Archive: March 1, 2022

World Hearing Day theme, ‘To hear for life, Listen with care’, lays emphasis on hearing loss prevention through safe listening!

The World Health Organisation has designated March 3rd as the World Hearing Day, to highlight timely and effective interventions to ensure people with hearing loss are able to achieve their full potential. The theme for this year’s World Hearing Day on March 3rd, 2022, is To hear for life, Listen with care, with the thrust being on the importance and means of hearing loss prevention through safe listening.

WHO launched the World report on the hearing, which highlighted the increasing number of people living with and at risk of hearing loss. It highlighted noise control as one of the seven key interventions and stressed the importance of mitigating exposure to loud sounds. The theme emphasises on the fact that it is possible to have good hearing across the life course through ear and hearing care. Many common causes of hearing loss can be prevented, including hearing loss caused by exposure to loud sounds, therefore ‘Safe listening’ can mitigate the risk of hearing loss associated with recreational sound exposure. WHO has called upon governments, industry partners and civil society to raise awareness for and implement evidence-based standards that promote safe listening.

Hearing loss is the most common sensory deficit in humans today. As per WHO estimates, in India alone there are approximately 63 million people, who are suffering from Significant Auditory Impairment. The estimated prevalence is at 6.3% in the Indian population. According to National Sample Survey Organization, currently, there are 291 persons per one lakh population suffering from severe to profound hearing loss. A large percentage of these is children between the ages of 0 to 14 years. In India, an alarming 27,000 children are born deaf every year. It is estimated that by the year 2050, 1 in 4 people will have hearing problems. 70% of people with diabetes aged above 50 years of age will have significant hearing loss.

The world statistics indicate that 5% of the world’s population or 430 million people require rehabilitation to address their ‘disabling’ hearing loss. Hearing loss occurs in 1-3 newborns per 1000 births, with 1-2 per 1,000 suffering from permanent childhood hearing impairment. Over 1 billion young adults are at risk of permanent, avoidable hearing loss due to unsafe listening practices. Disabling hearing impairment in Telangana State is common, affecting approximately 1 in 23 people overall and a third of people aged older than 65 years.

There is much more to be done by the Government machinery along with NGOs and other voluntary organisations to mitigate the burden of hearing impairment and rehabilitate those with complete or partial hearing loss, to make this world a more pleasant place to live.

One of the measures to decrease the burden of hearing loss is the Screening of newborns and infants. WHO makes newborn hearing screening programs mandatory by “Catch them young” theme should be adopted by all paediatric hospitals across the state, including government and private. Also, going for regular hearing tests in adults like regular health check-ups is required because one may not realize that they have hearing loss because it’s often a gradual process.

Winklevoss twins and global decacorn invest in $29M Series A of Indian co-founders’ Volopay as it expands to India

Mumbai, 1st March, 2022: Volopay, a Y Combinator-backed Singapore-based corporate cards and payable management start-up has raised $29 million in Series A, a mix of equity and debt, from the famous Winklevoss twins – Cameron and Tyler along with a global decacorn among others to enter the Indian market. With the investment, Volopay now eyes on the entire APAC region along with the MENA expansion after firmly placing itself into the Singaporean and Australian markets. Part of Series A funds will be put towards their forthcoming market launches, building and innovating new technologies to complement their existing product.

The round included participation from JAM Fund, Winklevoss Capital Management, Accial Capital, Rapyd Ventures, fintech veterans Jeffrey Cruttenden – CEO of Acorns, Sweta Rau – Founder of White Ventures, Amrish Rau – CEO of Pine Labs and Jitendra Gupta – Founder & CEO of Jupiter, along with Antler Global and VentureSouq.

Since its seed funding, Volopay has grown exponentially to better alleviate its clients’ pain points. With a 150+ member team spread all over major business centres in the Asia Pacific region, such as Singapore, Australia, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, Volopay has amassed an impressive clientele with the likes of CoinDCX, Livspace, MPL, InVideo, and MX Media.

On the growth expansion and investment, Rajith Shaji and Rajesh Raikwar, Co-founders, Volopay said, “The market opportunity is massive. With India churning out several unicorn-level enterprises every year, it is indeed making a big wave on the global frontier. And this is only the beginning. Accelerating their growth would require an efficient expense management tool that is simple yet scalable, something that Volopay has always aimed for.”

