HDFC Bank launches co-branded pre-paid card with ItzCash and VISA

HDFC Bank launches co-branded pre-paid card with ItzCash and VISA

– By Prathamesh Patil

HDFC Bank has launched a co-branded prepaid card to make everyday purchases convenient for consumers.

In a tie up with payment and Prepaid Card Solutions provider, ItzCash Card Limited, the co-branded card will allow consumers a low-cost and convenient way to complete financial transactions such as bill payment and money transfer even in the absence of a Bank account, the company said in a statement.

The ItzCash HDFC Bank Prepaid Cards on the Visa technology payments platform are available at select ItzCash world outlets in Mumbai and Delhi. The co-branded card will allow consumers to complete financial transactions such as bill payment and money transfer even in the absence of a Bank account.

Naveen Surya, Managing Director, ItzCash Card Ltd. said, “This represents the next phase of growth for Indian prepaid card industry as a whole. Being a pioneer of prepaid cards in India, we have consistently focused on improving and benchmarking our product offerings to the consistently evolving customer needs across India. Partnering with one of the largest bank in the country would not only enable us to empower our customers efficiently; but more so would expand the realm of the still-nascent prepaid cards industry in India to cater to newer customers and geographies using HDFC Bank’s vast presence and network.”

Parag Rao, Senior Executive Vice-President, Business Head – Card Payment Products & Merchant Acquiring Services, HDFC Bank said, “We are confident that it will be a valuable addition to our growing portfolio of products. Customers can now avail of this card to make payments for daily purchases and bills, while keeping a track of their expenses.”

Since a majority of consumers are focused on managing their finances, prepaid products can be a helpful budgeting tool, while empowering consumers with a better way to make everyday purchases, pay bills and receive payroll deposits. This is a great way to extend access financial products and services to financially underserved consumers.

As part of the launch in each of the cities, street plays are being conducted to educate and create awareness amongst targeted customers of the cards’ features.

Reserve Bank’s Mid-Quarter Monetary Policy Review. How will it affect banking sector?

Reserve Bank’s Mid-Quarter Monetary Policy Review. How will it affect banking sector?
–  By Prathamesh Patil

RBI has initiated the following Monetary and Liquidity measures:
–    To keep the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 7.75 per cent; and
–    To keep the cash reserve ratio (CRR) of scheduled banks unchanged at 4.0 per cent of net demand and time liability (NDTL).

Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF will remain unchanged at 6.75 per cent, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 8.75 per cent.

The outlook for global growth continues to remain moderate, with an uneven recovery across industrial countries. Activity in major emerging market economies (EMEs) barring China has decelerated on account of weak domestic demand, notwithstanding some improvement in export performance. While volatility in financial markets has receded, it could pick up again following the inevitable taper of quantitative easing in the US, given the large dependence of EMEs on external financing.

Chanda Kochhar, managing director & CEO, ICICI Bank said, ”The decision to keep the policy rates unchanged is welcome in view of continued risks to growth and keeping in mind the possibility of softening food inflation and the lagged effect of earlier rate increases.The policy also recognizes the improvement in India’s external balances, while acknowledging the risks of tapering by the US Federal Reserve. In view of the current macro situation, the Reserve Bank of India’s commitment to managing adequate systemic liquidity and its balanced approach to growth and inflation should be seen as positives for economic recovery and stability.”

With the normalization of exceptional monetary measures, liquidity conditions have improved, as reflected in the steady decline in the access to the MSF.  Capital inflows under the Reserve Bank’s swap facilities for banking capital and non-resident deposits augmented domestic liquidity significantly from the end of November. Over the first two weeks of December, banks refrained from utilising the limits under the overnight LAF repo and export credit refinance, and, in fact, excess liquidity was parked with the Reserve Bank through reverse repo.  Anticipating the temporary tightness in liquidity starting from mid-December 2013 on account of advance tax payments, the Reserve Bank conducted additional 14-day term repo auction of `100 billion on December 13, augmenting the normal access to liquidity from the Reserve Bank to the tune of 1.5 per cent of NDTL (i.e., about `1.2 trillion) under overnight repos, term repos, and the export credit refinance facility. The Reserve Bank also opened a  refinance facility of `50 billion for the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI)  aimed at  addressing  liquidity stress faced by medium, micro and small enterprises. Liquidity is being managed with a view to ensuring that there is adequate credit flow to the productive sectors of the economy.

