Role of Technology in the Government & Public Sector Undertakings
Technology has become a critical facilitator for today’s businesses. It has a highly profound role in driving optimization and efficiency across all sectors today, including the public and private sectors. CIOs from Government & PSU’s have adopted niche technologies to drive innovation and transformation within the country. Tech-adoption is seen as an investment in keeping the country competitive in an ever-evolving global economy. Reliance on progressive technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, robotics, augmented reality, and machine learning has helped drive sustained growth within the public sector. This constant strive via automation, and the digitalization of services has led to significant social, economic, technological, & environmental outcome...
3 Years of GST: How GST transformed compliance in India?
The Goods and Services Tax (GST), implemented on July 1st, 2017, completed its three years of operation. Considered to be the biggest reform in indirect taxes, GST combined (subsumed) almost 17 prevalent taxes into a single umbrella. Although introduced under the “One Nation, One Tax” slogan, the transition period was stressful for both the taxpayers and the government. But, the government has taken various measures overtime to stabilize the compliance process and resolve ongoing issues. GST is still an ongoing process, as evident from the 40th GST Council meeting, which has made various amendments to the system. In India, the dual GST model has been adopted wherein the tax is levied concurrently by both the Central and State/UT governments on the supply of goods and/or service...
Will COVID-19 change the future of the electric grid?
According to data from the IEA in their Global Energy Review 2020 report, the COVID-19 full lockdowns cut overall energy consumption about 25%, due mostly to reductions in transport fuel use. On the electrical grid, residential energy consumption did increase slightly, but reduced power use at industrial and commercial locations resulted in an overall reduction of electric power use by about 20% in areas under full lockdown. Partial lockdowns areas had proportionally less impact. IEA predicted that energy consumption in 2020 will stay at least 5% below 2019 levels. The stress of months of lockdowns, and voluntary isolation has already taken a toll on many businesses, with worldwide job losses and big shifts in energy use patterns. Unprecedented government backed economic stimulus funds are...
3 Years of GST in India: The Journey So Far
On July 1, 2020, India completed 3 years since the launch of GST. We’ve created an infographic to show you the major events in the journey of GST over the last 3 years.
How Digital Transformation can empower the Workforce
Most organizations across the globe have started realizing the necessity of adapting to the modern demands of business amid fierce digital disruption. Investments in digital transformation are continuing to accelerate. International Data Corporation (IDC) expects that, by the end of 2020, 60% of all enterprises will be implementing fully articulated digital platform strategies and overall technology spending will top $2 trillion before 2021. Effective digital integration in enterprises can drive better-informed decision making and facilitate enhanced operational efficiencies. Digital Transformation is revolutionizing how companies do business and with unprecedented opportunities to access modern computing capabilities, employees can now leverage advanced operational models. Engendering a c...
#Fintech Disruption in Banking – Will Neo Banking be the new normal in COVID Era?
The global banking sector is increasingly being disrupted by a new wave of FinTech – The Neo banks – that have challenged every part of the traditional banking model, from customer onboarding to transaction models, to consumer marketing, etc. magnifying the competition in a big way. Neo (new) banks are FinTechs that are the new-age interpretation of banking services. In contrast to the conventional banks, which may offer digital services, but usually rely on their physical branches, neo-banks are digital-only financial institutions. Neo banks do not have a physical presence. Every process is digitized, and everything can be done from the bank’s website or just a smartphone app. Globally, neo banking has recorded a CAGR of 50.6% from 2016 to 2020 being valued at US$ 50.2 million in 2020. Fu...
Paratha is not roti – AAR ruling sparks debates across the country
The Authority of Advance Ruling in Karnataka has ruled that ready-to-eat paratha needs to be heated or further processed for human consumption and hence is liable for 18% GST sparking quite the debate on social media last week. Bengaluru based ID Fresh Foods had sought an advance ruling to understand whether the supply of whole wheat parathas and Malabar parathas would be classified under Chapter 1905 and attract a GST rate of 5%. ID foods are in the business of manufacturing and supplying ready to cook products like idli and dosa batter and heat and eat products like parathas and chapatis. The Authority for Advance Ruling in Karnataka held that ‘heat and eat’ parathas were not covered by any other heading under the HSN code system. Additionally, since the parathas needed to be...
FinTech meets TechFin – The Future in Focus.
We have heard so much buzz around FinTech and TechFin bidding against each other on “who will disrupt financial services,” “which is better,” etc. Let us shift our focus from this paradigm to a different outlook. For that, we must first understand the underlying meaning of the above. FinTech looks at how we do financial services today and deliver it in a better, quicker, cheaper, and more efficient fashion with technology. E.g., PayPal, UPI, etc. TechFin doesn’t start with the concept of finance or how we do finance today; it begins with technologies we have now and works at how to exchange values(products/services) in a new form in the ecosystem. e.g., Google, Amazon, etc. The focus should be more on expanding the size of the plate rather than eating somebod...
Changes under the new GST returns system
The New Return System under the Goods and Services Tax is due to be rolled out in October 2020, and it promises to make the filing of GST returns (that have been extremely cumbersome so far) a breeze. What are the changes that make this new system simple, convenient and efficient? Let’s find out. HSN Code to replace HSN summary HSN code stands for Harmonized System of Nomenclature and has been a globally accepted system for over 30 years. It is a 6 digit uniform code that classifies over 5000 products. Under the current returns system, taxpayers are required to use an HSN summary viz. a summary of all the products and services that they have sold under that filing period. Under the New Returns System, this summary will be replaced by the HSN code. This HSN code will help classify the...
5 biggest cybersecurity challenges for fintech enterprises in 2020
Financial technology (fintech) has completely revolutionized the traditional financial services industry in the last few years. However, the adoption of the latest technologies has brought several cybersecurity challenges for fintech industry. Banks and other financial services organizations started the use of fintech services to improve their processes, which were typically very difficult to deal with. For instance, the fintech solutions can enable investment, money transfer, lending and personal finance, right from smartphones or desktop devices. Related read: How COVID-19 reinforced the importance of Business Continuity Planning? Cybersecurity landscape in fintech Cybersecurity is a big challenge for almost every sector today, as the number of cyberattacks continues to rise despite the ...