Though the title is confusing as it’s called a 5 Point Friday newsletter I compile this on Saturdays. From Last Saturday to This week’s Friday hence the name.
Below are a few of the things which happened last week i.e. from @17/07/2022 → 22/07/2022
Markets
Important!!!
ITS TIME TO FILE YOUR INDIVIDUAL ITR RETURN
List of documents needed for Individual ITR filings for FY 2021-22
- Form 16
- If a House Property loan is availed, a summary of total principal and interest paid during the year 2021-22, is supported by the loan statement
- Details of Investments u/s 80C like LIC, NPS, etc. & Medical premium (80D), pertaining to FY 2021-22
- Details of any FD interest received supported by Bank statement.
- Details of capital gains from the sale of shares during the FY 2021-22 supported by the stockbroker statement
- Personal bank account details
- Income tax portal Login details
Things happened last week
Droupadi Murmu – 15th President of India
Droupadi Murmu scripted history on Thursday(21-07-2022) by becoming India’s first tribal President in the one-sided contest, defeating Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha. Murmu, 64, won by an overwhelming margin against Sinha after receiving over 64 percent valid votes in a day-long counting of ballots of MPs and MLAs, comprising the electoral college, to succeed Ram Nath Kovind to become the country’s 15th president. Reports say that over 17 opposition MPs and more than 100 MLAs across India have cross-voted in favor of Murmu.
In 2015, Murmu became the first woman Governor of Jharkhand. The reticent leader lost her husband Shyam Charan Murmu and her two sons. Despite personal setbacks, Murmu continued her work toward social change.
Maharashtra Fast tracks Mumbai Ahmedabad Bullet Train
Maharashtra government on Thursday announced to expedite the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project. State Deputy CM said “The respective clearance for the projects are granted”
The Mumbai Ahmedabad project is expected to cost around 1,10,000 crores out of which 88,000 Crores are funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA). Over 70% of the Land required in Maharashtra for the project has been acquired in Thane and Palghar.
Bank mergers
The govt has announced a plan for the next public sector bank mergers after a detailed study has been commissioned on the outcome of the amalgamation of state bank runs. The plan is to have 4-5 large and strong banks as SBI. In 2019 10 state-run banks were merged into 4 banks and this time plan is to merge them from 12 banks to 4 large banks.
Govt Recruitment Plans
Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions Dr. Jitendra Singh informed of initiation of Special Taskforce plan for filling up the vacant posts as per central govt “10 Lakh Recruitment Plan’. The plan is to recruit 10 Lakh people in a mission mode in the next 1.5 years. In light of this, the CS and UPSC are working hard to grant mass promotions to 8,000 employees in one go. Of the total of 8,089 promoted employees, are from
- Central Secretariat Service(CSS) – 4,734
- Central Secretariat Stenographers’ Service(CSSS) – 2,966
- Central Secretariat Clerical Service(CSCS) – 389
Celsius files for bankruptcy
Cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network has filed for bankruptcy in New York, becoming the latest company to fall victim to the current crypto bear run. This news comes days after another crypto lender, Voyager Digital, filed for bankruptcy on July 6.
Celsius has requested the authority not to allow customer withdrawals at this time, although they have $167 million in hand at the moment. This money will be used to provide liquidity for certain day-to-day operations during the restructuring process.
The company is currently under investigation by multiple American state regulators and authorities for the manner in which it unilaterally froze withdrawals from customer accounts in June.
Celsius had blamed “extreme” market conditions for the decision, leaving its 1.7 million customers in the lurch.
Understanding Payment Aggregators in India
The Story When you set up an e-commerce store, intending to sell your best art, product and things where you are expected to offer various payment options to potential buyers —think credit, debit cards, UPI, net banking, and digital wallets.
The buyer doesn’t care how it’s set up and wants a click of a button or swipe on their phone and get done with it. All they want to see is a payment success screen and have their brand new items delivered asap!
As a seller, you know the complexity of this outward simplicity which includes speaking with multiple banks and card issuers for integrating payments, working with payment gateways to handle the tech to ensure successful transactions, and setting up a merchant account and another bank account for actual cash to come in.
Here come the payment aggregators who will help you with these complex tasks, sets everything for you and you receive the money in your account when the transaction lifecycle is completed.
As we now understand the basics of Payment Aggregators(PA’s), let’s understand what happened this Friday. RBI granted the first-ever set of approvals for a PA license in India to fintech firms Razorpay, Stripe, Pine Labs, and 1Pay. All of them have helped sellers get their businesses online in the blink of an eye.
The problem? PAs handle a lot of money in their own accounts but do not come under RBI regulations. In 2020, when digital services boomed, the RBI decided that everyone who called themselves a PA needed to first get a license. RBI was concerned that many such companies are operating in a shady manner (by not verifying the details of merchants or by even indulging in crypto payments).