Policy Stance and Rationale

The policy decision is a close one. Current inflation is too high. However, given the wide bands of uncertainty surrounding the short term path of inflation from its high current levels, and given the weak state of the economy, the inadvisability of overly reactive policy action, as well as the long lags with which monetary policy works, there is merit in waiting for more data to reduce uncertainty.

There are obvious risks to waiting for more data, including the possibility that tapering of quantitative easing by the US Fed may disrupt external markets and that the Reserve Bank may be perceived to be soft on inflation. The Reserve Bank will be vigilant. Even though the Reserve Bank maintains status quo it can help guide market expectations through a clearer description of its policy reaction function: if the expected softening of food inflation does not materialise and translate into a significant reduction in headline inflation in the next round of data releases, or if inflation excluding food and fuel does not fall, the Reserve Bank will act, including on off-policy dates if warranted, so that inflation expectations stabilise and an environment conducive to sustainable growth takes hold.

Persistent Venture Fund’s second investment – DxNow, a boston based life sciences startup

Persistent Venture Fund’s second investment – DxNow, a boston based life sciences startup

– By Prathamesh Patil

Persistent Systems has announced that it has invested in DxNow, a privately held Boston company that is developing advanced micro-fluidic and imaging technologies for point-of-care diagnostic solutions. DxNow is the second recipient to receive seed money from the Persistent Venture Fund, an early-stage investment fund announced last month, focused on supporting innovation in areas of Persistent’s expertise and involving social, mobile, analytics and cloud computing (SMAC) technologies.

DxNow products and technologies will be initially applied to infection detection in renal dialysis patients and will subsequently address applications in forensics, male fertility, global health and rapid detection of microbial species in the environment to ensure public health and safety.

The product related to dialysis, the DxNow Infection Detection System™, will be a simple-to-use micro-fluidic device that enables early detection of infection in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients, before the infection has serious health impacts. The system will alert patients and caregivers simultaneously when an infection is detected via easy to use enabling technology that allows for timely clinical intervention – reducing the need for costly emergency room visits and hospitalization.

“Today there are approximately 300,000 PD patients worldwide and that number is expected to grow to more than 400,000 in the next four years,” said William T. Sharp, CEO, DxNow. “Our goal is to provide a device that delivers better patient outcomes, and reduced costs and complications, as well as peace of mind for PD patients and their caregivers by enabling early clinical intervention when infection is detected. Persistent Systems expertise in life sciences as well as mobile and cloud computing make them an ideal partner.”

“DxNow is providing an innovative solution to a critical problem, reducing the current time of infection detection from days to minutes with greater accuracy,” said Dr. Sridhar Jagannathan, Chief Innovation Officer, Persistent Systems, Inc. “Our investment in DxNow draws on Persistent’s significant expertise in medical technologies and life sciences. We look forward to advantaging DxNow in their journey to creating breakthrough products and saving lives.”

DxNow will use mobility and cloud computing to help ensure timely, accurate and effective monitoring for the onset of infection — critical to reducing costs and improving patient outcomes

Facebook testing video advertisements in user’s news feed – will it work?

Facebook testing video advertisements in user’s news feed – will it work?

– By Prathamesh Patil

Social Networking giant Facebook has announced that it has been testing video advertisements that would show up in user’s new feeds. This will act as an additional revenue stream for the world’s most popular social network.

Since September this year, Facebook has been testing a way to make videos more engaging and as a result it seen views, likes, shares and comments increase more than 10 percent.