Rajith adds, “Volopay is an ambitious project. To build an alternative to Volopay, you’d have to launch 5 different start-ups. We are building the control centre for modern companies for all their financial management needs. Our platform is as easy and seamless to use for a 5-person company, as it is for a 500-person company. We want to take our vision of a unified spend management platform to all companies across the world after our initial markets of APAC and MENA.”

The Singapore-based Fin-tech start-up allows businesses to manage their money by providing a clear view of their financial health through modernization, automation, and enhancement of existing workflows and processes. Providing synchronal visibility, the platform streamlines expense workflows while giving real-time visibility and control over business spending.

Rajith says “However, more work remains to be done in this industry. One of the most pressing problems that SMEs and start-ups face today is the high FX charges incurred for international payments and the lack of a uniform platform available to access all spend data. Volopay’s foray into the Indian market will tackle precisely the problem stated above by providing companies with multi-currency wallets to hold money in their base currency INR and any major currency – USD, EUR, GBP – and subsequently use it for payouts. This will help completely eliminate exorbitant amounts of FX charges levied on international payments.”

Volopay is disrupting traditional business banking and aims to become the one-and-only solution for cards, invoice automation, and bill payments that growing, global businesses require. To achieve this, Volopay has embarked on the ambitious objective of building its own infrastructure and applying for financial licenses. This will enable their worldwide clients to eliminate the requirement for integration with numerous 3rd-party financial services platforms by building their own infrastructure, resulting in a consistent and pleasurable customer experience regardless of the location they operate in.

Justin Mateen, co-founder, Tinder & Founder, JAM Fund who led the round, said in a statement, “We’ve known and worked closely with Volopay’s amazing team since the pre-seed stage. Given the strong growth momentum in the business, single stack scalable product across multiple jurisdictions, coupled with global opportunity in spend management, they have excited us to double down and lead the Series A round. We are delighted to work with a pioneer in this sector and assist them in reaching new heights.”

Michael Shum, Chief Investment Officer, Accial Capital said, “Accial Capital views the B2B corporate spend vertical as a way to support entrepreneurs and SMEs with liquidity and close the credit gap. Volopay has a great ambitious team focused on redlining the finance workflows with its robust technology. We are proud to partner with a leader in this space to help scale.”

Volopay’s mission is not to simply build a business. The company is pushing change in every market they step foot in, changing the way businesses handle, manage and have control over their money.

LIC Mutual Fund appoints TS Ramakrishnan as its Managing Director & CEO

New Delhi: March 1, 2022: LIC Mutual Fund today announced the appointment of Mr. T S Ramakrishnan as its Managing Director & CEO, effective March 1, 2022.

Mr Ramakrishnan, as the MD&CEO, LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management Ltd, succeeds Mr. Dinesh Pangtey, its former Wholetime Director and CEO.

Mr. Ramakrishnan has a rich experience of over 34 years, at LIC and its subsidiaries/associate companies. He joined LIC Mutual Fund AMC on 28th April 2021 before taking over as MD & CEO, effective today. Prominent assignments handled by Mr. Ramakrishnan are Regional Manager Pension Group and Scheme at South Central Zone (Hyderabad), Sr Division Manager in charge at Delhi 1 & 2.

Before joining LIC Mutual Fund AMC, Mr Ramakrishnan was the Regional Manager- Western Region at LIC Housing Finance Ltd. (LICHFL) and subsequently transferred to General Manager LICHFL. He has worked across 4 zones of LIC, including a stint at ZTC Bhopal as Vice Principal.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Nityanand Prabhu, Executive Director & Business Head at LICMF, said: “LIC Mutual Fund aspires to be the preferred investment manager and mutual fund of a choice to the investing public by offering right investment solutions coupled with best-in-class service. Mr. Ramakrishnan comes on board at an exciting phase of the journey of consolidating our position in the market. Our objective is to deepen our presence across Tier II, III cities to gain retail penetration.”

Mr Ramakrishnan, on his appointment as the MD&CEO, said, “I am excited about the long-term potential of the mutual fund industry on the back-drop of its under-penetration. Coupled with LIC’s strong brand presence across the country and rising significant retail investor interest, we will continue to grow our presence in Tier II, III cities and across the country.”

