Jana Small Finance Bank Ltd Offers Interest Rate Of 0.25% P.A. Over The FD Interest Rate

To offer financial support to many affected by COVID-19, Jana Small Finance Bank Ltd has extended its Overdraft (OD) facility Against Fixed Deposit (FD) at a nominal interest rate to all its customers across India. The interest rate on this facility is 0.25 percentage points over and above the FD rate with a utilisation of 50% or more. Under this facility, up to 90 per cent of the FD value can be availed as OD. The special pricing will be available to its existing customers till 31st December 2021 and the customers are requested to apply before 30th June 2021 for the same.

Customers can avail this facility instead of liquidating the FD to meet their liquidity requirements. The Bank emphasized that customers will continue to earn applicable rates of interest on their FDs. Customers can make the payment for the OD facility according to their choice, i.e., either in lump sum or in instalments. Jana Small Finance Bank will not be charging any processing fee for the same. This facility can be availed by providing simple documentation and quickly done.

Commenting on the development, Mr. Ajay Kanwal, MD and CEO, Jana Small Finance Bank Ltd said, “As the lockdown opens it will help our customers to have a credit line available for their business or personal need without liquidating their deposit. Therefore, we have taken a conscious call to offer the lowest rate of 0.25 percentage over the FD rate as we think this is the need of the hour.”

To avail this facility, the minimum OD FD facility amount with the bank should be INR 10,000 and FD tenure of 180 days or more. The customer can withdraw the money through any available channel of Jana Small Finance Bank Ltd i.e., online, cheque, etc.

About Jana Small Finance Bank

Jana Small Finance Bank Limited (Jana Small Finance Bank) is one the leading Small Finance Banks of India in terms of assets under management and deposit size as at March 31, 2020. Jana Small Finance Bank has the second most geographically diversified portfolio with a pan-India presence among all Small Finance Banks in India as at March 31, 2020. As at February 28, 2021, Jana Small Finance Bank had 611 Branches, including 166 Branches in Unbanked Rural Centres, and 134 ATMs located in 229 districts in 20 states and three union territories. Jana Small Finance Bank has served over 8.00 million customers since 2008, including approximately 3.05 million active customers.

Jana Small Finance Bank Limited (the “Bank”) is proposing, subject to receipt of requisite approvals, market conditions and other considerations, to make an initial public offer of its equity shares and has filed a draft red herring prospectus (“DRHP”) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The DRHP shall be available on the website of SEBI at www.sebi.gov.in, websites of the Stock Exchanges i.e. BSE and NSE at www.bseindia.com and www.nseindia.com, respectively, and is available on the websites of the BRLMs i.e. Axis Capital Limited, ICICI Securities Limited and SBI Capital Markets Limited at www.axiscapital.co.in, www.icicisecurities.com and www.sbicaps.com, respectively. Any potential investor should note that investment in equity shares involves a high degree of risk and for details relating to such risk, see "Risk Factors" of the RHP, when available. Potential investors should not rely on the DRHP for any investment decision.

This announcement has been prepared for publication in India and may not be released in the United States. This announcement does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in any jurisdiction, including the United States, and any securities described in this announcement may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration under the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or an exemption from registration. Any public offering of securities to be made in the United States will be made by means of a prospectus that may be obtained from the Bank and that will contain detailed information about the Bank and management, as well as financial statements. However, no public offering of securities is being made in the United States.

Hero Motocorp Announces The Fourth Edition Of Hero Colabs

* Launches The ‘eXperience’ Challenge Under The Creativity And Collaboratin Oriented Platform 

Hero MotoCorp, the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles and scooters, has launched a new challenge under its Hero CoLabs platform.

The eXPerience Challenge focuses on building a new retail experience for Hero MotoCorp customers, and provides the ideal platform for architects, interior designers and enthusiasts to translate their vision into reality and showcase their technical skills, creativity, and designing ability.