Facebook is beginning to test a similar video viewing format for advertisers. Marketers will be able to use this new format to tell their stories to a large number of people on Facebook in a short amount of time – with high-quality sight, sound and motion. This approach will continue to improve the quality of ads that people see in News Feed.

This week, a small number of people will see video ads for the new film ‘Divergent’ begin playing as they come into view in News Feed on mobile and desktop.

Here’s how it will work:

•Rather than having to click or tap to play, videos will begin to play as they appear onscreen – without sound – similar to how they   behave when shared by friends or verified Pages. If you don’t want to watch the video, you can simply scroll or swipe past it.
•If the video is clicked or tapped and played in full screen, the sound for that video will play as well.
•At the end of the video a carousel of two additional videos will appear, making it easy to continue to discover content from the same marketers.
•On mobile devices, all videos that begin playing as they appear on the screen will have been downloaded in advance when the device was connected to WiFi – meaning this content will not consume data plans, even if you’re not connected to WiFi at the time of playback.

Facebook plans to continue to refine this new way for brands to tell stories on Facebook to ensure the best experience for people and marketers.

Portea raises First Institutional Round of Funding, brings Healthcare to Home

Portea raises First Institutional Round of Funding, brings Healthcare to Home     

Home healthcare provider Portea Medical has recently announced that it has received a combined Rs. 48 crore in Series A funding from venture capital firms, Accel Partners and Ventureast.

Portea will use the funding to fuel its growth in 2014 and beyond as it looks to grow both organically and via acquisitions, to a further six Indian cities in addition to the four (New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai) in which the company’s high-quality, home healthcare services are already available.

“We are delighted to have Accel Partners and Ventureast as our partners. The quantum of funding is the largest ever Series A VC investment in a home healthcare company in India; we believe this development is a striking endorsement of Portea’s leadership and growth prospects in the rapidly expanding home healthcare sector in the country,” said Meena Ganesh, Co-founder and CEO at Portea.

“The funds will help us strengthen our offering even as we accelerate our expansion across India in the coming months, and invest in advanced diagnostic and remote monitoring technology to support our clinicians as they deliver a range of in-home healthcare services,” she said.

Following the development, Mahendran Balachandran from Accel Partners and Venkatadri Bobba from Ventureast will join the Portea Medical Board of Directors.

Portea clinicians currently handle around 2000 home visits a month providing geriatric and palliative care for chronic patients. The company is working with leading hospitals and insurance companies to build understanding and establish the concept of in-home healthcare in the country, which is an already tried and tested model in developed countries including the US and the UK.

The home healthcare market in India, currently estimated as a $2-4 billion a year opportunity, is driven by the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, an aging population, and the need for better quality post-operative and primary care. Today, chronic issues account for the majority of deaths in India (53%) and there is a sizable elderly population that is in need of routine home healthcare visits; by 2025, one in every five Indians will be a senior citizen.

Meena and her husband, K Ganesh, have established Portea along with Dr. Manjusha Anumolu, a MD (US Board Certified) in Internal Medicine with 20 years of practice in US and India. Meena and Ganesh’s foray into India’s healthcare sector follows a string of previous successes. Portea is Ganesh’s fifth venture, preceded by four successful green field ventures and exits – the most recent, TutorVista, which was sold to Pearson for $ 213 MM (around INR 1329 crore at current exchange rates).

Portea works with hospitals, insurance companies and individuals to improve health outcomes by providing a continuity of care in the home setting from doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, nutritionists, counselors, and home health aides. The company has five tier-1 corporate hospitals as partners, a network of hundreds of referring physicians all over India and handles around 2000 home visits a month.

Portea Medical is India’s home healthcare pioneer. The company has delivery centers in Delhi/NCR, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai and has pioneered the US Home Healthcare model in India offering home visits from high-quality MBBS-level doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, nutritionists, counselors, and trained attendants. The company focuses on geriatric, chronic and post-operative care patients using latest technology and tools make healthcare delivery convenient and affordable.