Mohammed Shafi Armar from Bhatkal killed in US airstrike in Syria

Bengaluru, Jan 15: The on-going process to select a new Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president is likely to drag on for few more days with former CM and opposition leader Siddaramaiah making a strong pitch for former minister MB Patil over DK Shivakumar for the post.

Siddaramaiah, who met AICC president Sonia Gandhi and other senior Congress leaders in New Delhi on Tuesday, reportedly argued in favour of Patil, saying his elevation would help the party win Lingayats to the fold.

“Yediyurappa, the undisputed leader of the Lingayat community, is almost at the end of his career and it is an opportunity for the Congress to gain the confidence of the community. Being a leader from North Karnataka, Patil fits the bill perfectly,” Siddaramaiah reportedly told Sonia.

Siddaramaiah is said to be backing Patil over Shivakumar as he is worried about losing his hold over the state unit, given Shivakumar’s popularity. While Sonia did give the former CM a patient hearing, she is said to have told him that he should obey and cooperate with whatever decision high command takes.

The high command is looking to evolve consensus on the new state president. “Sonia’s meeting with Siddaramaiah is part of this exercise. She wants to keep everybody in the loop,” said a functionary.

Siddaramaiah also met senior leaders Ahmed Patel and AK Anthony. He is expected to meet former AICC president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday.

However, some including Mallikarjun Kharge and Shamanur Shivashankarappa have expressed reservations against Patil’s elevation, pointing to his role in the controversial separate Lingayat religion issue which dented the Congress’ prospects in the 2018 assembly polls.

“He has a very bad name among Lingayats and making him president would prove counter-productive. Moreover, it is difficult to win back Lingayats as long as Yediyurappa is active in politics,” said a senior Congress leader.

Another functionary said a majority of state functionaries — and even some in the high command — favour Shivakumar as he is not only “resourceful”, but also has momentum. “With HD Deve Gowda and HD Kumaraswamy losing popularity among Vokkaligas, the possibility of the community backing Shivakumar is high. This may land him the top job,” the functionary said.

Bengaluru, Jan 16: Amping up the online payment experience for consumers, Razorpay, the leading full-stack financial services company, today launched a new product, Instant Refunds for businesses.

This new feature activates refunds and credits the customer's source account across payment methods such as credit card, net banking, and UPI within a minute of initiation.

India is one of the fastest-growing online retail markets today. About 71 per cent of internet users in the country purchase products online. Today, the refund process has two major pain points for both the end customer and the business.

First, a delay of five-seven business days for the customer in receiving the money because of multiple intermediaries like the acquiring bank, issuing bank and the networks (VISA/MasterCard/Rupay).

Second, the lack of transparency during the entire refund process for both the customer and the business. This long cycle of processing refunds is a significant problem with every popular payment method in the industry.

By issuing refunds instantly, Razorpay will help businesses retain their customers, build trust through an improved hassle-free payment experience and provide complete transparency on refunds to both the business and the end-user.

This new feature will also reduce the dependence on manpower as every refund issue on an average leads to ten service emails or calls from customer support teams.

"Instant Refunds are the new normal and central to great customer experience. A lot of consumers fail to use online payment methods as they feel getting refunds through an online platform is a very time-consuming task; hence they prefer CoD as the best alternative. Given the technological advancements being made in the fin-tech ecosystem, its fair for customers to expect refunds as fast as possible. A solution like Instant Refunds will not only help build consumer confidence in digital payments but also reduce losses for e-commerce companies where CoD has become an expensive option with more than 50 per cent online transactions made through cash", said Shashank Kumar, CTO & Co-founder of Razorpay.

"Our Instant Refunds feature ensures that the refund is processed at a 3600x faster pace than the normal expected time of five-seven business days. The team is focused on creating new technologies designed to make the entire payment lifecycle hassle-free. We believe this new feature will make customers experience a notch higher, help brands create a competitive advantage, and even make them more profitable", he added.

Razorpay's growth has been uphill, particularly in the last two years. With a 500 per cent growth in 2019, the company has been witnessing a healthy growth rate of 35 per cent month-on-month.

The company also recently launched its corporate credit cards for its partner businesses, RazorpayX current accounts, support for freelancers and homepreneurs, and acquired Opfin, a payroll and HR management software company.

Currently powering payments for over 800,000 businesses including the likes of Indigo, BSE, Thomas Cook, Reliance, SpiceJet, Aditya Birla, Sony, and Oyo, the team plans to increase this count to 1,400,000 by this year. The full-stack financial solutions company expects a 4x growth in its revenue by the end of the next fiscal year.

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