Alibaba and SoftBank-backed Paytm on Monday said it registered over 137 million UPI transactions in September, becoming the leading contributor to Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments with over 33 per cent of the overall market share.

One97 Communications Limited, that owns the brand Paytm, said the company is enabling BHIM UPI for offline payments and over five million offline merchants, out of its 9.5 million merchant-base, now accept Paytm UPI.

"It is encouraging to see the widespread adoption of Paytm BHIM UPI as it is fast becoming a preferred payment method for millions of users, making us the leader in UPI payments," said Deepak Abbot, Senior Vice President, Paytm. More than 20 per cent of all payments on Paytm are made using BHIM UPI for mobile recharge and payments, electricity and water bills and DTH recharges, among others.

"We will continue to invest our efforts to introduce more consumers and merchants to the convenience of Paytm UPI for online and offline use cases," said Abbot.

The company also announced the launch of its Spam-proof "SMS Inbox" as part of its "Paytm Inbox".

The "Spam-proof SMS Inbox" uses Machine Learning (ML) algorithms to classify SMS into personal, transactional and promotional categories.

Government of India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) today signed $240 million loan for providing safe and sustainable drinking water to about 1.65 million people in three districts of the state of West Bengal affected by arsenic, fluoride, and salinity.

The signatories to the West Bengal Drinking Water Sector Improvement Project were Mr. Sameer Kumar Khare, Additional Secretary (Fund Bank and ADB), Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, who signed for the Government of India; and Mr. Kenichi Yokoyama, Country Director of ADB’s India Resident Mission, who signed for ADB.

Heavy reliance on groundwater puts most of the rural population in West Bengal at risk from arsenic and fluoride contamination that can lead to health problems including cancer and bone diseases. The project aims to mitigate these risks through provision of continuous potable water through metered connections to about 390,000 individual households in three districts – Bankura, North 24 Parganas, and Purba Medinipur.

“The project addresses the concerns relating to excessive use of groundwater to sustainable surface water based piped schemes,” said Mr. Khare. “This will help mitigate the health risks from using groundwater with elevated levels of arsenic and fluoride.”

Mr. Yokoyama said, “Besides reducing the burden of diseases from contaminated groundwater, the project will promote higher service levels compared with rural schemes in India with individual household connections and district metering area based metered continuous water supply, and use of advanced technology for smart water

With an aim to reduce the rising number of ATM fraud cases and give a boost to digital transactions, the State Bank of India (SBI) halved the daily ATM withdrawal limit from Rs 40,000 to Rs 20,000. The limit will be effective from October 31, the Economic Times reported.

"In view of the increase in the number of complaints received by banks around fraudulent transactions at ATMs and to encourage digital and cashless transactions, it has been decided to decrease the cash withdrawal limits of debit cards issued or being issued on Classic’ and Maestro’ platforms", SBI said in a communication sent to its offices as reported by the Economic Times.

The announcement by the largest lender in the country comes just weeks before the festivals and will be effective days before Diwali.

"Our internal analysis shows most actual withdrawals are of smaller amounts. So, Rs 20,000 should be adequate for most customers. We are trying to see whether smaller withdrawals could minimise frauds," SBI managing director PK Gupta told the Economic Times.

The customers who want higher withdrawal limit can request for cards variants with such offers and such cards can be issued to account holders with the required higher minimum balance in their accounts.

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The Board of Control for Cricket in India is covered under the Right to Information Act and answerable to the people under its mechanism, the Central Information Commission said on Monday, PTI reported.

The commission, the top appellate body in RTI matters, went through the law, orders of the Supreme Court, the Law Commission of India report, submissions of the Central Public Information Officer in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to conclude that the status, nature and functional characteristics of the BCCI fulfil required conditions of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act.

arvard economist Gita Gopinath has been appointed as the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). She will be assuming the post of economic counsellor and director of the IMF’s Research Department.

Gopinath will be succeeding Maurice Obstfeld, who had announced earlier this year that he will be retiring at the end of 2018.

IMF is a leading international body working in the field of global finance and economy.

She is the second Indian after former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan to hold the position.

In a press statement released by the IMF chief Christian Lagarde said, "Gita is one of the world’s outstanding economists, with impeccable academic credentials, a proven track record of intellectual leadership, and extensive international experience".

At present, Gita Gopinath is the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics at Harvard University. She is the third woman and the second Indian after Nobel laureate Amartya Sen to be made a permanent member of the economics department at Harvard.

She is the co-editor of the American Economic Review and co-director of the International Finance and Macroeconomics Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Former IAS officer Rangachari Sridharan was Friday appointed as first chief of National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), according to an official order.

Sridharan, a 1983 batch (retired) IAS officer of Karnataka cadre, will hold the post of chairperson, NFRA, for three years or till the incumbent attains the age of 65 years, the order said.

Besides him, Prasenjit Mukherjee has been appointed as full-time member of the authority for the same tenure, the order issued by Personnel Ministry said.

Mukherjee is a 1980 batch (retired) officer of Indian Audit and Accounts Service.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on March 1, approved establishment of the NFRA and creation of one post of chairperson, three posts of full-time members and one post of Secretary.

The NFRA is mandated to act as an independent regulator for the auditing profession. It will help in better regulation of financial audit of large companies.

India and Uzbekistan inked 17 agreements on Monday, including for visa free travel for diplomatic passport holders and cooperation in the fields of tourism, national security, training of diplomats and against trafficking.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev held delegation level talks and agreed to collaborate with each other across sectors

With the aim to build interoperability and mutual understanding as well as sharing of best practices, the 6th edition of IBSAMAR, a joint Multi – National Maritime Exercise between the Indian, Brazilian and South African Navies, is being held at Simons Town, South Africa from Oct 1-13.

The exercise includes both harbour and sea phases with various navigation and seamanship evolutions, surface weapons firing, force protection exercises, antipiracy exercise, anti-air and anti-submarine exercise as well as flying operations. Apart from professional activities, sports and social engagements are also planned.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today inaugurated the first Assembly of the International Solar Alliance at Vigyan Bhawan. The same event also marked the inauguration of the second IORA Renewable Energy Ministerial Meeting, and the 2nd Global RE-Invest (Renewable Energy Investors’ Meet and Expo). The Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Antonio Guterres, was present on the occasion.

Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister said that in the last 150 to 200 years, mankind has depended on fossil fuels for energy needs. He said nature is now indicating that options such as solar, wind and water, offer more sustainable energy solutions. In this context, he expressed confidence that in future, when people talk of organisations for the welfare of mankind established in the 21st century, the International Solar Alliance will be at the top of the list. He said this is a great forum to work towards ensuring climate justice. He said the International Solar Alliance could replace OPEC as the key global energy supplier in the future.

The Prime Minister said that the effect of increased use of renewable energy is now visible in India. He added that India is working towards the goals of the Paris Agreement through an action plan. He said that the target is to generate 40 percent of India's total energy requirements in 2030, by non fossil fuel based sources. He said India is developing with a new self-confidence of "Poverty to Power."

The Goa government Saturday inked an MoU with Portugal and said that the coastal state was looking at the European nation, with which it has a historical link, for its model of development.

Goa Public Works Department Minister Sudin Dhavalikar and Portugal's Minister of Environment Joao Pedro de Matos Fernandes on September 29 signed an MoU in the the field of water supply, waste water management and sanitation to be implemented in the state.

"Goa is proud to have an understanding with Portugal because it was ruling Goa prior to 1961 and, at the time, had implemented development works," Dhavalikar said.

"Considering all this, we can definitely think, in future, regarding the development of Goa based on the Portugal basis (model)," he told reporters.