Aligned with Hero MotoCorp’s vision to ‘Be the Future of Mobility', the eXPerience Challenge aims to curate a new retail approach in the company’s business operations in India and globally. As part of the challenge, participants will be required to showcase their vision for a NextGen sales and after-sales customer experience, catering to the new innovative and exciting products and mobility solutions from Hero MotoCorp. This new retail experience will co-exist with the current sales network of the company.

The challenge is divided into two stages. In Stage1, participants will be required to submit a 4-minute video and a presentation of 3D Renders of the interiors & exteriors of the new-age retail outlet along with the customer journey and also a suggest naming nomenclature.  In Stage2, the shortlisted candidates will present their solution to the Senior Management of Hero MotoCorp. Candidates can participate in the challenge individually or in a team of 2-3 and should focus on practicality and ease of implementation.

Interested individuals/ groups can visit the official website of Hero CoLabs (https://www.herocolabs.com/) to register. The last date of registration is June 27, 2021. Considering the overwhelming response received in the previous editions of Hero CoLabs, this challenge has been launched in Colombia too.

Malo Le Masson, Head of Strategy, Hero MotoCorp, said, “In a short span on one year, Hero CoLabs has quickly evolved into a go-to crowdsourcing platform and has witnessed participation from a diverse demographic. It is exciting to see such a large number of like-minded enthusiasts on a single platform, collaborating and creating, brought together by their passion for brand Hero. The eXPerience Challenge further expands the horizon of Hero CoLabs, engaging a new participant group and allowing the talented minds to showcase their skills and creativity. We look forward to some great entries!”

The grand prize for the challenge is the globally admired Hero XPulse 200. The first runners-up will receive the stylish Hero Glamour and the second runners-up will get the proven Hero Passion Pro. Additionally, all winners will get vouchers worth Rs. 10,000. Separate winners will be announced for India and Colombia.

The winners and runners-up will be judged on a variety of criterion, over multiple rounds by a cross-functional team at Hero MotoCorp. The winners will be announced through Hero MotoCorp’s social media platforms. 

WhiteHat Jr Joins CRY To Inspire Children To Make Mobile Applications That Aim To Create Social Impact

WhiteHat Jr, a leading edtech company known for delivering live online classes in Coding & Math, has partnered with leading non-governmental organization CRY - Child Rights and You to inspire children to create mobile applications with social impact intent.

As a part of this new partnership, CRY will recognize/certify participating WhiteHat Jr. students who create mobile apps furthering the cause of social impact. In addition, senior leaders from CRY will regularly engage with WhiteHat Jr. students to inspire them to partake in social causes.

WhiteHat Jr’s curriculum encourages children to think constructively about and attempt to create solutions to the real-world issues they face. The outbound project, as it is called, is based on an idea submitted by the child. Over the past two years, WhiteHat Jr has witnessed students create hundreds of mobile apps centered on social impact themes. Examples include Food Donation, Blood/Organ Donation, Elder Care, Education, Helping people with physical/mental challenges, Emergency care, Child support and COVID Assistance Apps and more.

“We receive hundreds of ideas every month from students who want to develop mobile applications with a vision to support the underprivileged or help contribute to society. This not-for-profit worldview in kids is incredibly inspiring and we’re delighted to partner with CRY to reinforce it,” said Karan Bajaj, Founder and CEO, WhiteHat Jr.

“We are thrilled to partner with WhiteHat Jr in this noble cause. Ensuring that our younger generation is more attuned and empathetic towards kids with differences in privilege is a first step in finding solutions for a better tomorrow,” said Kreeanne Rabadi, Regional Direct – West, CRY.

About WhiteHat Jr.

WhiteHat Jr has been launched with the singular mission of enabling kids to become creators versus consumers of technology. The company has been able to channel students’ natural creativity through an engaging curriculum and personalized live teacher attention. WhiteHat Jr’s  11,000+ strong women-only teacher workforce conducts thousands of LIVE Coding and Math online classes every day on its proprietary platform.  Cumulatively, the company has conducted more than 8.5 million classes to date. 

