🕵️ Investigating exploited loopholes
Best of the Week, 10 June: UPI transactions, Apollo Hospital's succession plan, and the woes of TCS's women employees
PremiumDear reader,
This week, I learnt about speedrunning. It's a phenomena prevalent in the gaming community, where an individual tries to finish a video game using as less time as possible. It started somewhere in the 90s, with Mario being one of the first game that saw widespread attempts 🎮
What I found most interesting about this activity is that gamers try and find glitches that help them save time. Some even take the effort to go through the game's code and files at the backend to find these glitches.
These are some dedicated people, working towards no monetary reward — just respect of your fellow gamers. In a lot of ways, it's a little like journalism 😉
Exploiting loopholes to finish a video game quickly seems innocuous. But when you do it in the real world, it has huge ramifications.
👀 One such loophole is being exploited by online bond platforms (OBPs). A misunderstanding between the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has led to OBPs selling unlisted bonds —they are only supposed to sell listed ones. Mint Money reporter Akshat Rohatgi writes about this fascinating loophole exploit.
📲 Indians process about 8 billion UPI transactions a month. Why not — scan, PIN, debit! So it's little surprise that data showed that UPI overtook debit cards in terms of number and size of transactions. Merchants prefer it too, thanks to low MDR fees. It's a win-win for everyone, writes banking correspondent Shayan Ghosh.
🏥 Prathap Reddy, founder of Apollo Hospitals, has been handing over responsibilities to his four daughters. Reddy wants his 10 grandchildren to join their mothers in expanding his healthcare empire using technology, write senior editors Ranjani Raghavan and Madhurima Nandy.
👮 During the pandemic, Nuh in Haryana became a breeding ground for cyber crimes. These groups resorted to various forms of extortion to gain their money, until Haryana police raided 14 villages and arrested 65 men to bust the crimes, writes senior assistant editor Tauseef Shahidi.
🏦🤝As a young reporter, I always found it stupid that HDFC bank and Housing Development Finance CorporationHousing Development Finance Corporation were two different entites.
It's the same name, just merge! 🙄
Well, I realised M&A isn't as easy as my whims. On 1 July, HDFC Bank will take over the housing finance company in one of the largest M&A deals of all time. Here is the inside story, by Shayan Ghosh and Mint's managing editor Satish John.
☎️ Growing up in Mumbai, it MTNL landlines were ubiquotous. Over time, like PCOs and any phone paraphernilia, they also disappeared. It seems that MTNL's days are numbered: according to people in the know, the loss-making subsidiary of BSNL might soon be shuttered completely, reports telecom reporter Gulveen Aulakh.
👴👵 Senior living residential communities promise a peaceful retirement life away from city hustle bustle. These are designed specifically to cater to seniors, but are they viable for your post-retirement plan? Mint Money writer Shipra Singh finds out.
📊 Saurabh Mukherjea, founder of Marcellus PMS, is a fixture on business news channels. It's always fun to peek into the personal investment portfolio of such an individual. Mukherjea believes that equity is the only asset class that compounds significantly. He puts his money where his mouth is: 90% (❗️) of his personal investment portfolio is invested in equity, writes Mint Money writer Satya Sontanam.
👔💼 IT giant TCS has called back its workforce to work from their offices across the country. This has a huge downside: more women than men quit TCS as its return to office policy led to a “reset of domestic arrangements". WFO, thus far, has seen women suffer disproportionately — as had the onset of WFH in 2020, reports Mint's workplace and HR reporter Devine Sengupta.
_1652970378133.jpg "These were the rates in May — this number has only improved.")
✈️ If you've planned for a vacation for the next couple of months, I'm sorry about your wallet: airfares are sky-high right now. Spot fares in five of India's six busiest routes have jumped by up to three times in the past month! The exit of Go First has undoubtably caused some tension here. Mint SnapView tells takes a deeper look, and answers the all-important question: when will these rates go down?
I'll end this week's Best of the Week with two articles from our tie-ups with internation publications:
🕵️ An investigation by the Wall Street Journal, Stanford University, and the University of Massachusetts Amhers found that Instagram helps connect and promote a vast network of accounts openly devoted to the commission and purchase of underage-sex content.
🪚 In the world of venture capital and private equity, a landmark moment took place: Sequoia Capital, one of the world's biggest and most active VC firms, decided to hive off its Indian and Chinese arms. While the jury is still out on India, The Economist makes sense of the move to let go of its China vertical due to regulatory pressures.
That's all for this week. I hope you have a relaxing and fun weekend — a break from the speedrun that is life.
If you have any thoughts, ideas, or feedback on our journalism (or subscription), please feel free to write to me (shashwat.mohanty@htdigital.in). We're a perpetually evolving news product, so any and every input is appreciated!
Best,
Shashwat Mohanty
Assistant Editor
Subscriber Experience Team
"Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channels 🚀 Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights!" Click here!
