-The Hindu The government has declared an incentive package to encourage non-cash payments for fuel, new insurance policies from public sector firms, train tickets and highway toll, among other things. For credit and debit card transactions up to Rs.2,000, the Reserve Bank of India has relaxed its stringent two-factor authentication requirement, and service tax stands waived. Taken together, these moves to encourage cashless payments are significant not just because they can...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has started to fumble for explanations, with the original raison d'etre for the demonetisation drive coming under strain because of the high volume of cash deposits that have poured into bank accounts. Almost 80 per cent of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes that were demonetised on November 9 has come straight back into the banking system, prompting the government to change the...

-The Indian Express India’s largest public sector bank, the State Bank of India, has also seen a jump in PoS transactions from 3.5 lakh to 11 lakh a day with more people using debit cards. Mumbai: One month into demonetisation, there has been a significant increase in digital payments. According to AP Hota, managing director and chief executive of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), transactions through RuPay point of sale (PoS) machines have...

-The Hindu The Centre has proposed amending a law to empower States and allow industries to pay wages by cheque or by direct credit into bank accounts. The Union Labour ministry has proposed changes to the Section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act of 1936. The present law states that all payment of wages should be made in cash, with a provision enabling employers to obtain written permission of the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Each citizen who performs at least two cashless transactions with the government will earn their district administration an extra Rs 10 from the Niti Aayog, to be spent on promoting e-payments across the population. This incentive comes over and above a sum of Rs 5 lakh that every district will receive for the campaign, launched today to try and make all government-citizen transactions cashless. As part of the drive,...