Bharat Rakshak

NRao wrote:Ajay Banga is a card-carrying member of the Trilateral Commission (IIRC he is a current member).

A threat to Global South. And, by extension, since India has taken up the banner of the Global South (via G-20), a threat to India too.

I see this as a very well-camouflaged move - even derailing Indian ambitions to become a global pole.

Mr. Banga has the same goal as Klaus Schwab of Davos - to centralize data across the globe so that a central authority can manage growth. As the CEO of MasterCard Mr. Banga tried extremely hard to get hold of data on Indians.

In mid-2018, Mastercard’s then-chief executive Ajay Banga enthusiastically defended Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s push to promote electronic payments in the country’s cash-dominated economy.

Modi “gets it”, he told an audience in New York, highlighting the role of cash in everything from terrorism funding to trade in illegal drugs.

Three years later, his company has found itself on the wrong side of India’s plans for the sector.

The Reserve Bank of India last month barred Mastercard from adding customers, saying it had failed to comply with regulations — implemented shortly after Banga praised Modi’s approach — that forbid financial groups from storing data overseas.

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DAVOS – January 19, 2017 – Mastercard and George Soros announced plans to explore creating a social enterprise to apply commercial strategies to deliver a positive impact on society. Called Humanity Ventures, the enterprise could catalyze and accelerate economic and social development for vulnerable communities around the world, especially refugees and migrants.

Pervasive joblessness, lack of access to healthcare, inadequate education, and financial exclusion afflict people in both developed and emerging economies. Despite billions of dollars of humanitarian and development assistance every year, millions of people remain marginalized. Mastercard and George Soros believe that private sector capabilities coupled with strategic, long-term investments can spur development and transform life for the underserved.

Last September, George Soros announced that he is earmarking up to $500 million for private investments that will improve capacity to address the challenges that migrants, including refugees, and their host communities face around the world. Humanity Ventures would be part of that initiative.

Mastercard delivers innovative payments, data, and identity solutions which empower the underserved all over the world. These tools improve the lives of refugees and migrants by forging better economic and social ties with local populations.

Operating as a standalone entity, Humanity Ventures would initially combine solutions designed to expand access to healthcare and education, foster local economic development and entrepreneurship, and enhance the delivery of aid. One such solution is the Mastercard Aid Network, an award winning digital voucher platform designed in partnership with humanitarian organizations.

With the creation of Humanity Ventures, Soros could invest up to $50 million to make these solutions even more scalable and sustainable. The social enterprise could also serve as an incubator and accelerator for smaller projects committed to mitigating the migration crisis.

Designed to combine the need for business returns with social impact, Humanity Ventures would also act as a new model for how civil society, governments, and the private sector improve quality of life and drive economic growth.

“Over several years, we’ve applied our thinking and technology to help hundreds of millions connect to the formal economy and to help empower safer and more efficient aid distribution,” said Ajay Banga, president and CEO of Mastercard. “We can have transformational impact by scaling our business-driven organization to leverage innovation, on-the-ground experience and long-term capital investments.”

“Migrants are often forced into lives of despair in their host communities because they cannot gain access to financial, healthcare and government services. Our potential investment in this social enterprise, coupled with Mastercard’s ability to create products that serve vulnerable communities, can show how private capital can play a constructive role in solving social problems,” said George Soros. “Humanity Ventures is intended to be profitable so as to stimulate involvement from other businesspeople. We also hope to establish standards of practice to ensure that investments are not exploitative of the vulnerable communities we intend to serve.”

“Migrants are often forced into lives of despair in their host communities because they cannot gain access to financial, healthcare and government services. Our potential investment in this social enterprise, coupled with Mastercard’s ability to create products that serve vulnerable communities, can show how private capital can play a constructive role in solving social problems,” said George Soros. “Humanity Ventures is intended to be profitable so as to stimulate involvement from other businesspeople. We also hope to establish standards of practice to ensure that investments are not exploitative of the vulnerable communities we intend to serve.”

vimal wrote:Mastercard is a threat to UPI.

UPI literally have revolutionized the way Indians make payments, be it at your kirana shop or a high end restaurant you can make payments in just a click.