About CRY

CRY - Child Rights and You is an Indian NGO that believes in every child’s right to a childhood - to live, learn, grow and play. For over 4 decades, CRY and its 850 initiatives have worked with parents and communities to ensure Lasting Change in the lives of more than 3,000,000 underprivileged children, across 19 states in India. 

Godrej & Boyce Launches Mobile Calibration Lab Services Across India

* The new mobile calibration services will be operational in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala.

Godrej & Boyce, the flagship company of the Godrej Group, today announced the launch of a new Mobile Calibration Lab Service across the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala. It is aimed at providing on-site calibration service to customers in industries such as Automobile, Aerospace and Manufacturing, having high volume of measuring equipment requiring high precision.

The Mobile Calibration Lab Services will be provided by Godrej Lawkim Motors - Calibration Services, an NABL accredited calibration laboratory as per ISO 17025 standard. This mobile service will be provided through a custom built calibration van that houses a plethora of calibration instruments and equipment as per the customer’s requirement. It will offer up to 20 services on the go. The Mobile Calibration Lab has also been intuitively designed to ensure the lowest possible vibrations, thus maintaining instrument and calibration quality. It is also temperature and humidity controlled and staffed with qualified lab technicians. The mobile calibration lab, accredited by NABL, will largely be offered as value added services and an offering differentiator to the doorstep of Godrej Lawkim’s premium customers, where stringent environmental conditions for calibration are necessary in their inhouse labs.

This mobile calibration unit has been conceptualized and fabricated by Godrej Storage Solutions, a pioneer in the field of Intralogistics. It has a proven expertise in conceptualizing and building special solutions for mobile service stations and workshop-on-wheels and caters to applications such as automotive on-road service, doorstep service of appliances, on-site heavy equipment service, in-plant infrastructure service etc.

Xercsis K. Marker, Executive Vice President & Business Head, Godrej Lawkim Motors, said, “Customer convenience and delight are always at the core of all products and services we deliver. On surveying our customers, we found out that a large volume of customers face problems in sending their instruments for calibration, and with this insight we created the Mobile Calibration Lab service. We’ve created this offering to be of the highest quality and hope to provide our services to customers across the automobile, aerospace and manufacturing industries thus helping them maintain precision in their critical measuring tools. ”  

This Mobile Calibration Lab will primarily be operational across the southern states of India from the first week of May and will extend to pan-India availability over the next few months. Considering the Covid-19 guidelines, all reasonable steps are taken care to ensure the health and safety of customers, engineers, and society at large.  Our engineers follow the safety guidelines of wearing of PPE kits, regular sanitization pre and post visit to customer’s facilities.

About Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.

Godrej & Boyce (‘G&B’), a Godrej Group company, was founded in 1897, and has contributed to India’s journey of self-reliance through manufacturing. G&B patented the world’s first springless lock and since then, has diversified into 14 businesses across various sectors from Security, Furniture, Aerospace to Infrastructure and Defence. Godrej is one of India’s most trusted brands serving over 1.1bn customers worldwide daily.

Major Spending For Groceries, Petrol Stations, Restaurants At Physical Merchant Touchpoints

* Consumers prefer mobile apps for small ticket size transactions

Groceries, petrol stations, restaurants, clothing and apparel, specialty retail, pharmacy and medical, hotels, jewellery retail, household appliances, and departmental stores were the merchant categories with the highest volume and value of transactions in Q1 for Worldline India. They together accounted for 85% in terms of volume and 76% in terms of value in Q1 2021 at the physical merchant touchpoints. In the online space, e-commerce (shopping for goods and services), gaming, utility & financial services contributed to over 85% of transactions in terms of volume and 41% in value in Q1 2021.

Mobile app-based transactions recorded 96% growth in volume in Q1 2021, while its value witnessed over 104% increase against the same quarter of the previous year i.e. Q1 2020. Interestingly, 88% of mobile transactions comprised of inter-bank transactions while 12% accounted for intra-bank transactions. In terms of value, 79% of mobile transactions comprised of interbank transactions while 21% accounted for intra-bank transactions.

