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- Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

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AI Will Let You Make A UPI Payment Using Voice - Is Imminent

UPI has considerably aided India's status as the leader in digital payments. The central bank's planned improvements will hasten the deployment of UPI. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recommended putting Artificial Intelligence-powered conversational features on UPI to enable digital payments through voice requests to make it more user-friendly and popular. The Power & Ease of Voice Transactions:  Users will be able to converse with an AI-powered system to "initiate and complete transactions in a safe and secure environment" with this functionality.The service will first be available in Hindi and English, with additional Indian languages to follow. This channel will be made available in both smartphone- and feature phone-based UPI channels, assisting in the country's deeper penetration of digital payments.  While QR code payments are simple for everyone, the addition of 'Conversational Payments' on UPI has the potential to take payment convenience to the next level. Those who find it difficult to utilize a mobile application for making digital payments or who wish to save time will now be able to easily execute UPI transactions.    

15 Aug 2023
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This Village in Kerala Sets an Example To Combat Climate Change With a Unique Initiative

The tree banking initiative of the Meenangadi panchayat in Wayanad district is gaining momentum thanks to the collective efforts of farmers who are on a crusade to make their village carbon neutral.  The initiative proposed by the NGO Thanal was received with great enthusiasm as farmers are entitled to a financial incentive. The project involves geo-tagging trees and submitting land tax receipts and Adhaar card numbers at the panchayat office. The farmer will then get  Rs 50 annually for each tree, as long as s/he does not cut them down. Dr. TM Thomas Issac, a former finance minister for Kerala, came up with the concept. Thanal contributed to the development of a model that, after doing a thorough study, determined that Wayanad had excess emissions of 11,412 tonnes of carbon dioxide. It was determined to plant trees based on their importance of carbon sequestration, medicinal and spiritual purposes, economic value, growth rate, and canopy area, after discussions with forest officials and agricultural specialists. Speaking to 101Reporters, Thanal's executive director Jayakumar C said that climate change was the main challenge they were facing. Tree banking turned out to be a successful initiative in their effort to design a project that is carbon neutral. Under this project, an estimate of the amount of carbon and the number of trees required to be planted to offset it was taken. The next step was how to inspire the farmers to maintain the trees and refrain from felling them after a few decades.  As a result, the concept of rewarding farmers for caring for the trees was developed. The farmers were given incentives annually and it became a win-win situation for them.

16 Dec 2022
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Banking To Be Made Easy For Senior Citizens

The Reserve Bank of India has asked banks to provide doorstep banking facilities to senior citizens above 70 years of age and disabled people by December 2017. The RBI opines that senior citizens, as well as disabled persons, should be able to avail of basic banking facilities from the comfort of their home. The basic services include pick-up and delivery of cash, chequebooks and demand drafts at their residence. In wake of some incidents where banks discouraged or turned away senior citizens and differently-abled persons from availing banking facilities in branches, banks are advised to make concerted effort to provide basic banking facilities. RBI in a communication to banks, including small finance and payments banks said they should offer facilities like pick-up of cash and instruments against receipt, delivery of cash against withdrawal from accounts, delivery of demand drafts, submission of Know Your Customer (KYC) documents and Life Certificates at the premises or residence of such customers. Noting that it is essential to be sensitive to the requirements of senior citizens and the differently-abled, the RBI asked banks to implement the instructions by December end, this year. It also asked banks to ensure that when a Life Certificate is submitted in any branch, including a non-home branch, the same should be updated and uploaded promptly in the CBS (Core Banking Solution) so that senior citizens are not inconvenienced. Banks also have to update fully KYC compliant accounts into a ‘Senior Citizen Account’ based on the date of birth available in the bank’s records.

11 Nov 2017
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