Now, before UPI we had debit cards and credit cards, which have become quite old school after UPI came into picture, for most of us they are lying somewhere in our drawers. But you see credit cards have one superpower that cannot be replaced by UPI, it is leverage! You can buy an I phone worth one lakh even when you don’t have the money.

f you ask, why has RBI done this, the first and the obvious reason is to boost the number of UPI payments and second reason could be to promote your own Rupay cards, well our PM doesn’t really like foreign companies, he believes in atma nirbharta a lot, and one reason for this move of RBI is definitely to boost the penetration of Rupay cards.

A fun fact for you, the market share of Rupay in the debit card segment was just 15% in 2017 which rose to 60% in 2021, well that huge jump, was primarily because the government is proactively pushing Rupay cards.

Now, the share of Rupay has grown in the debit card segment, while it still lags behind its global counterparts in the credit card space. As per sources, currently, RuPay only has a 20 percent share of India’s credit card market which is led by Visa, followed by MasterCard.

Also, it is behind Visa and Mastercard when it comes to value and volume of transactions, and that is why RBIs plan is a gamechanger for Rupay.

KLNMurthy wrote: ..................

For instance, why not turn the tables and use UPI as a platform to invest in essential services delivery to marginalized communities in large US cities but also in neglected rural areas like East Palestine? Services like remote healthcare, education, spiritual counseling for drug addiction etc. for example.

Amber G. wrote:Moving in right direction:USA@India "Another milestone- 200,000 visa applications have been processed! We are on a mission to process 1 million visas... our way to #Missionto1M!"

Amber G. wrote:The nomination of Eric Garcetti to serve as the United States ambassador to India has been approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Naomi Seligman, a former Garcetti aide who's accused the former Los Angeles mayor of ignoring credible sexual assault accusations during his time in office, blasted Wednesday's vote.

"Today's vote, on International Women's Day no less, shows a real disconnect between the rhetoric we hear from elected leaders who claim to support victims of workplace sexual harassment and the pass they give to party loyalists in the next breath. It's disheartening to say the least," Seligman said in a statement, calling the former mayor "unfit to represent our country."

krithivas wrote:Keeping count,
1. Failed attempt by Bismillah Broadcasting Corp. against PM Modi.
2. Failed attempt against the Adani group
3. Sore-ass bemoaning fall of democracy in India
4. SC wanting a seat to nominate EC
5. Raw-fool Gandhi calling for foreign interference in India to downright false pretenses
6. Sudden confirmation of Eric Garcetti?

"that calls for across-the-board coordination on efforts to spur semiconductor production. It will include joint efforts to assess market vulnerabilities, encourage private investment, and ensure government subsidies aren’t redundant."

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security will lead a separate initiative, dubbed the India-U.S. Strategic Trade Dialogue, with India’s foreign ministry focused on 'aligning our export controls and sharing information with one another'"

Here is a thought experiment. If Taiwan did not exist, would the US and China still be at loggerheads? My hunch is yes. Antagonism between top dogs and rising powers is part of the human story.
The follow-up is whether such tensions would persist if China were a democracy rather than a one-party state. That is harder to say but it is not obvious that an elected Chinese government would feel any less resentful of the US-led global order. It is also hard to imagine the circumstances in which America would willingly share the limelight.

Avid wrote:Financial Times (direct link is behind paywall)
http://archive.today/R9T77

China is right about US containment
But encircling Beijing is not a viable long-term strategy

Here is a thought experiment. If Taiwan did not exist, would the US and China still be at loggerheads? My hunch is yes. Antagonism between top dogs and rising powers is part of the human story.
The follow-up is whether such tensions would persist if China were a democracy rather than a one-party state. That is harder to say but it is not obvious that an elected Chinese government would feel any less resentful of the US-led global order. It is also hard to imagine the circumstances in which America would willingly share the limelight.

Many on BRF have said the same, that eventually India will be in US crosshairs. Being a democracy alone does not safeguard us.

Arun Pudur @arunpudur

Notorious Short Seller @BillAckman who was screaming @gautam_adani is a fraud, now wants Bailout for Silicon Valley Bank
These Libtards commit fraud and hide behind bailouts while targeting legitimate companies which provide employment based on fake hit job reports