Consumers made 8.32 billion mobile-based payments whereas Net Banking / Internet browser-based transactions were over 937.60 million in Q1 2021. In terms of value, INR 31.98 trillion was transacted through mobile while INR 131.34 trillion was transacted through the internet.

Net banking/internet-based transactions witnessed over 16% increase in volume In Q1 2021 and 39% in value against the same quarter of the previous year i.e. Q1 2020. Inter-bank and intra-bank transactions volume of Internet Payments channels were 80% and 20% respectively. In value terms, Inter-bank and intra-bank transactions were around 50%

It is evident from the data that consumers prefer mobile apps frequently for small ticket size transactions and net banking / browser-based channels for high ticket size transactions

Top 10 states with the highest transactions at physical touchpoints in Q1 for Worldline India: Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Telangana, and West Bengal

Top 10 cities with the highest number of transactions at physical touchpoints in Q1 for Worldline India:

Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Delhi, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Ernakulam, and Ahmedabad

Deepak Chandnani, Managing Director, Worldline South Asia & Middle East said, The RBI in its Annual Report 2020-21 stated that the payment systems recorded a robust growth of 26.2% in terms of volume on top of the expansion of 44.2% in the previous year. This clearly indicates the growing confidence among consumers towards digital payments in tier I and II cities and tier III and beyond. Although the restrictions on the movement of people and persistent lockdowns may have compelled people to adopt digital payment modes, the convenience, transparency, and security of digital payments will ensure customer stickiness in the years to come. At Worldline, we remain committed to contributing to digital penetration in India by enhancing acceptance infrastructure across the country and introducing innovative payment options to improve user experience and deepen the reach of the payment system.”

Other highlights (As of March 2021)

- Total number of cards in circulation stood at 960.25 million

- Total number of debit cards at 898.20 million and credit cards at 62.05 million

- POS terminals 4.72 million

- Prepaid Payment Instruments at 2.20 billion, 189.93 million prepaid cards, 2.01 billion mobile wallets

- Total transactions in Q1 2021 stood at 937.60 million (volume), Rs 131.34 trillion (value)

- Net Banking / Internet browser-based payments

- Mobile-based payments volume stood at 8.32 billion and value wise it was INR 31.98 trillion

- Debit card transactions' volume was 1.10 billion, value stood at INR 1.91 trillion

- Credit card transactions' volume stood at 524.53 million, value stood at INR 1.97 trillion

- Prepaid card transactions' volume stood at 272.57 million, value at INR 178.90 billion

- Mobile wallets transactions' volume stood at 1.13 billion, value at INR 411.75 billion

- NETC processed about 500 million transactions worth INR 80.41 billion

- UPI witnessed over 2.73 billion transactions in March 2021, breached INR 5 trillion in terms of value.

- 9 banks joined the UPI ecosystem in Q1 2021, the total number of banks providing UPI at 216 as of Mar ‘21.

- AePS transaction volumes grew 120% YoY (Offus, BHIM Aadhaar Pay) in Q1 2021

About Worldline India: Worldline India (WI) is wholly owned by Worldline SA, is a transactions facilitator in all spectrums of the digital payments’ ecosystem, and provides the highest available level of products, services, and solutions that are fully compliant with PCI and RBI guidelines. The main areas of business in the digital payments ecosystem it is involved in are merchant acquiring, card issuance, FASTag issuance and acquiring, loyalty solutions, private label card management service, bill payments platforms, recurring payments platforms, and cloud platforms, payment gateway, and payment aggregator services, risk mitigation, Value-added services among others. Worldline India is constantly investing in the latest technologies to increase efficiencies, drive innovation and deliver customer delight. It is the payment partner of choice for merchants, banks, government agencies, and industrial companies, delivering best-in-class digital transaction services.

