New Delhi: After almost five months of being barred from adding new customers, Fino Payments Bank, one of India’s first payments banks has been allowed to open new accounts by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) after it submitted the compliance report to the central bank. Fino Payments Bank had been unable to enrol new customers since the end of May after RBI found the bank to be non-compliant with the operational guidelines laid down by it.

“RBI has lifted the prohibition on Fino Payments Bank to open new accounts,” said a statement from the payments bank on Tuesday.

“It may be noted that RBI had prohibited Fino Payments Bank from opening any new accounts on account of violations of certain licensing conditions and operating guidelines. However, no restrictions were placed by RBI on the bank for servicing existing customers,” the statement added.

In August, the payments bank had said that a few Fino Payments Bank accounts had deposits in excess of the stipulated amount.

According to RBI’s operating guidelines for payments banks, a customer can make deposits of up to ₹1 lakh per account in a year. Such banks cannot accept deposits beyond this limit.

NEW DELHI:
CBI director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana have been sent on leave amid the massive in-figthing within the country's top investigating agency. M Nageshwara Rao, a joint director at the agency, has been appointed its interim director. Mr Rao is a 1986 batch IPS officer from the Odisha cadre and supersedes Mr Asthana.

The move caps days of turmoil that began with the CBI filing a case against Rakesh Asthana, accusing him of taking Rs. 3 crore as bribe from a businessman being investigated. Mr Asthana, denying the charges, told the government that it was his boss, Alok Verma, who had taken a bribe of Rs. 2 crore from the same businessman. He also sent a 50-page complaint against Alok Verma and his team

Meanwhile, the offices of both Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana have been sealed and all officers working with the CBI director have been sent on leave. The 10th and 11th floor of the CBI office in Delhi, which has the rooms of all these officers, are being raided, say sources.

The government's order last night followed a recommendation by the country's top vigilance officer, Chief Vigilance Commissioner, that the CBI's warring top two be sent on compulsory wait, stripped of all responsibilities.

India and China on Monday signed a first-ever agreement on security cooperation which will strengthen and consolidate assistance in counter-terrorism, organised crimes, drug control, human trafficking and exchange of information, marking a new beginning between the two countries.

The agreement was signed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and China’s State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi, a move that came just a year after the two-month-long border stand-off between the Indian Army and the China’s People’s Liberation Army at Doklam on the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction last year.

The agreement followed the first high-level meeting on bilateral security cooperation co-chaired by Rajnath Singh and Zhao, who was heading a delegation of over 30 Chinese diplomats. Zhao is on a visit to India from October 21 to 25 during which he will also travel to Mumbai.

A Home Ministry statement said the two sides discussed counter-terrorism cooperation, and welcomed increased cooperation between the two countries in the area of security during the meeting.

NEW DELHI: India, Afghanistan and Iran Tuesday held their first trilateral meeting on Chabahar port project during which they reviewed its implementation. The meeting assumes significance as the strategically-located port on the energy-rich Iran's southern coast was coming under the ambit of US sanctions on Tehran.

"Detailed discussions were held between the three sides on full operationalisation of the trilateral Agreement for international transit and transport through Chabahar port, ..

United Nations: Invest India has received the top UN Investment Promotion Award in recognition of its efforts to boost investments in the renewable energy sector in India.

The award was presented by Armenian President Armen Sarkissian to Deepak Bagla, the CEO of Invest India, on Monday in Geneva at the inaugurations of the World Investment Forum organised by the UN Convention on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Tata Consultancy Services is the only Indian company among top 10 firms to get foreign labour certification for the H-1B visas for the fiscal year 2018, according to data from the US Department of Labour.

The H-1B visas are the most sought-after among Indian IT professionals.

The visa programme allows employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in the US on a non-immigrant basis in speciality occupations or as fashion models of distinguished merit and ability.

London-headquartered Earnest and Young, a multinational professional services firm, has emerged as the top employer to have received the certification.

In fact, Ernest and Young with 151,164 H-1B specialist occupation labour certifications accounted for the 12.4 per cent of all foreign labour certification for the H-1B work visas for the fiscal year 2018 ending on September 30, according to the latest annual report released by the Department of Labour early this month.

Ernest and Young is followed by Deloitte Consulting which received 69,869 H-1B specialty occupations labour conditions programme.

Indian-American owned Cognizant Technology Corp comes at number three with 47,732 specialty occupations labour conditions programme, the Department of Labour said in its latest annual report.

Cognizant is followed by HCL America (42,820), K Force Inc (32,996), and Apple (26,833).

India’s Tata Consultancy Services or TCS is the only Indian company in top 10 for the year 2018.

Uzbekistan Ambassador to India Farhod Arziev will Sunday inaugurate a four-day international dance festival titled "Udbhav Utsav" here.

Dance troupes from Bulgaria, Turkey and Sri Lanka, apart from 25 teams from India, will participate while a team from South Korea dropped out at the last minute, organising committee president Keshav Pandey told PTI Saturday.

He said that the inaugural session will be held in Jiwaji Club here.

The dance festival, sponsored by the Greenwood group of schools, is in its 15th year, he added.

New Delhi: Paytm, run by One 97 Communications Ltd, has launched a barcode-based smartphone payment service called PayPay in Japan, in a joint venture with SoftBank Corporation and Yahoo Japan Corporation, the company said in a statement on Monday.

Mint reported on July 27 that Softbank had tapped Paytm, India’s largest payments service provider, to set up mobile payments in Japan by November.

SoftBank Group is one of the largest investors in Paytm. PayPay Corp., established in June, will help SoftBank build and expand its payment system in the country.

Incepted in October 2018, PayPay allows users to store money from a bank account in their “PayPay” wallet and aims to promote the use of cashless payment in Japan, which is heavily dependent on cash for payments. Japan accounts for only 20% of overall cashless transactions in the country.

With the launch of “PayPay,” Yahoo Japan will terminate “Yahoo! Wallet”—its current smartphone settlement function.

The first India-China high-level meeting on bilateral security cooperation held in New Delhi on Monday.

During the meeting, the two sides discussed issues of mutual interest including bilateral cooperation on counter-terrorism and welcomed increased cooperation between India and China in the area of security.

An Agreement on security cooperation was also signed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and State Councilor and Minister of Public Security of China, Zhao Kezhi.

It will further strengthen and consolidate discussions and cooperation in the areas of counter-terrorism, organized crimes, drug control and other such relevant areas.

Bajrang Punia entered the history books as he won silver and became the first Indian wrestler to win two medals at the World Wrestling Championships on Monday. Punia had won a bronze medal in the 2013 edition.

Punia lost 9-16 to Takuto Otoguro of Japan in the final of the 65 kg freestyle event.

The Japanese raced into a 5-0 lead at the start of the match and although Bajrang did cut Otoguro’s lead to one pointa at one stage he was always fighting an uphill battle against an opponent who had injury issues later in the match.

“It was so near and yet so far,” was how the 24-year-old reacted, speaking from Budapest. “Having reached the final, I expected to win gold but I will have to be satisfied with a silver medal. I am happy to have bettered my bronze medal effort, achieved five years ago at the same venue,” added Punia.