New Delhi: PayU India on Wednesday announced entering into a strategic partnership with Reliance Money, leading NBFC brands in India, to offer instant app based personal loans, via LazyPay.

In an attempt to reach out to the underserved consumers in India, both PayU India and Reliance Money will make sure that the entire process is completely digital, saving customers the hassle and the delays usually associated with a loan approval process. The loan amount will start from as low as Rs 100 and will extend up to Rs 1,00,000 with a duration varying from 15 days to 24 months.

Reliance Money would carry out its one-step due diligence of checking the creditworthiness of the customers, which will substantially bring down the 'time to check' and improve the turnaround time of the credit flow to the KYC-enabled customer. As a measure to keep delinquencies under check, the company is seeking direct debit facility on the customer's account for loan repayment.

"The tie-up helps Reliance Money to move ahead in its financial inclusion effort of "go-retail" by reaching out to underserved customers with innovative financial solutions," said executive director and CEO of Reliance Money, Devang Mody.

Adding to this he said that customers will gain by getting instant credit through a paperless process as an added facility with the benefit of flexible tenure ranging from 15 days to 24 months to ensure they don't miss an opportunity - be it a great shopping deal or a business opportunity.

New Delhi, Aug 8 The Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve, one of the highest ecosystems in the world, has been added to UNESCO's list of World Network of Biosphere Reserve (WNBR).

The Khangchendzonga reserve will be India's 11th internationally designated WNBR.

The reserve includes a range of ecoclines varying from subtropical to arctic, as well as vast natural forests in different biomes that support an immensely rich diversity of forest types and habitats resulting in high species diversity and endemism.

"International coordinating Council (ICC) of Man and Biosphere (MAB) Programme, UNESCO, in its 30th session (23-27 July, 2018) at Palembang, Indonesia, designated Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve for inclusion in the World Network of Biosphere Reserve," a document uploaded on the Environment Ministry's website said.

Khangchendzonga joins the list of other biospheres such as Nandadevi, Simlipal, Sunderbans, and Nilgiri.

Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan tweeted, "Gratified to note, UNESCO has included #Khangchendzonga #NationalPark in Sikkim in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, WNBR. With it the no. of internationally designated WNBR has become 11. Khangchendzonga is one of the highest ecosystems in the world. @moefcc."

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Aviation Suresh Prabhu launched Niryat Mitra – mobile App in New Delhi on Wednesday. The app developed by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) is available both on Android and on IOS platforms.

It provides wide range of information required to undertake international trade right from the policy provisions for export and import, applicable GST rate, available export incentives, tariff, preferential tariff, market access requirements – SPS and TBT measures.

The most interesting part is that all the information is available at tariff line. The app works internally to map the ITC HS code of other countries with that of India and provides all the required data without the users bothering about the HS code of any country. Presently the app comes with the data of 87 countries.

China's exports surged more than expected in July despite U.S. duties and its closely watched surplus with the United States remained near record highs, as the world's two major economic powers ramped up a bitter dispute that some fear could derail global growth.

In the latest move by President Donald Trump to put pressure on Beijing to negotiate trade concessions, Washington is set to begin collecting 25% tariffs on another $16 billion in Chinese goods on Aug. 23.Wednesday's Chinese data provide the first readings of the overall trade picture for the world's second-largest economy since U.S duties on $34 billion of Chinese imports came into effect on July 6. All the same, China's exports for July rose a bigger than expected 12.2% year-on-year, showing little tariff impact for now and beating June's 11.2% rise and analysts expectations in a Reuters poll for 10% growth.

Of more direct consequence in the Sino-U.S. trade war, China's surplus with the United States shrank only marginally to $28.09 billion last month from a record $28.97 billion in June. Washington has long criticised China's trade surplus with the United States and has demanded Beijing cut it. Those demands could get even more strident if the yuan's sharp drop in recent months raises the ire of the United States, which has in the past repeatedly criticised Beijing for manipulating its currency to gain an unfair trade advantage.

KOLKATA: The telecom regulator on Tuesday announced the integration of its mobile apps --- DND 2.0 and MyCall – with e-governance platform, UMANG to help consumers access multiple government services easily.

UMANG or 'unified mobile application for new-age governance’ has been developed by National e-Governance division of the ministry of electronics & IT (MeitY).

“UMANG provides a single Android platform to all Indian citizens to access pan-India e-governance services, ranging from central to local bodies and other citizen-centric services,” Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said Tuesday in a media statement. 

Public sector non-life insurance firm United India Insurance Company today announced the appointment of S Gopakumar as its Director and General Manager with immediate effect.

Prior to taking up the new role, Gopakumar was serving GIC Housing Finance Ltd as its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, a company statement said. Gopakumar began his career with public sector National Insurance Company and has held various responsibilities in his more than three decade experience.

Former Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi passed away on Tuesday at the age of 94. The veteran politician was admitted in Kauvery Hospital in the city two weeks ago, where he was being treated by a panel of expert doctors. His body was taken to his Gopalapuram residence last night, after which it was shifted to Rajaji Hall. Several political leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, paid their last respects to Karunanidhi.

The Madras High Court granted permission to bury Karunanidhi behind Anna Samadhi — the memorial of C N Annadurai — on Marina beach. This comes after several arguments against or in favour of the matter in the court. The order led to emotional scenes at Rajaji Hall, as Karunanidhi’s son Stalin and senior leaders broke into tears. The Madras High Court which held a late-night hearing on a plea by DMK’s lawyers took up the case at 8 am this morning.

India doubled the import tax on more than 300 textile products to 20 percent on Tuesday as the world's biggest producer of cotton tries to curb rising imports from China.

It was the second tax hike on textiles in as many months after an increase on other products including fibre and apparels last month.

The moves are expected to provide relief to the domestic textile industry, which has been hit by cheaper imports. India's total textile imports jumped by 16 percent to a record $7 billion in the fiscal year to March 2018. Of this, about $3 billion were from China.

Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp reported a 49 percent jump in quarterly profit on Monday, boosted by the sale of its stake in Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart in the first public divestment by the conglomerate’s massive Vision Fund.SoftBank, which is planning to list its domestic telecoms business, also said profit was bolstered by the sale of most of the Chinese operations of chip design unit ARM Holdings.The sales are the first signs of SoftBank monetizing its investments after pumping billions of dollars into technology companies around the world yet taking little profit.

Its Vision Fund is the world’s largest private equity fund, raising over $93 billion at its first major close in May last year. The fund, which is yet to complete its final close, had invested $27.1 billion in 29 firms as at June-end, SoftBank said on Monday.

Its investments are now worth $32.5 billion on the rising value of its various stakes such as in shared office space company WeWork Cos. SoftBank has around 1,700 of its own staff currently using some of WeWork Japan’s 6,250 seats.

“We are considering moving all of SoftBank’s headquarters into WeWork (offices) in the near future,” Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said on Monday.

Son has previously said a second Vision Fund is being planned, but on Monday declined to comment on timing or size.