Jaya's situation 'extremely grave', says London specialist

New Delhi, Jan 3: The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Thursday said the homegrown payments technology RuPay will offer 40 per cent cashback for its international card users for transactions in select countries.

Indians travelling to the UAE, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the UK, the US, Spain, Switzerland and Thailand will be able to earn up to Rs 16,000 cashback per month by getting their RuPay International Card activated, the NPCI said in a release.

With RuPay International cards --JCB, Discover and Diners Club--customers using multiple cards can earn more cashbacks under the 'RuPay Travel Tales' campaign.

To avail the cashback benefit, customers will have to do a minimum transaction of Rs 1000 and the maximum cashback is capped at Rs 4,000 for a single transaction.

The offer can be availed by customers using RuPay International Card four times a month that can give them a chance of earning up to Rs 16,000 as cashback.

Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI said, "We always aim to create an end-to-end value proposition for RuPay International cardholders to make their overseas travel experience seamless and memorable. The campaign is not only providing an exciting platform for travelers to earn cashbacks but also motivating them to migrate towards digital transactions nationally and globally".

Apart from earning cashbacks, RuPay International cardholders can access to RuPay affiliated domestic/international airport lounges.

They also can avail attractive offers on booking international fights and hotels in association with Thomas Cook and Make My Trip, the release said.

RuPay has a partnership with Discover Financial Services (DFS) and Japan based JCB International, allowing RuPay users the access to across 190 countries.

As on date, there are over 1,100 banks live on RuPay platform including SBI, HDFC Bank, Axis bank, among others.

RuPay card base has crossed 600 million, half of which are in the mid and premium segments, NCPI said.

NPCI was incorporated in 2008 as an umbrella organization for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India. An initiative of RBI and IBA under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, NPCI was initiated for creating a robust payment and settlement infrastructure in the country.

The World Bank says that a lack of credit and drop in private consumption have led to a gloomy growth outlook for India with a steep cut in growth rate for the current fiscal year and only a modest gain projected for the next year.

India's growth rate is forecast to be only 5 per cent for the current fiscal year, weighed down by a growth of only 4.5 per cent in the July-September quarter, according to the 2020 Global Economic Prospects report released on Wednesday.

"In India, [economic] activity was constrained by insufficient credit availability, as well as by subdued private consumption," the Bank said.

The growth rate is forecast by the Bank to pick up to 5.8 per cent in the next fiscal year and to 6.1 per cent in 2021-22.

India's growth rate was 6.8 per cent in 2018-19.

The 5 per cent growth rate projection for the current financial year is a sharp cut of 2.5 per cent from the 7.5 per cent forecast made by the Bank in January last year, toppling it from the rank of the world's fastest growing economy.

India's performance follows a global trend of lowered growth weighed down by developed economies.

The report estimated world economic growth rate to be only 2.4 per cent last year and forecast it to edge up 0.1 per cent to 2.5 per cent in the current year.

Even with the lower growth rate of 5 per cent in the current fiscal year and 5.8 per cent forecast for the next, India holds the second rank among large economies, behind only China with an estimated growth rate of 6.1 per cent for 2019 and 5.9 per cent this year.

The report blamed "weak confidence, liquidity issues in the financial sector" and "weakness in credit from non-bank financial companies" for India's slowdown.

The Bank predicated India's recovery to 5.8 per cent in the coming financial year for India but "on the monetary policy stance remaining accommodative" and the assumption that "the stimulative fiscal and structural measures already taken will begin to pay off."

It also warned that sharper-than-expected slowdown in major external markets such as United States and Europe, would affect South Asia through trade, financial, and confidence channels, especially for countries with strong trade links to these economies."

The Bank said that the growth of advanced economies was 1.6 per cent last year and "is anticipated to slip to 1.4 per cent in 2020 in part due to continued softness in manufacturing."

In contrast the growth of emerging market and developing countries is expected to accelerate from 3.5 per cent last year to 4.1 per cent this year, the report said.

In South Asia, Bangladesh is estimated to have the highest growth rate of 7.2 per cent in the current fiscal year, although down from 8.1 per cent last fiscal year.

But its higher regional growth rates are coming off a lower base with a per capital gross domestic product of $1,698 compared to $2,010 for India.

Bangladesh is expected to grow by 7.3 per cent in the next financial year.

Pakistan's growth rate is estimated at only 2.4 per cent in the current fiscal year and is projected to rise to 3 per cent in the next, according to the Bank.

The Bank blamed monetary tightening in Pakistan for a sharp deceleration in fixed investment and a considerable softening in private consumption for the fall in growth rate from 3.3 per cent in the 2018-19 fiscal year.

Sri Lanka's growth rate was estimated to be 2.7 per cent last year and forecast to grow to 3.3 per cent this year.

Nepal grew by an estimated 6.4 per cent in the current fiscal year and will rise to 6.5 per cent in the next.

Varanasi, Feb 16: Amidst continuing protests against the amended citizenship law, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said his government stood by the decision despite all pressure.

"Be it the decision on Article 370 or the Citizenship Amendment Act, it was necessary in the interest of the country. Despite pressure, we stand by our decision and will remain so," he said.

Modi was addressing a public meeting in his Lok Sabha constituency.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also asserted that the trust set up for construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya will work "rapidly".

"A trust has been formed for construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya. This trust will work rapidly," he said at a public meeting during his day-long visit to his Lok Sabha constituency.

The government had recently set up the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra on the Supreme Court's directive to the Union government to form a trust that can look into the construction and management of the temple.