Subhash Chandra Garg- Economy, Finance and Fiscal Policy Strategist

  Impact of Covid Second Wave on Economic Growth   Subhash Chandra Garg Economy, Finance and Fiscal Policy Strategist; Former Finance Secretary, Government of India     Second wave has caught us unprepared Fast spreading reported daily covid-positive cases, in excess of 3 lakhs a day, made India clock one million cases in last three days only. Health infrastructure has been stretched to its limits. Oxygen, beds, drugs, vaccines, faith and confidence all seemed to have broken down in many parts of the country. India is in a very disturbed state. Not so long back in January-February, situation was looking quite comfortable. For a day, Delhi had recorded only one death with national death count falling to less than 100. While Covid was still raging in the US and UK, India seemed to have got over the Covid with much less damage. The self-inflicted damage to economic growth in QI of 2020-21 had also been put behind by rationale approach adopted in Q3 and Q4. Indian economy s

  Fintechs Will Take Over Financial Products Distribution Subhash Chandra Garg   There are three main segments of financial businesses- payments, investments and credit. Fintech firms are surging in all the three segments. Payments Payments are made using either currency or deposits/money in bank accounts/ digital wallets. Non-cash or fintech payments, essentially amount to transfer of deposit from one account to another. UPI platform created by NPCI revolutionised fintech payments by linking all the 40 crore odd bank accounts into one single database, literally transforming all banks in one single digital bank for payments. Most non-cash payments are now made using fintech platforms like UPI, Bill-pays, IIMPS, NEFT, RTGS   etc. These solutions have pushed out bank drafts, cheques   and other physical payments. Payment-tech is the most advanced in the financial services business. Small payments are, however, still majorly (more than 80%) cash-based.   This is because the cu