Tides of 19.08.2015

1.  The venture capital being invested in Indian start-ups should be more balanced between foreign and domestic flows than it is right now, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said at the launch of two funding facilities by SIDBI. “The venture capital industry should be based in India,” he said. “Right now, 95 % of venture capital and private equity funding comes from outside India.”The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has announced the launch of its India Aspiration Fund — a fund of funds where the government will be an anchor investor in domestic venture capital funds — and the SIDBI Make in India Loan for Enterprises programme, that will provide loans on soft terms to small and medium enterprises.

2.  The State Bank of India has launched its mobile wallet — State Bank Buddy — in collaboration with Accenture and MasterCard. Customers of SBI as well other banks can download the mobile wallet application from Google Play Store and use it. It will allow users, among others, to send money to registered and new users, send reminders to settle dues, transfer additional cash into accounts of their choice free of cost, recharge and pay bills instantly, book movie tickets, flights and hotels, and shop. The mobile wallet app is available in 13 languages. The bank said the wallet will soon be available in the Apple App Store as well. B Sriram, MD, said State Bank Buddy is an online prepaid account which can be loaded for use when required.At a later stage it can also be linked to debit cards, bank accounts, etc. It will be a precursor to making mobile as the banking channel of choice.

3.  Banks have been speeding up loan sanctions and disbursals to borrowers in order to capture a larger share of the growing retail market.Major lenders, such as State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank have reduced their turnaround time to one day and, in some cases, to even as low as 10 seconds.Turnaround time is the time from the application of a loan by a customer till the final disbursal of the loan amount.A few months ago, giving digitised retail lending a push, HDFC Bank, the country’s second-largest private lender, had launched 10-second, almost real-time, loan approval and disbursement, with the customer only having to click/tap on his/her Net banking account.“It’s like having a real cheque in one’s virtual wallet…There is growing demand from digitally-savvy customers, to do away with paper work and to accelerate processes.

4.  Taking banking in India to the next level, ICICI Bank has  launched a new digital initiative — Smart Vault.Smart Vault is India’s first automated locker facility with high-end robotic technology. Launching this automated locker facility in the Capital, Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank, said this initiative marked a milestone in the Indian banking industry.This is because India has now joined a select group of countries that have access to the unique vault which uses state-of-the-art robotic technology.In this digital initiative, robotic technology is used to access the lockers from the safe vault. Customers get to conveniently access their lockers at any time of their preference, in the comfort of a secure lounge.Speaking to newspersons on the occasion, Kochhar highlighted that ICICI Bank had shaped the direction of technological progress in the banking industry and led the way in introducing path-breaking innovations, including internet, mobile, tab, touch banking branches, and banking on social media.The other important facet of the latest digital initiative is that ‘Smart Vault’ is an example of ‘Make in India’.Smart Vault has been both designed and manufactured by Indian partners, she said, adding that ICICI had (in 1990) provided seed funding to the company that designed the robotic arm. Pune-based Precision Automation & Robotics India had designed the robotic arm.