The Mint Report for 13 July 2011
The Mint Report for 13 July 2011
Get ready for mobile money. A new study projects the business done through cell phones will surpass those from debit and credit cards in just a few years. According to the Boston Consulting Group, transactions from mobiles could hit $350 billion by 2015. The study says government payments alone could be worth $40 billion. And the potential for transfers from one person is another $70 billion. Small and medium enterprises might account for another might account $60 billion according to the study. All in all, fee income from these transactions could amount to $4.5 billion. And 30% of the fees are expected to come from rural areas. India has some 840 million cell phone subscriptions of which about 70% are active.
Fuel prices may have been hiked, but demand doesn’t seem to be letting up. The International Energy Agency says it expects demand in India to go up 3.7% this year. That translates into 3.46 million barrels per day. The growth forecast for 2012 is a similar 3.8%.
Indian markets ended a three-day losing streak on Wednesday after news that China had reported robust quarterly economic growth. The Sensex surged 184.40 points to 18596.02 and the Nifty jumped 59.30 to 5585.45.
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