Live data from Hacker News

How India's banks killed the future of commerce

blog.cleartrip.com

41–50 of 60 posts

Re: How India's banks killed the future of commerce

#41

India has a lot of public policy mishaps such as this. It seems that the people making these rules oftentimes don't do adequate research regarding what's feasible for such a large developing, and rapidly changing country. A couple of other examples: There was recently a rule to limit SMS spam by limiting each cell phone to receive a max of 100 texts per day, there still is a rule where you can't entering the country…

there still is a rule where you can't entering the country twice within a certain number of days without getting prior permission

This is by far the stupidest immigration policy in a large list of stupid immigration policies that have been passed. I know a lot of people affected by this crap. This affects tourist visas and so, in foreign high commissions, the visa officers will literally tell you how to cheat the system (by applying for a different type of visa, mostly).

IIT students were arbitrarily limited in the number of hours they could spend online because some administrator thought they should get out more

Whippersnappers. Back in my day, we had to cycle out to the nearby village to a cybercafe to get internet access. :)

(I actually graduated just the year before they wired all the rooms)

Re: How India's banks killed the future of commerce

#42
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Online electronic tax filing requires that you complete the process in paper format as well. To complete the electronic process you have to send it in by normal snail mail as well. And you cant get acknowledgments. Well, you certainly can digitally sign your return - then you won't have to send your physically signed copy.

Yes but obtaining a digital certificate requires paperwork as well. And not to forget, renewing it every year (or two).

There's not too good a way to get around that, is there? You do need to establish your identity by some means initially. Perhaps they can let you renew at less frequent intervals (like they do with passports), but other than that, what do you propose?

Re: How India's banks killed the future of commerce

#43
post #39
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India is generally conservative about financial issues. In this case, it puts them on the wrong side. But their conservative approach also shielded India from the banking crisis experienced by US etc. From http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/business/global/26reddy.ht... “If America had a central bank chief like Y. V. Reddy, the U.S. economy would not have been such a mess,” Joseph E. Stiglitz, the economist and Nobel…

85% of Indian economy runs on black money because 85% Indians do not have any bank a/c

Source?

Re: How India's banks killed the future of commerce

#44
post #23
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India is generally conservative about financial issues. In this case, it puts them on the wrong side. But their conservative approach also shielded India from the banking crisis experienced by US etc. From http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/business/global/26reddy.ht... “If America had a central bank chief like Y. V. Reddy, the U.S. economy would not have been such a mess,” Joseph E. Stiglitz, the economist and Nobel…

I'm quite willing to be convinced that a conservative monetary system has shielded some countries from certain isssues, but some economist saying so doesn't make it so, not even if he's a famous economist. So some background on the mechanics would be nice.

For every economist, there exists an equal and opposite economist. Both of them are wrong. - The First Law of Economists

Re: How India's banks killed the future of commerce

#45
One reason Government has to come up with restrictions like that is because banks and credit card companies do not protect the consumer in case of card theft unlike here in the US where the customer is liable for only the first $50.

All the fraudulent charges are the customers responsibility.

Re: How India's banks killed the future of commerce

#46

I have stopped using credit cards online for over a year, prefer online banking based payments, because it is one username and 2 passwords(authentication, transaction) I dont like 2 factor authentication, especially with mobile/sms, when I am abroad or travelling, I still can do my transaction

Online banking based payments work just fine for local Indian sites, but I haven't found a way to pay US based businesses without a credit card. The only use I've had for using a credit card has been to pay for AWS and Linode.

Re: How India's banks killed the future of commerce

#47
post #43
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

85% of Indian economy runs on black money because 85% Indians do not have any bank a/c

Source?

doubt he has anything more than hearsay. He's always on the anti-india bandwagon every time such a story breaks out ..

Now, I know Black money is rampant in India and that it's almost a parallel economy in some respects but I'm not so sure it's a number as high as this guy claims.

Also, a whole lot of black money is being "cleaned" up by many a politicos and funneled back into the country via Mauritius and then that money's reinvested in legitimate businesses like real estate/property development as financiers (source: my family friends have a business partner or two with such financial backing)

Re: How India's banks killed the future of commerce

#48
post #12

India has a lot of public policy mishaps such as this. It seems that the people making these rules oftentimes don't do adequate research regarding what's feasible for such a large developing, and rapidly changing country. A couple of other examples: There was recently a rule to limit SMS spam by limiting each cell phone to receive a max of 100 texts per day, there still is a rule where you can't entering the country…

India is generally conservative about financial issues. In this case, it puts them on the wrong side. But their conservative approach also shielded India from the banking crisis experienced by US etc. From http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/business/global/26reddy.ht... “If America had a central bank chief like Y. V. Reddy, the U.S. economy would not have been such a mess,” Joseph E. Stiglitz, the economist and Nobel…

Being financially conservative is different from making adoption of new technology difficult. Today, Paypal doesn't work in India, the payment gateways are in a horrible mess and the one-time-password rule has given mobile commerce a huge setback. I believe the problem lies in not going into the details of implementation. There is a fine balance between security and usability which has to be maintained. As someone who is looking to start a web startup in India, I am disappointed by how consumer concerns are being ignored and online commerce is becoming more and more difficult here.

Re: How India's banks killed the future of commerce

#49
post #10

Notice how they made the post on Feb 14, but show only data for Feb 1. Is it really surprising that the first day with the new system saw fewer transactions? Making claims that this move "permanently hobbles India's mobile commerce" based on evidence like this is surely unwarranted. I really think 3D secure is a good move. All it requires is entering your internet banking password at the time of making the transactio…

Agreed. Usability with 3D secure is not bad at all. Breaking the "subscription" model is actually a good thing in the current scenario, where the customer has very little control on when and how he unsubscribes to services, and businesses unscrupulously charge for subscriptions beyond the agreed-on date. This happened recently, when a web hosting provider tried to charge my credit card although I'd canceled - I got a…

Because there are a few rogue players, should everyone be denied from using a subscription model. How painful will it be to actually subscribe to something and go through this slow painful process every month ?

Re: How India's banks killed the future of commerce

#50
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India is generally conservative about financial issues. In this case, it puts them on the wrong side. But their conservative approach also shielded India from the banking crisis experienced by US etc. From http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/business/global/26reddy.ht... “If America had a central bank chief like Y. V. Reddy, the U.S. economy would not have been such a mess,” Joseph E. Stiglitz, the economist and Nobel…

Being financially conservative is different from making adoption of new technology difficult. Today, Paypal doesn't work in India, the payment gateways are in a horrible mess and the one-time-password rule has given mobile commerce a huge setback. I believe the problem lies in not going into the details of implementation. There is a fine balance between security and usability which has to be maintained. As someone wh…

"Paypal doesn't work in India" statement is not fair. RBI has several guidelines for online transactions of money. It wants to be able to regulate all services that take money out of and put money into the country. Unfortunately, Paypal doesn't want to be regulated by any country but US. You're acting like a bank, and walking like a bank, only online, be prepared to be regulated like a bank. Paypal made a choice that it doesn't want to be a bank. It's not really RBI's fault, while I do think that they have think of some other solution to make people's live easier to accept/transfer money online.
Post reply on HN