wonder just how soon an African side would lift the ultimate prize. A generation on, we are still waiting, and glory feels further away than ever. For the first time since 1982, there will not be an African side in the second phase of the World Cup. Of the five African teams, Egypt and Morocco didn’t win a game. Nigeria and Tunisia won matches they were expected to, against Iceland and Panama. Only Senegal, desperately unlucky to miss the pre-quarters on fair-play criterion after finishing with the same number of points and goal difference as Japan, caused what might be considered an upset, beating Poland in their opening game. In contrast, the Asian teams have done better. Japan, despite the dismal final few minutes of keep-ball against Poland, were excellent in beating Colombia and the 2-2 draw with Senegal. South Korea sent Germans home, and Iran came this close to knocking Portugal out. Saudi Arabia rebounded from a 5-0 thrashing against Russia to beat Egypt. Australia, which is part of the Asian Football Confederation, finished winless, but they competed ferociously with France and Denmark. Why, then, hasn’t the African spring come to pass ? “Coaching and infrastructure are a huge problem, especially coaching,” says Oliver, still a passionate observer from afar. “It’s good to see Senegal have a Senegalese coach, but that’s almost unheard of. When players go to Europe, they stay in Europe, so all that knowledge is lost. That’s not the case in other continents.” Claude Le Roy, the Frenchman who coached Cameroon to the Cup of Nations title in 1988 and was a mentor to Roger Milla, laid it out even more clearly when he was interviewed a decade ago. “The longer the young players play in Africa, the better,” he told The Observer. “If they move too soon, have a format created for them [in Europe], everyone becomes the same. The best African players are those, like Milla, who didn’t go too early.” In African football’s most successful period, it was their skills, most of them honed on the streets, which made them such unpredictable opponents. With Nigeria’s Jay-Jay Okocha and Nwankwo Kanu and Ghana’s Abedi Pele, you never knew what you would get next. Since their heyday, European football scouts have tended to fetishise physique, perhaps blinded by the sight of the Hulk-like Senegalese footballer Papa Bouba Diop bulldozing his way through the French defence to score the winning goal in the 2002 World Cup opener.Nigeria’s Ahmed Musa scored two of the best goals of the World Cup against Iceland. But when he moved to Leicester City from CSKA Moscow in the summer of 2016, he started just 13 games. Adjusting to a new environment played a part, but so did the innate suspicion of maverick players who don’t fit into tactical straitjackets. Those attitudes have been taken to Africa by a generation of well-meaning coaches. Much of the flair that so enthralled us a generation ago has been coached out of young kids, in favour of adhering to a system. Before the Cup of Nations in 2012, Jonathan Wilson, who has also trekked across the continent over the past decade, wrote: “The football in Angola two years ago was rubbish. Only Egypt and Ghana played with anything like cohesion. Yes, Zambia flickered, Malawi were plucky and Gabon were doughty, but there was some miserable football played. Nigeria somehow sulked their way to the semi-final. Cameroon were ramshackle at the back and Samuel Eto’o’s lack of faith in his [Cameroon] team-mates led to him playing far too deep. Algeria played practically nihilistic football, timewasting their way to a semi-final – and were allowed to do so by weak refereeing.”These words have more than a ring of truth. Senegal may just have failed to make the last 16, but their displays under the guidance of Aliou Cisse, their captain in 2002, should serve as a template for the rest of the continent. Imitating European methods can only take African football so far. That threshold has been reached. To go further, to reach where we thought they would in 1998, there’s a need to go back to the roots, the unique rhythms and dreams not circumscribed by 4-4-2 and zonal marking.FIFA World Cup: Detailed Coverage

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New Delhi, Jul 1 () Dr Reddy's Laboratories is recalling from the US over 2.36 lakh bottles of Atorvastatin Calcium tablets used for lowering cholesterol, as per a report by the US health regulator. Dr Reddy's Labs Inc is recalling 2.30 lakh bottles of the calcium tablets on account of "failed impurities/degradation specifications," regulator USFDA said in its Enforcement Report. These recalled tablets are in the strengths of 10 mg, 20 mg and 40 mg. Out of the total bottles being recalled, 55,126 are of 10 mg strength, 44,894 bottles of 20 mg and 1,30,081 bottles are of 40 mg, it added. The firm is also recalling 6,397 bottles of 80 mg on account of "presence of foreign substance: A product complaint was received for a defective tablet with an embedded foreign object observed in a bottle," the report said. The tablets were manufactured by Dr Reddy's Labs at its Srikakulam facility, it said. The voluntary recall for the 10 mg, 20 mg and 40 mg tablets from the US and Puerto Rico s a class III recall, it added. For the 80 mg tablets, the recall is of class II, USFDA said. As per USFDA, a class II recall is initiated in a "situation in which use of, or exposure to, a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote." A class III recall is initiated in a situation in which use of, or exposure to, a violative product is not likely to cause adverse health consequences.

