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US tells India it is mulling caps on H1Bs to deter data rules

reuters.com

81–90 of 102 posts

Re: US tells India it is mulling caps on H1Bs to deter data rules

#81
post #67
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely believe it. I spent two months in Hyderabad. India is WAYYY ahead on the payments game. Every business, no matter the size, accepted mobile payments (usually PayTM, but I saw support for PhonePe, Zeta and others). The US is super behind on this; very, very, very few retailers accept Square Cash, more accept PayPal, none of them accept those payments easily. Any app that does mobile banking requires KYC v…

>>India is WAYYY ahead on the payments game. Only if you(and the person receiving) can afford a smart phone, and an internet connection. The edge US has is the cards are ubiquitous, they cost nothing to carry and use. Every one has them, and every one receiving them has the readers. Most credit unions don't charge for checking accounts, and transaction fees are $0. US is WAYYY ahead on the payments access game.

Not just that but getting an account to process international card is very difficult in India and setting up recurring payments or SaaS very difficult.

Re: US tells India it is mulling caps on H1Bs to deter data rules

#82
post #71
post #7

The efficacy of this as a deterrent seems to depend on the notion that India would like its citizens to be able to obtain H1 visas from the US. Is that the case?

India would very much like the USD remittances that these people usually send to folks back home in India. India has been riding on foreign inflow of money for quite sometime. I don't know the share of remittances from the US vs. other countries (like the Middle Eastern Gulf countries), but the lack of more remittances over time from the US may not hurt India much, but losing it wouldn't be nice either.

Remittance from the US to India make up about 0.02% of the total GDP. UAE is at the top with $13.8 billion, US at second place with $11.7 billion, Saudi at third with $11.2 billion.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remittances_to_India [2] https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&...

Re: US tells India it is mulling caps on H1Bs to deter data rules

#83
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>India is WAYYY ahead on the payments game. Only if you(and the person receiving) can afford a smart phone, and an internet connection. The edge US has is the cards are ubiquitous, they cost nothing to carry and use. Every one has them, and every one receiving them has the readers. Most credit unions don't charge for checking accounts, and transaction fees are $0. US is WAYYY ahead on the payments access game.

Not just that but getting an account to process international card is very difficult in India and setting up recurring payments or SaaS very difficult.

I recently tried to buy Office 365 from MS India. It just kept on failing with my India debit card even though it accepts both debit/credit cards. The error message was not helpful and finally came to know from customer care that it was due to the debit card. So, it can go both ways.

Re: US tells India it is mulling caps on H1Bs to deter data rules

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to add on: NPCI is a not-for-profit organization which is a consortium of banks and is promoted by the Reserve Bank of India. And these guys absolutely kill it. I moved from India to the US last year and payments are overall so much more complicated here. I have to download a third party app and even my bank, at least as far as I can tell, doesn't have a straightforward mechanism to transfer money to other peopl…

Not for profit doesn't mean free from outside influences.

It also doesn't mean that there aren't a few suits at the top collecting insane salaries.

Re: US tells India it is mulling caps on H1Bs to deter data rules

#86
post #67
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely believe it. I spent two months in Hyderabad. India is WAYYY ahead on the payments game. Every business, no matter the size, accepted mobile payments (usually PayTM, but I saw support for PhonePe, Zeta and others). The US is super behind on this; very, very, very few retailers accept Square Cash, more accept PayPal, none of them accept those payments easily. Any app that does mobile banking requires KYC v…

>>India is WAYYY ahead on the payments game. Only if you(and the person receiving) can afford a smart phone, and an internet connection. The edge US has is the cards are ubiquitous, they cost nothing to carry and use. Every one has them, and every one receiving them has the readers. Most credit unions don't charge for checking accounts, and transaction fees are $0. US is WAYYY ahead on the payments access game.

> Only if you(and the person receiving) can afford a smart phone, and an internet connection

The number of people in India who can likely exceeds adult population of the United States :-)

Re: US tells India it is mulling caps on H1Bs to deter data rules

#87
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>India is WAYYY ahead on the payments game. Only if you(and the person receiving) can afford a smart phone, and an internet connection. The edge US has is the cards are ubiquitous, they cost nothing to carry and use. Every one has them, and every one receiving them has the readers. Most credit unions don't charge for checking accounts, and transaction fees are $0. US is WAYYY ahead on the payments access game.

Not just that but getting an account to process international card is very difficult in India and setting up recurring payments or SaaS very difficult.

Recurring payments have been intentionally blocked by the banking regulator in India by requiring 2FA for every online transaction to prevent abuse/fraud. It is a known pain intentionally traded off - hopefully will get fixed at some point.

I think the issue with international cards is also likely linked to online transaction 2FA policy. Some American banks don't implement 2FA and that's likely the reason they fail. I've never had a problem with my Singapore card.

Re: US tells India it is mulling caps on H1Bs to deter data rules

#88
post #67
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely believe it. I spent two months in Hyderabad. India is WAYYY ahead on the payments game. Every business, no matter the size, accepted mobile payments (usually PayTM, but I saw support for PhonePe, Zeta and others). The US is super behind on this; very, very, very few retailers accept Square Cash, more accept PayPal, none of them accept those payments easily. Any app that does mobile banking requires KYC v…

>>India is WAYYY ahead on the payments game. Only if you(and the person receiving) can afford a smart phone, and an internet connection. The edge US has is the cards are ubiquitous, they cost nothing to carry and use. Every one has them, and every one receiving them has the readers. Most credit unions don't charge for checking accounts, and transaction fees are $0. US is WAYYY ahead on the payments access game.

US is always No. 1

Re: US tells India it is mulling caps on H1Bs to deter data rules

#89

Master Card and Visa are failing, because we have something better in place. BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) developed by National Payments Corporation of India. - Transferring money from one personal account to any new account (adding a beneficiary account) would take more than 4 hours. - One needs to login each and every time to transfer money. - There is a chance of forgetting password and account being locked o…

Also, with UPI, you don't have to add beneficiary. Money transfer is instant (although there may be limit for the amount to be transferred).

Seriously, this UPI mechanism is absolutely killer.

Re: US tells India it is mulling caps on H1Bs to deter data rules

#90
post #67
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely believe it. I spent two months in Hyderabad. India is WAYYY ahead on the payments game. Every business, no matter the size, accepted mobile payments (usually PayTM, but I saw support for PhonePe, Zeta and others). The US is super behind on this; very, very, very few retailers accept Square Cash, more accept PayPal, none of them accept those payments easily. Any app that does mobile banking requires KYC v…

>>India is WAYYY ahead on the payments game. Only if you(and the person receiving) can afford a smart phone, and an internet connection. The edge US has is the cards are ubiquitous, they cost nothing to carry and use. Every one has them, and every one receiving them has the readers. Most credit unions don't charge for checking accounts, and transaction fees are $0. US is WAYYY ahead on the payments access game.

These days owning smartphone isn't a big Deal. You can see lots of rikshaw puller, day labour, tea vendors, shop workers using smartphone. Jio data plans also played the important role in it.

Actually the way I see it, tech illiteracy is a big hurdle. A lot of people don't use smartphone because learning to operate it is too much for them.

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