Mr. Ramakrishnan is a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons.) and PGDIM and has been awarded Fellowship from the prestigious Insurance Institute of India.

Paytm Payments Bank is the leader in UPI beneficiary transactions and FASTag: Satish Gupta, PPBL CEO

Mumbai, 1^st March 2022: India’s homegrown Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL) continues to lead the country’s United Payment Interface (UPI) ecosystem and the FASTag segment, as per data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for January 2022.

PPBL recorded 957.39 million UPI transactions in January 2022, cementing its position further as the country’s top UPI beneficiary bank. Paytm UPI, powered by PPBL, enables super fast and secure money transfers.

The bank also maintained its stronghold in the FASTag segment, with over 4.3 lakh issuances in January 2022. Paytm FASTag has seen this immense popularity as it offers convenience to users by allowing them to directly pay from the Paytm Wallet. Users do not need to create any separate account or download a wallet to recharge their FASTags.

Top destination for UPI transactions 

PPBL’s growth in the UPI ecosystem as a beneficiary bank suggests that more customers now prefer receiving money in their Paytm Payments Bank account for everyday payments or savings.

Earlier, in December 2021, PPBL became the first UPI beneficiary bank in the country to achieve a landmark of over 926 million UPI transactions in a single month. It continues to be one of the leading remitter banks for UPI transactions, as per the latest data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI).

PPBL was recently recognised by the Government of India for its role in accelerating the growth of digital payments in the country and was awarded for being the top performer in terms of volume of transactions, merchant onboarding and transaction success rate.

Leading issuer of FASTags 

In January 2022, Paytm Payments Bank issued over 4.3 lakh FASTags, maintaining its stronghold in the segment.

Paytm FASTag continues to grow in popularity, aided by the bank’s emphasis on seamless onboarding with minimum documentation, instant activation and superior customer care support. Paytm FASTag has also become the preferred choice for users, as it allows them to pay directly from the Paytm wallet without the need to create any separate account for recharge.

The FASTag business has helped the bank in significantly scaling up revenue besides helping onboard new users. PPBL has so far issued more than 1.29 crore FASTags, higher than the combined number of FASTags issued by a majority of authorised banks.

PPBL is also one of the largest acquirers of Toll Plazas for the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) program, offering an interoperable nationwide toll payment solution. PPBL has enabled over 200 toll plazas across the National & State highways to collect toll charges digitally.

Satish Gupta, MD and CEO, Paytm Payments Bank said, “Our aim is to bring the best in digital banking to our customers and enable them with the tools for financial inclusion. We have seen great adoption of our products such as Paytm UPI and Paytm FASTag, which is a testament to the robust technology infrastructure and seamless digital banking experience we offer. We hope to continue to bring easy accessibility in digital payments for all.”

EGF welcomes Rajasthan state government’s decision to regulate the online skill gaming sector

Jaipur, March 1, 2022: The recent announcement by the Chief Minister that the state government is looking to regulate the online skill gaming sector (that includes skill games like Fantasy, Rummy, Poker, Bridge, Chess, etc) has invoked an enthusiastic response from the skill gaming industry.

Speaking at a gathering, Sameer Barde, CEO of E-Gaming Federation (EGF), an organisation representing top online skill gaming operators in India, said, “The industry is very upbeat that Rajasthan could become the first state in India, to introduce a progressive regulatory regime for the online skill gaming sector, which has been operating in a regulatory vacuum for a long time.”

Barde added, that the sector has received a big impetus after Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman announced the setting up of Animation, Visual Arts, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) Task Force, in her budget speech last month.

Barde added that the government recognises the employment and revenue generation potential of this sunrise sector, which also directly benefits other crucial sectors such as fintech, semiconductors, IT, banking, etc. “With the right support, the online skill gaming sector can propel a second software revolution in India. It already directly employs close to 50,000 people and creates meaningful jobs for a lot of young engineers and other professionals. A lot of states have spoken about the need to develop the gaming sector. Karnataka has launched its own AVGC Centre, Telangana has talked about making Hyderabad a gaming hub, and if Rajasthan can become the first major state to introduce a progressive policy, then it will fetch a lot of investments to the state,” he said.

