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India's August Retail Inflation slowing after good rainfall

India's consumer inflation is expected to have eased to a four-month low in August, helped by smaller rises in food price.
•    Consumer prices, which the Reserve Bank of India tracks as it sets interest rate policy, likely rose 5.5 percent in August, according to a Reuter’s poll of economists, compared with an increase of 6.07 percent in July.
•    Data on the consumer price index and industrial output will be released at 1200 GMT Monday.
•    Economists predict annual growth in industrial output decelerated to 1.7 percent in July from June's eight-month high of 2.1 percent.
•    Even if retail inflation eases as much as anticipated, it will still be above the RBI's March 2017 target of 5 percent, despite low global crude prices.
•    In Asia, China's annual consumer inflation slowed to 1.3 percent in August, while Indonesia's pace slowed to a near seven-year low of 2.8 percent


 

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ICICI Bank: First bank to introduce Software Robotics for power banking operations


India’s largest private sector bank ICICI Bank has successfully deployed ‘Software Robotics’ for power banking operations. 
•    With this, it becomes first bank in the country and among few globally to deploy ‘Software Robotics’. 
•    ICICI Bank has deployed Software Robotics to over 200 business processes across various functions. 
•    The 200 business processes include retail banking operations, agri-business, trade & foreign exchange, treasury and human resources management, among others.
•    It leverages recent advancements in artificial intelligence such as facial and voice recognition, machine learning, natural language processing, and bots among others. 
•    The software robots can perform over 10 lakh (1 million) banking transactions every working day. 
•    The software robots at ICICI Bank are configured to capture and interpret information from systems, recognize patterns and run business processes across multiple applications.
 

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Unified Payments Interface Becomes Operational

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) was introduced on 25 August 2016 by four banks, namely Axis Bank, Union Bank of India, Federal Bank and Bank of Maharashtra. 
•    The app will allow customers to make payments via digital means.
•    The app went live for these banks after National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) issued letters to them asking them to make the apps available on Google Play Store. 
•    Apart from this, the UPI-enabled apps will be available for other 19-banks in next 2-3 working days.
•    Initially, the facility, which is available on Google Play Store, will be available for bank customers with Android smart phones. 
•    Versions for Apple’s iOS operating system will be launched in next six months.
•    UPI, a product of NPCI, will help move India towards a cashless economy. 
•    It will allow customer to have multiple virtual address for accounts in various banks.
•    UPI is a set of standard Application Programming Interface (APIs).
•    National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is the umbrella organisation for all retail payments system in India.
 

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Union Government Constitutes Committee to Suggest Steps to Promote Card Payments

The Union Finance Ministry has constituted an 11 members high-level committee to suggest steps to promote card payments with an aim to discourage cash transactions. 
•    The 11-member committee will be headed by former Finance Secretary Ratan P Watal. 
•    They will recommend various measures to incentivise transactions through cards and digital means, e.g., through tax incentives/rebates, introduction of cash back/lottery. 
•    Review the payments system in the country and recommend measures for encouraging digital payments. 
•    Study feasibility of creating a payments history of all card and digital payments and ensure that merchants and consumers can leverage the data to access. 
•    Study and recommend ways for leveraging Unique Identification Number (UID) or any other proof of identity for authentication of card and digital transactions. 
•    Study introduction of single window system of payment gateway to accept all types of cards and digital payments of government receipts.
•    Look into the scope of integration of all government systems like Public Finance Management System, Bharatkosh, PayGov and eKuber. 
 

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