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The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) today reported a 36.3 per cent increase in total sales at 1,44,981 units in June as against 1,06,394 units in the year-ago month. The firm's domestic sales stood at 1,35,662 units, up 45.5 per cent from 93,263 units in June last year, MSI said in a statement. Sales of mini segment cars, including Alto and WagonR, witnessed a growth of 15.1 per cent at 29,381 units from 25,524 units in June 2017, MSI said. The auto major further said sales of compact segment cars comprising Swift, Estilo, Dzire and Baleno jumped by 76.7 per cent to 71,570 units last month as against 40,496 units in the June last year. Sales of mid-sized sedan Ciaz declined by 60 per cent to 1,579 units during the month as compared to 3,950 units in the same month last year. Utility vehicles, including Ertiga, S-Cross and compact SUV Vitara Brezza, sales rose by 39.2 per cent to 19,321 units in June, from 13,879 units in the same month of 2017. Sales of vans -- Omni and Eeco -- grew by 32.3 per cent to 12,185 units last month as against 9,208 units in the year-ago period. Exports in June this year dropped by 29 per cent to 9,319 units as compared to 13,131 units in the same month last year, MSI said. The company said sales of its LCV Super Carry witnessed over 7-fold increase to 1,626 units last month as compared to 206 units in June 2017.

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The task force was constituted in February 2018 to study the strategic implications of AI in national security.

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By Harshal Dewangan

A 5G compatible OnePlus smartphone alongside the device's incredible performance. Just imagine.

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By Harshal Dewangan

Google Doodle celebrates football culture of Russia, Spain and other nations on Day 17 of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

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The NSA's bulk collection of call records was curtailed by Congress after Edward Snowden's reveal.

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By Harshal Dewangan

More than 20 Silicon Valley venture capital firms have close ties to a Chinese government fund or state-owned entity

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By Harshal Dewangan

Switter currently has around 100,000 escorts and allies on its site and continues to grow every month.

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By Harshal Dewangan

The Round of 16 got underway in style at the FIFA World Cup!
Sensational Strikes, Magnificent Mbappe and the end of an era for two icons of the game, Matchday 16 had it all! What was your highlight? Find out where to watch live: fifa.tv/watch2018 Match highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDY1N-IJOA8&list=PLCGIzmTE4d0hww7NG9ytmooEUZov2k-23 More from Russia 2018: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0ia-PWE7WoysqLao-0y7jEz More World Cup stories: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0j5nOjvXOP55xyW3aJCyeGo Follow all the action from Russia across the FIFA Platforms: 👉 http://www.youtube.com/fifa 👉 https://ift.tt/1lBiWzz 👉 http://www.twitter.com/fifaworldcup 👉 https://ift.tt/1M0OH0G 👉 http://www.fifa.com


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PEPE Goal - Uruguay v Portugal - MATCH 49
Pepe's goal for Portugal against Uruguay. Find out where to watch live: fifa.tv/watch2018 Match highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDY1N-IJOA8&list=PLCGIzmTE4d0hww7NG9ytmooEUZov2k-23 More from Russia 2018: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0ia-PWE7WoysqLao-0y7jEz More World Cup stories: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0j5nOjvXOP55xyW3aJCyeGo Follow all the action from Russia across the FIFA Platforms: 👉 http://www.youtube.com/fifa 👉 https://ift.tt/1lBiWzz 👉 http://www.twitter.com/fifaworldcup 👉 https://ift.tt/1M0OH0G 👉 http://www.fifa.com


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Edinson CAVANI Goal 2 - Uruguay v Portugal - MATCH 49
Edinson Cavani's goal fro Uruguay against Portugal. Find out where to watch live: fifa.tv/watch2018 Match highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDY1N-IJOA8&list=PLCGIzmTE4d0hww7NG9ytmooEUZov2k-23 More from Russia 2018: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0ia-PWE7WoysqLao-0y7jEz More World Cup stories: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0j5nOjvXOP55xyW3aJCyeGo Follow all the action from Russia across the FIFA Platforms: 👉 http://www.youtube.com/fifa 👉 https://ift.tt/1lBiWzz 👉 http://www.twitter.com/fifaworldcup 👉 https://ift.tt/1M0OH0G 👉 http://www.fifa.com


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