In the last seven years, the online skill gaming sector has received more than USD 2 billion in international investments. Companies such as Dream11, MPL, Games24x7, Paytm Games, Junglee Games, Head Digital Works have received investments from several top Private Equity and Venture Capital Firms. Barde feels that this number could go up further, with Supreme Court and several High Courts, reaffirming the status of games of skill as legitimate business activity. “Oftentimes, people confuse games of skill with gambling. But the courts have repeatedly held that games of skill are different from games of chance and several Supreme Court and High decisions have over the years held Rummy, Bridge, Poker, Chess, and more recently Fantasy as games of skill,” he said.

Coming back to the proposed reform in Rajasthan Barde, “It was very reassuring to hear Honourable Chief Minister Shri Ashok Gehlot Ji, when he spoke in the house during the ongoing budget session, about regulating the sector. We are really looking forward to it, and hope that government sets up a joint committee including industry participants. As a self-regulator for the industry, we believe we can add much value in bringing to the table the best international practices and ensuring that the policy is a win-win for all stakeholders – players, industry and the government.”

Moneycontrol publishes its annual update of MC30; a curated basket of 30 top mutual fund schemes for you to invest in

~ The MC30 section on the Moneycontrol presents a 360-degree view of the schemes by giving info about risk ratios, fund manager details, portfolios, their asset allocation, etc ~

1st March 2022: Investing in a mutual fund can be a tricky business, especially with numerous schemes to choose from. Market economy has been constantly developing, with a new scheme or investment plan being introduced almost every day. Today, a customer needs to go through multiple filters through brokers and third-party experts to select the most profitable and customised plan among more than 1400 mutual fund schemes across over 45 mutual fund houses. For years, Moneycontrol, a trusted brand for all things finance, has catered to its users needs as an ally for simpler investing plans. MC30, a curated list of top mutual fund schemes with a long-term, consistent track record, is Moneycontrol’s initiative with a vision to present a catalogued portfolio of 30 top mutual fund plans to choose from.

MC30 was envisaged in the presence of brightest minds from the finance world to handpick a feasible number of schemes for its readers to decide on. The list not only lays out 30 schemes according to user’s needs, but also weighs on the risks and returns. The choice is further made easier by spreading the MC30 basket across equity and debt schemes, actively-managed and passively-managed schemes so that it’s easier for users to do an asset allocation. These schemes undergo multiple rounds of scrutiny and analysis by the personal finance team to ensure that they make for a smart investment.

One can get a complete overview of these schemes and their details on the specially-designed MC30 page on Moneycontrol’s. From explanatory videos about MC30 and plans, to risk ratios, fund manager details, portfolios, and asset allocation, the page serves as a treasure trove of information.

Sharing his thoughts about MC30, Kayezad E. Adajania, Assistant Executive Editor – Personal Finance at Moneycontrol commented, “MC30 has been conceived keeping the needs of the financial reader in mind. Picking the right mutual fund scheme is not getting any easier, as the number is increasing with every passing day. Through a rigorous risk-return analysis, we’ve cut through the clutter to keep the number to the bare minimum. We’ve always wanted them to make the right investments and stay invested in the long run. MC30 will take them a step closer towards achieving their targets and goals.”

Furthermore, another important feature of MC30 is its focus on passively managed schemes. With the ever-changing dynamics of the market, passive funds like index funds and exchange-traded funds have proved their worth over the last few years. In the large-cap spaces, these funds give a neck-to-neck competition to actively managed schemes. MC30 reserves five of these 30 mutual funds for passively managed schemes that come along with exciting investment options.

“A lot of readers have written to us complimenting MC30 as it gives them a ready list of curated schemes which they can access it from anywhere, and from which they need to shortlisted schemes for their own portfolio. This is because MC30 helps those who invest on their own as well those who have their distributors and investment advisors to guide them, but look for a solid second opinion,” says Adajania.

MC30 has on-board the most updated and relevant schemes, to keep up to speed with the latest developments in the world of finance. The consumers can stay updated with all the up-to-the-minute information of the mutual fund market on MC30’s official page on Moneycontrol’s website https://www.moneycontrol.com/mutual-fund/mc-30