So they invited applications for the license and set out the criteria — including mandating a minimum net worth and enforcing the “fit and proper” rule — to make sure people who float payment aggregators continue to be in good standing without being implicated in legal matters. And finally, they evaluated these proposals (reports suggest that over 180 entities jumped in line to prove their worth) and extended the in-principal approval to a select few.
What is the rush to acquire PA License? We will use the case with Zomato — a food aggregator that wants to become a payments aggregator. Last year, the company set up Zomato Payments Ltd. To provide all kinds of payment options to the app’s users — including Buy Now Pay Later. why it wanted to make such a foray:
On the order value of ₹400, the (third-party) BNPL company pockets anywhere between ₹4–8. And what the BNPL company gains, Zomato loses. It does seem like a small amount think if you keep adding this sum over millions of orders? and it could be worth crores of rupees. And who wants to simply lose crores of rupees.
And, what happens if the RBI denies permission to entities who are doing PA duty?
Well, they’ll have to wind up their operation within 180 days.
A book you must read
48 Laws of Power — www.amazon.in
Amazon.in – Buy The 48 Laws Of Power (The Modern Machiavellian Robert Greene, 1)
Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this multi-million-copy New York Times bestseller is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control – from the author of The Laws of Human Nature.
Robert Greene has distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum and extrapolated them with today’s world scenarios to help us understand more about the real people in the world we live in. The book explains the best ways to behave when in crisis. You must be very careful while reading this book and should not only learn the ideas that are helpful but also do learn others to defend yourself from what others could be capable of.
Some laws teach the need for prudence (“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master”), others teach the value of confidence (“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness”), and many recommend absolute self-preservation (“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally”). Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in total domination. In a bold and arresting two-color package, The 48 Laws of Power is ideal whether your aim is conquest, self-defense, or simply to understand the rules of the game.
Do not see the book as moral or immoral, morality as a concept is only applicable to a living, rational being which this book is not.
Most of what is written in the book is already happening and will continue to happen in this world as long as humanity exists. So, for the individual with strict moral principles, this book should not be viewed as a guide but rather as a cautionary warning of what other people are capable of.
To practice a good chunk of all these laws you have to assume a narcissistic, selfish personality and to some extent forsake aspects of your humanity. Do not read this book as a guide to attain power, but this is a clear cautionary tale on human psychology and a guide on how to avoid being snared by crafty individuals.
Change Default Apps in Android
A default app is the one that opens automatically when you try and do something on your phone—so when you click a hyperlink, for example, your default web browser app will open that link.
Take advantage of this flexibility by setting up the defaults as you want them. Go to Settings, go to Apps, and choose Default apps. Select any of the categories on the screen to see a list of installed apps that can take over default duties. For example, if you’d prefer to chat with friends via
Facebook Messenger, rather than your phone’s built-in SMS app, you can make Facebook’s product your default messaging app.
When you get angry do this
We all have things that upset us. People we know. People we don’t know. We get triggered, we get attacked. We see things happening. Stuff happens to us.
But before we get angry, we have to try to stop ourselves. Athenodorus counseled emperor Augustus to count all the letters of the alphabet before doing anything out of anger. In her book Walk Through Walls, the artist Marina Abromovich lays down this principle to aspiring artists. “If you get angry,” she writes, “stop breathing and hold your breath until you can’t hold it anymore, then inhale fresh air.”
Catch yourself. Catch your breath. Hold it in. Breathe out. Let it go. Relax. Move on. Don’t let it get to you—don’t let it make you do something contrary to virtue.
Health Tip
Most people don’t account for this. But lifestyle diseases like Diabetes and Hypertension can have a massive impact on your insurance premiums.
For instance, in Type-2 diabetes, insurance companies may ask you to shell out 20–30% more than healthy individuals. If it’s advanced diabetes or Type-1 diabetes, the insurance company won’t even extend a policy. And even when they do, they impose waiting periods that can last up to 3 years, during which the company won’t cover diabetes and diabetes-related complications.
So what do you do in such a situation? Well, there isn’t a lot that you can do away with the waiting periods if you buy a diabetic-specific plan. However, considering these are expensive, most people don’t go for them. So your best option, (and I know this sounds ridiculous), is to buy a plan when you’re healthy. Buy it when you’re healthy. Because once you have your policy in force, insurance companies can’t renegotiate if you develop a lifestyle disease. They can’t force you to pay more once you’re diagnosed with diabetes and they can’t impose waiting periods either.
Until Next Week
Thanks for sitting down and sharing your coffee time with me. I hope you have enjoyed this installment of my 5 Pointers, and I will see you next week. If you have any links you would like me to include please contact me and I might add them to a future newsletter. I wish you have a great week and as always friends.
Happy Weekends
Om Prakash Singh – omprakash.singh@omps.in
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