India
Non-technical mountain climbs: 13 trekking peaks
There are no ‘death zones’ on these non-technical mountain climbs but they offer plenty of challenges for mere mortals like me As a climber, I have completed several indoor climbing and winter mountaineering courses but my technical climbing skills still leave a lot to be desired. I have mastered basic rope, ice axe and crampon skills but don’t practise them as often as I’d like. All too often I only find time for some wilderness backpacking in Europe or low-altitude scrambling in the UK. Regardless, I still have high hopes of climbing the seven summits (three down, four to go). I’m aware that I’ll never be a Reinhold Messner or Chris Bonington (I’ll settle for reading their books instead) but I still long to pitch myself against tall mountains with imposing names....
Sidhu Moose Wala, Popular Punjabi Singer and Politican, Shot Dead
Sidhu Moose Wala, a well-known Punjabi rapper-turned-member of India’s Congress party, has been shot and killed. He was just 29 years old. According the Hindustan Times, Moose Wala was murdered by unknown assailants in Jawaharke Village in the Mansa District on Sunday. The gunmen fired at least thirty rounds into the Moose Wala’s vehicle, killing him and another person, and injuring at least one other man who was traveling with him at the time. Punjab’s chief of police blamed the shooting on a rivalry between Moose Wala’s manager and a Canadian organized crime group. The attack reportedly occurred just one day after the Punjab police force scaled down security protection for over a hundred public figures, including Moose Wala, in an effort to redirect resources elsewhere. As Rolling Stone ...
India to roll out CBDC using a graded approach: RBI Annual Report
Further cementing India’s decision to introduce an in-house central bank digital currency (CBDC) in 2022-23, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposed a three-step graded approach for rolling out CBDC “with little or no disruption” to the traditional financial system. In February, while discussing the budget for 2022, Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke about the launch of a digital rupee to provide a “big boost” to the digital economy. In the annual report released Friday by India’s central bank, RBI revealed exploring the pros and cons of introducing a CBDC. In the report, RBI stressed the need for India’s CBDC to conform to India’s objectives related to “monetary policy, financial stability and efficient operations of currency and payment systems.” Based on this need, RBI is...
India’s crypto exchange CoinSwitch calls for regulatory clarity
The country’s central bank has previously raised concerns over the assets’ threat to the country’s macro-economic and financial stability Last month, two major exchanges disabled deposits via the popular payment system in use within the country The uncertainty surrounding India’s crypto space has left traders and investors with doubts and strings of unanswered questions. This murky scenario has created mixed signals in the country with one of the highest potentials for crypto investors – India is the second-most populous country in the world – and threatened the freedom of exchanges to operate freely. New Delhi’s income tax imposition on crypto could be a sign of approval The central bank’s growing concern for investor welfare is warranted, cautioning that dealing in digital assets is at i...
Justin Bieber Is Taking His World Tour to India
MUMBAI – As part of his ongoing Justice world tour, Justin Bieber will perform in India on Oct. 18, it was announced today. The show, which is being co-promoted by AEG Presents and Indian entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow, will take place at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The stop will mark Bieber’s second concert in India, following his performance in Mumbai in May 2017, which was part of his Purpose world tour and attracted over 40,000 fans. That gig marked one of the largest concerts by an international artist in India. This one will be the first stadium show by a foreign act after the onset of the pandemic, and the first since U2 closed out The Joshua Tree tour in Mumbai in December 2...
Coinbase CEO cites ‘informal pressure’ for withdrawing UPI payments in India
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says the exchange faced informal pressure from the RBI to retract its UPI option in India Armstrong holds an even more bullish stance, notwithstanding Coinbase’s reported $430M net loss in Q1 Last month, Coinbase launched UPI payments for Indian crypto users, but before the product could even take off, it was withdrawn as an option, with the crypto exchange offering users no explanation for the rollback. UPI is a widely-used payments infrastructure built by an internetwork of banks. The decision to withdraw the offering had been preceded by a caution by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which manages the UPI. The organisation denied being aware of “any crypto exchange” using UPI payments. Informal pressure from the RBI Addressing th...
Indian central bank’s ‘informal pressure’ disrupted payments: Coinbase CEO
Just three days after debuting in the Indian market, United States-based crypto exchange Coinbase abruptly stopped using United Payments Interface (UPI), the most popular payment service in the region. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong later revealed that the service disruption was due to an “informal pressure” from India’s central bank. During Coinbase’s 2022 Quarterly Earnings call, Armstrong spoke about the company’s global expansion plans while acknowledging Coinbase’s role in starting the conversation with regulators related to crypto adoption. When asked about the impact of the recent disruption related to offering payment services in India, Armstrong stated: “So a few days after launching, we ended up disabling UPI because of some informal pressure from the Reserve Bank of Indi...
India’s lead depository adopts blockchain for securities and covenants
India’s NSDL and CDSL will control maintenance nodes for the new decentralised network Elsewhere, a council responsible for indirect taxes in India is considering a 28% tax on crypto-related activity Celebrating its 25th anniversary at the end of last week, the National Securities Depository (NSDL), based in Mumbai, launched a blockchain-based or Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform for debenture covenant monitoring. The platform was created as a product of collaboration between the NSDL and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to enhance securities and covenant monitoring. In effect, it should help bring more clarity and discipline to the market. It will expand to involve other regulators The DLT platform will function by providing an immutable trail of transact...
Weekly Report: BitMEX founders fined, California hunting first-mover advantage in Web3, and more
Here are this week’s top stories from the cryptocurrency space: Pantera Capital aims to boost its presence in India with scaled investments Argo Blockchain’s Helios Facility is now energised and set to start mining next week The three BitMEX co-founders have each been ordered to pay a $10 million civil monetary penalty Rapper Ice Cube supports Dogecoin and spurs the largest commercial transaction of DOGE in an NFTs purchase California aims to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for Web3 technology Pantera Capital doubles down on crypto firm funding in India Cryptocurrency-focused hedge fund Pantera Capital has divulged that it’s enhancing its investment push in India. According to Paul Veradittakit, a partner at the firm, Pantera has closed around ten deals in India, notably the...
Binance to drive crypto and blockchain awareness among Indian investors
Crypto exchange Binance announced the parallel launch of three key educational initiatives to fast-track educating Indian investors and students about the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem. While recognizing the importance of investors’ awareness of crypto and blockchain, Binance highlighted that Indian regulators and policymakers cite the lack of education as an area of concern, which currently hinders the widespread adoption of crypto. Primarily targeting the student demographic in India, one of the three educational initiatives launched by Binance involves the initiation of the ