Paytm Launches All-in-One Payment Gateway and Business Solutions for Indian SMEs

Highlights

* Introduces 'All-in-One PG' to collect digital payments through multiple methods quickly and seamlessly
* 'Paytm Business Payments' now enables automated vendor payments, employee salaries, and customer refunds among others
* Technology savvy-startups and developers can now readily integrate these comprehensive services using PG APIs

India's largest payments gateway provider Paytm (owned by One97 Communications Limited) today announced the launch of two innovative business solutions for SMEs that will help them streamline & digitize their business processes. The company has introduced 'All-in-One PG' and 'Paytm Business Solutions' that increases the overall efficiency of both accepting payments and making payments. Together, these two solutions complement the newly launched 'All-in-One POS' device that is set to revolutionize the retail industry in India.

Paytm's All-in-One PG empowers SMEs to collect digital payments across all payment methods without the need of any website or app. Merchants with an annual turnover of over Rs 50 crore stands to gain the most from this service, as they are required to comply with recent Government notification to provide the facilities for accepting payment through digital modes. SMEs can easily create and share payments links & invoices without investing time & resources to build their own platform. In addition, they have a choice of building their own web storefront using Paytm and further expand their business by acquiring new & digital-savvy customers.

Further, All-in-One PG enables developers and start-ups to collect user payments across all payment methods on their apps in a seamless in-app manner without any redirections to payment gateway providers thus avoiding possible dropouts and hence higher success rates. Paytm network today has over 200mn+ unique saved cards and bank accounts repository; this feature enables partner apps the ability to drive faster conversions and reduce transaction times while making payments on All-in-One PG.

Paytm Business Payments is a breakthrough in SME payments that enables both large and small businesses to track and pay all their payments from one place. Businesses can use APIs or Paytm for Business Dashboard to make bulk payments to Bank Accounts, UPI addresses, and Paytm Wallets instantly. With this, the company is aiming to simplify and digitize payments for both B2B and B2C players who make regular payments to a large number of vendors, salaries and food allowance to employees, rewards or instant refunds to their customers and even other expenses like utility bills for multiple offices.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder & CEO of Paytm said, "Government initiatives like Zero MDR and encouraging digital acceptance for businesses have opened up new opportunities for digital payments in India. Today, we are announcing our All-in-One PG and Business Payment solutions for SMEs. These services will further deepen the importance of digital payments in their business and bring to them the advantages of the digital economy.”

Paytm Payment Gateway is a leader in India with over 50% market share. It is the preferred service provider for India’s leading digital platforms including IRCTC, Uber, Zomato, OYO, Swiggy, UrbanClap, PVR, Club Factory, Dominos, Jio, and Idea, among others.

At Least Two Top Global Retailers Will Establish Robot Resource Organizations to Manage Nonhuman Workers By 2025

Gartner, Inc. predicts that by 2025, at least two of the top 10 global retailers will establish robot resource organizations to manage nonhuman workers.

“The retail industry continues to transform through a period of unprecedented change, with customer experience as the new currency,” said Kelsie Marian, senior research director at Gartner. “The adoption of new digital technologies and the ever-changing expectations of customers continues to challenge traditional retailers, forcing them to investigate new-human hybrid operational models, including artificial intelligence (AI), automation and robotics.”

Gartner research shows that 77% of retailers plan to deploy AI by 2021, with the deployment of robotics for warehouse picking as the No. 1 use case. Warehouse picking involves smart robots working independently or alongside humans. In the future, retailers will establish units within the organization for procuring, maintaining, training, taxing, decommissioning and proper disposal of robot resources. In addition, they will create the governance required to ensure that people and robots can effectively collaborate.

Many retail workers want to use AI specifically as an on-demand or predictive assistant, meaning the robot will need to work alongside humans. “This means the robot will have to “mesh” with the human team — essentially meaning that both sides will need to learn how to “collaborate” to operate effectively together,” said Ms. Marian.

An example is an autonomous robotic kitchen assistant that learns an operator’s specific recipes and prepares them according to the wishes of the operator. The robot can work in harmony with the operators who, in turn, are having to adapt to changing consumer tastes.

Choosing the right candidate — human and machine — for the job is critical for success. A combined effort from HR, IT and the line-of-business hiring managers will be required to identify the skills needed to ensure the pair work together effectively. “Retail CIOs must provide ongoing maintenance and monitoring performance for effectiveness. If not, the team may be counterproductive and lead to a bad customer experience,” said Ms. Marian.

The introduction of AI and robotics will likely cause fear and anxiety among the workforce — particularly among part-time workers. It will be vital for retail CIOs to work with HR and business leaders to address and manage employees’ skills and concerns; and change their mindset around the development of robot resource units.

Gartner clients can learn more in the report “Predicts 2020: Consumers Determine Retail Success Well Before the Sale.”

Learn more about Gartner’s 2020 Predictions in the Special Report “Predicts 2020: Barriers Fall as Technology Adoption Grows.”

Gartner Customer Experience & Technologies Summits

Customer experience trends will be further discussed at the Gartner Customer Experience & Technologies Summits 2020 taking place February 13-14 in Tokyo, June 8-9 in London and June 16-17 in Sydney. Follow news and updates from the conferences on Twitter at #GartnerCX.

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading research and advisory company and a member of the S&P 500. We equip business leaders with indispensable insights, advice and tools to achieve their mission-critical priorities today and build the successful organizations of tomorrow.

Our unmatched combination of expert-led, practitioner-sourced and data-driven research steers clients toward the right decisions on the issues that matter most. We are a trusted advisor and an objective resource for more than 15,000 organizations in more than 100 countries — across all major functions, in every industry and enterprise size.

100+ Companies from The Silicon Valley of India Expected to Participate in IFF 2020

India FinTech Festival (IFF) 2020, India’s first homegrown, global platform organized by eminent bodies like Mumbai Fintech Hub (Government of Maharashtra), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) is all set to be unleashed on the March 4-5, 2020. The event is also supported by Department of Financial Services, NITI Aayog, Invest India, Digital India, World Bank and UNCDF (United Nations Capital Development Fund).

The Bengaluru roadshow which was recently concluded saw prominent industry experts like Vikram Vaidyanathan - Managing Director, Matrix Partners, Lizzie Chapman – Founder, ZestMoney Gaurav Hinduja, Co-founder and MD, Capital Float, Pankaj Gupta - Sr. Director of Engineering at Google Pay, Nikhil Kumar - Founder, SETU among others in attendance. The speakers on the panel discussed ‘how the Indian FinTech ecosystem is making a visible impact on financial lives’.

The main event scheduled in the first week of March will showcase innumerable opportunities, while discussing the key challenges and possible solutions for the fintech industry. With 100+ speakers, 5000+ attendees, 25+ participating countries, IFF 2020 is going to be staged as the biggest homegrown fintech event in the country. The event serves as a representation of the best of the innovations of over 2000+ Indian startups working to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2024, due to the critical aspect financial services play in the progress of an economy.

Addressing the delegates, Vishal Kanvaty, Chief - Market Innovations, NPCI said, “NPCI is happy to be associated with India FinTech Festival. The platform will provide opportunity to all ecosystem participants, government bodies, regulators, banks and Fintech startups to accelerate the transformation of India into a digitally empowered and less cash economy.  It was exciting to see the overwhelming response from the audience at various roadshows. Industry experts came together to engage in a meaningful discussion on how the FinTech industry in India is instrumental in catalyzing the overall innovation ecosystem.”

Amit Goel, Founder, MEDICI, said, “An event the scale of IFF being held for the first time is a true testimony to how far we have come in the FinTech space. This is a great opportunity for us to showcase our strengths while attracting investments and partnerships. The advent of smartphones and high-speed internet has led to this exciting time for India FinTech that can be seen in terms of FinTech adoption and collaboration between the key FinTech stakeholders. We aim to drive B2C as well as enterprise solutions and foster a community of innovative startups that boost disruption in the fintech space and take India to global leadership in the fintech ecosystem.”

Speaking at the panel, Vikram Viadyanathan, Managing Director, Matrix Partners remarked, “Over the past few years, the focus in the industry has been on scaling, which has now slowly been moving towards sustainable growth. However, the challenge of value erosion remains – faced with over-incentivisation. It is therefore integral for the sector to concentrate on value creation. Fintech is a business of trust, and thus it is critical to nurture the internal resilience to ride out the cycles faced by startups.”

Lizzie Chapman, Founder, ZestMoney, commented, “The Fintech space is transforming at a dizzying speed. Instant gratification is the crux that has accelerated mobile digital payments in India. Communication is a key component to further drive the digital initiative and effectively mining content marketing will upscale the nascent space that the country is currently in. Therefore the startup ecosystem has recognized the vast potential in India’s diversity and vernacular regions thus put a lot of emphasis on developing a user-friendly interface. A combination of perseverance, tenacity and clear communication to simplify financial products for the population is required to magnify the reach and penetration of fintech across the country.

The Bengaluru roadshow was preceded by one in Delhi and Hyderabad each which witnessed generous participation from industry thought leaders, policymakers, startups besides the biggies of the fintech industry.

About India Fintech Festival:

IFF will be the yearly marquee event for Fintech in India to celebrate its milestones, while also serving as a learning highway for both the Indian and International Fintech community. The festival will be held on the 4th and 5th of March 2020 in Mumbai, where 5000+ participants from over 25 countries are expected to attend. The IFF platform will showcase India as a global financial innovator and as an enabler of digital financial inclusion to promote discussions on FinTech’s impact on society and to design opportunities for the global FinTech community to collaborate. The platform is being presented by Mumbai Fintech Hub (Government of Maharashtra), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Fintech Convergence Council (FCC). The event is also supported by Department of Financial Services, NITI Aayog, Invest India, Digital India, World Bank and UNCDF (United Nations Capital Development Fund).

Flying High with Skilling: NSDC is Creating Talent Pool for the Leading Aerospace and Aviation Sector

Highlights

* 72 job roles have been developed in the aerospace and aviation sector through extensive industry engagement
* NSDC, in association with AASSC, is organising an industry seminar on February 6 during DefExpo 2020 to address the skill gap in the aerospace and aviation sectors

Aerospace and Aviation Sector Skill Council (AASSC) supported by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has developed qualification packs for as many as 72 job roles spread across five sub sectors through extensive industry engagement with the aviation industry. The aim is to ensure adequate supply of skilled work force to meet the demands of the industry and expand the employment opportunities in the sector, considering the growth expected by the aerospace and aviation sectors in the near future. The Indian aviation market is on a high growth path and is expected to become the third largest market this year, and the largest by 2030.

The courses implemented under the new initiative include Airline Cabin Crew, Airline Customer Service Executive, Airline Reservation Agent, Airline Ramp Executive among others. The move is further driven by the fact that last year, India showcased an outstanding performance at the world’s biggest international skills competition, WorldSkills 2019 held at Kazan, Russia. Representing India in the category – Aircraft Maintenance was 23-year old Ananda Sri Ganesha.

As per industry estimates, India currently ranks fourth in the civil aviation market, with around 116.7 million passengers – inbound and outbound. By 2035, the Indian Civil Aviation sector will employ and estimated 0.8 to 1 million personnel directly and another 3 million indirectly across the segments of Airport, Airlines, Cargo, MRO and Ground Handling.

To address the skilled manpower requirement in the sectors, NSDC is organizing an industry seminar on February 6 at the 11th DefExpo 2020 to be held in Lucknow from February 5-9, 2020. DefExpo provides a platform for all industry stakeholders to meet and discuss industry issues, solutions and best practices. At the seminar, NSDC aims to host a productive dialogue on various skill related issues including reducing the skill gap in the aerospace, aviation and defense sectors.  Deliberations will also be on the rapid digitization in the sectors and the availability of a competent workforce in the country to cater to the needs of the industry and its digital transformation.

To highlight the achievements of the AASSC’s partnership with NSDC, the Air India SATS Airport Services Pvt. Ltd (AISATS) Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) initiative has oriented, assessed and certified over 3179 candidates, till now. Further, the project aims to assess and certify around 6,700 candidates by AASSC for 13 Job Roles. Multi-Skill Development Centre (MSDC) for Aviation Skilling has been set-up at Chandigarh under the CSR scheme to train about 2,400 youth over the 3 years. The job roles identified for this initiative include Airline Customer Service Executive; Airline Security Executive; Airline Reservation Agent; Airline Flight Load Controller; Airline Cargo Assistant and Airline Ramp Executive.

National Aerospace Laboratories (N.A.L), a premier aerospace R&D laboratory under CSIR, inaugurated an Aerospace Skill Development Centre, catering to Design & Development and Manufacturing Assembly subsectors on 1st Jun 2019 at Bengaluru. The centre is being affiliated to AASSC framework and will offer short-term skill certification courses under NSQF. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (H.A.L) has initiated training under Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). 230 candidates for the Job Roles of Aerospace Structural Fitter, Aerospace CNC Machinist, Aerospace Composite Technician & Aerospace Conventional Machinist have been assessed and certified under the project.

AASSC has also conducted assessments for the Indian Navy personnel under Aviation & MRO subsector Job Roles like Airline Security Executive, Aircraft Powerplant Technician & Aircraft Instrument Technician. A total of 472 candidates were assessed and certified until September 2019.

As India positions itself to achieve strong economic growth, availability of a highly-skilled workforce that can help organizations across sectors to maintain their competitive capabilities is necessary. NSDC with the support of its training partners aims to create highly specialized workforce from the existing talent pool by initiating skill programmes and modules. The training partners will run skill programmes based on industry centric curriculum. These are short term programmes, ranging from 3 to 6 months. The idea is not to replace the academic system but to bridge the industry-academic gap and provide industry-ready workers to companies.

Etsy Conducts Photography Enablement Workshop for Small Sellers in Bangalore

Etsy, the global marketplace for unique, handmade and creative goods, hosted ‘TheEtsyCollective’ in Bangalore and conducted the photography enablement workshop for the small sellers of the city.

#TheEtsyCollective is an interactive and informative session which brings together people from all walks of life who share a common passion for craft and creativity.

The event started with an interactive session with Etsy seller,Divya Gupta , a unique handcrafted silver jewellery designer and maker with a quirky little shop on Etsy called ‘AliameJewelry’. This was followed by an exciting round of Q&A where the participants interacted with Etsy representatives to understand the fundamentals of setting up an Etsy shop and selling globally.

To educate and spread awareness about the importance of photography in online selling, the event had a photography enablement workshop conducted by professional photographer, Mahalakshmi R, who helped the participants in learning the tactics of product photography.

Commenting on the Etsy Collective, Himanshu Wardhan, Managing Director for India, Etsy, said, “The Etsy seller community in India is made up of some of the most talented and creative people. As an organisation that truly believes in keeping the human connection at the heart of e-commerce, the Etsy Collective helps in interacting with the creative community on an individual level. I am really impressed with the artisans from Bangalore and would love for them to explore entrepreneurship and digital opportunities through Etsy”.

The event saw a great turn-out, particularly women, who formed the majority of the audience. Interestingly, 87% of sellers on Etsy are women and 97% of people operate their creative business from their homes. Globally, Etsy has 2.3 million sellers, with 43.7 million buyers from more than 80 countries around the world.

The Etsy Collective aims to recognise the existing seller base from India and helps them share their experience with the larger creative community in India. It started in December 2018 and in the last one year, 52+ such Collectives have been hosted across India, which includes tier 1 and tier 2 cities. Some of the cities where the Etsy Collective has travelled to - Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Goa, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Kolkata, Puducherry, Jammu, Chennai, Kochi, Pune, Guwahati, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram, to name a few.

BIG FM and HDFC ERGO General Insurance Launch ‘High Beam – Not Ok Please’ Campaign

BIG FM, one of the largest radio networks in the country, in association with HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company, India’s third-largest non-life insurance provider in the private sector, today announced the kick start of the ‘High Beam - Not OK Please’ campaign. As the flag-bearers of change, the brands have highlighted an issue of the excessive usage of High Beam while driving, which is a huge threat to human lives, becoming the cause of many road accidents in the country.

As per the data published by the ministry of road, transport, and highways, 74% of the vehicles use blinding headlights on highways which are one of the major causes of road accidents. When it comes to road crash deaths, as per the 2017 report, Chennai, Delhi, and Bangalore are the top-3 cities that witnessed maximum accidents while Mumbai is placed on No 7. This is an alarming situation and the campaign tries to sensitize everyone to use High Beam in the right way.

With an endeavor to bring a positive change, the radio network and HDFC ERGO General Insurance have brought forth the fact that High Beams are the cause of many road accidents in the country. As a part of the campaign, BIG FM RJs will initiate conversations by highlighting and engaging with listeners on the causes of increasing road accidents. Further, with highways being the most affected and to personalise the messaging for the listeners, BIG FM will also install photo booths across prominent dhabas across highways in various cities. As soon as the person is ready to get clicked, a bright light will flash on their face while the camera captures the image. This social experiment will mirror the jarring effect of the high beam from the opposite direction on a person’s vision.

Speaking on the campaign, a spokesperson from BIG FM said, “When we hear the term road accident, we associate it with various reasons like speed, drunk driving, mobile phone usage, etc. But, we hardly think that the use of a high beam can cause accidents too. Through this campaign, we want to change this notion and highlight how this issue is turning out to be one of the key reasons for accidents. We, as a responsible brand, have always tried to inspire the masses to take a second look at situations and imbibe a sense of accountability. We appreciate HDFC ERGO General Insurance for coming forward in support of our campaign and driving this message through their platform as well.”

Mr. Mehmood Mansoori, President – Shared Services & Online Business, HDFC ERGO General Insurance said, “We are glad to be associated with BIG FM for the campaign which is the need of the hour, to create awareness on the misuse of High Beam on the roads of our country. Knowingly or unknowingly, we tend to make the mistake of using high beam while driving without thinking of its effects on the driver of a vehicle coming from the opposite end. Through this campaign, we aim to help people understand the hazards of using a high beam.”

In its next phases, BIG FM RJs will engage with listeners to understand their perspective and also speak to local authorities like - RTO, Traffic Management, Driving Experts and Eye Specialists for an in-depth idea on high beam and its harsh effects, if not used correctly. This awareness will be further spread across BIG FM’s vast networks. ‘#HighBeam - Use it Right’ will be a 360-degree campaign which will run across various platforms including On-air, RJ mentions, Buzz on digital, On-ground activations for direct interaction with listeners, etc.

Last-Minute Expert Tips to Crack the GATE 2020 All-India Examination

By Akhand Swaroop Pandit, CEO & Founder, Catalyst Group

With the prestigious All-India examination, Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2020 only a fortnight away, applicants might be already scrolling and shuffling through a variety of preparation methods. But, this will only leave them confused in deciding the best approach. When it comes to last-minute preparations for GATE, starting basic is the deal breaker to get a decent score.  But sometimes even though the candidates are already following their monthly preparation timetable to cover most of what has to be studied and within the allotted time, they are not able to score well. The loophole could lie in trying to mug up all content or stressing at the last minute. Here are some last-minute tips and tricks that will augment your preparation and make you ready for the main day:

* Pay more attention to high-return topics: Considering that subjects like engineering mathematics and general ability carry 30 percent of the total marks and are relatively easier to score in. You could also concentrate on preparing high scoring topics like Theory of Computation, Compiler Design, Digital Logic, Operating System, Databases and Computer Networks, well through online lectures.

* Test your abilities with mock papers: Take up a mock-test series every day before the main exam and attempt it online the same way as the actual exam. This will not only help in adapting to the online pattern of the exam but also enable you in assessing your preparation.  The mock test will let you analyse your weak areas and work on improving them through an exhaustive practice of different types of questions.

* Create your own exam strategy: Based on your attempts of mock test series, you can modify your own exam strategy either by starting to solve the paper from the first question, or simply glancing through the entire test and answering questions from your areas of strength.

* Skip preparing for new topics: This is something every aspirant should avoid. Starting a fresh topic that you have never studied before at this point in time is a bad idea. At this crucial time, you will not be able to build up concepts from new topics. Instead, revise the subjects you are thorough with and get those concepts clear in your head.

* Revise all the formulas: This is the time to brush up all the formulas and practice at least 3-4 questions covering each formula. Make sure you are not mugging them up. Instead, try to get their concepts clear so that you don’t feel stressed during the exam hour. Candidates should also avoid spending a lot of time on just one aspect of the syllabus. Keep switching between multiple topics and if possible, revise them through your notes instead of books or online platforms to save time.

* Do not ignore negative marking: Guesswork and over attempting of questions simply do not go with GATE paper. Negative marking can ruin it all. So attempt and solve those questions that you are absolutely sure of.

* Stay Relax and keep your cool: One day before GATE, stop thinking about it. The idea of accomplishing everything at the 11th hour doesn’t fit in here. Staying up late in the night to study can make you pay a heavy price. So, try to maintain your cool by watching a light-hearted movie on Netflix and sleep on time for good 6-hours. This will help you in attempting the exam with a fresh mind and increase your accuracy, speed, and even the score

GATE isn’t the end of the world. So, instead of losing the state of your mind and mood over it, have faith in yourself and put your best foot forward. Your hard work will get paid off eventually.