Tinder Launches In-App Vaccine Advocacy Initiative Across India

* Members will be able to show vaccine support on their Tinder profiles

Tinder is launching its vaccine advocacy initiative in India to encourage young Gen Z members to get vaccinated as lockdowns begin to ease across the country and as daters look forward to meeting their matches IRL. As a part of the initiative, Tinder will be sharing educational guides and enabling member access to an all-new vaccine centre to display stickers and express their vaccination status and sentiment on their profile.

The initiative will reach millions of Tinder members across India and connect them with valuable, easy to use resources:

https://tinder.knowthevaccine.com/: A custom built for Gen Z digital educational guide* delivered in-app, which is a rich & interactive resource that answers questions as simple as ‘What is a vaccine?, the essential ‘Can I go out now?’ to the more serious ‘Can I get Covid after the vaccine?’ alongside interactive and snackable quizzes that one can swipe on to bust myths such as The vaccine guarantees safety from all COVID variants. - No, not 100%. There is still a 10-20% chance one can get Covid. It’s like a rebound 👀

Vaccine Centre: Coming soon is the in-app center with resources from WHO and also  cowin.gov.in so members can easily access government approved vaccine information and book an appointment at their nearest vaccination site.

Profile Stickers: Members can display their vaccination status and advocate for their potential matches to get vaccinated by adding interactive new stickers from the vaccine centre to their profile. Stickers include “Vaccinated,” “Vaxing Soon,” “Immunity Together,” and “Vaccines Save Lives.”

“The pandemic really pushed our members to get creative to make new connections. Vaccinations have become a popular talking point on Tinder** and mentions of ‘vaccine’ in member bios went up by 42x in India in May 2021 - an all-time high - compared to when the pandemic first began”, said Taru Kapoor, General Manager Tinder and Match Group India. “As India’s vaccination drive gains momentum, we want to extend support and encouragement for our members to be better equipped to find their way back into IRL dating when it becomes a possibility. Our intent is to make dating safer everywhere and for everyone and Tinder vaccine stickers will make it both easy and fun to share your vaxxing vibe and start something epic!”

Apart from its newly launched in-app vaccine advocacy initiatives, Tinder has been working with local partners such as India Vaccine Project on ground, to spread vaccine awareness and helping them recruit youth volunteers from amongst the Tinder community. Also, Tinder’s parent Match Group has made a donation to ACT Grants supporting their multiple Covid relief initiatives.

Formation Of All India Fixed Internet Service Providers Association

All the leading fixed line Internet Service Providers of India have come together to form a new industry body ‘All India Fixed Internet Service Providers Association (AIFISPA)’ to represent the interests of the fixed line internet service providers industry effectively.

In the last 15 months broadband data consumption saw massive spike owing to the pandemic. The fixed line broadband players have enabled entire industries to seamlessly migrate to a work from home setup, keeping the wheels of the economy running. School from home, tele medicine, video conferencing, entertainment via streaming are all some of the other ways in which fixed broadband players have really supported and enabled everyday lives through this pandemic. The industry hence is set to play a critical role in building a ‘Digital India’ and support government’s initiatives to enhance fiber optic infrastructure across the country.

The formation of this association is hence aimed to deploy measures to increase and achieve the fixed broadband internet connections pan India by solving industry challenges; to provide reliable and affordable broadband access to all through use of latest technologies; to foster healthy competition and innovation in the sector and be an important force to drive this industry towards growth trajectory.

Mission statement:

To bring together India’s Fixed broadband service providers; to promote collaboration, foster digital mission of the Government and collectively work towards promotion of fixed internet proliferation across the length and breadth of India.

AIFISPA, will be an exclusive body of fixed broadband service providers that intends to engage and assist Government organisations, who are the policymakers such as Dept of Telecommunications (DOT), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Ministry of Finance, various State Governments, and other relevant organisations to make ‘Digital India’ a reality.

Some of the founding Members of AIFISPA include - ACT Fibernet, Shyam Spectra, You Broadband, Microsense, D-Vois, Vizag Broadcasting Company, Pioneer Elabs, Mithril Telecommunications, Bell Tele Services and BBNL.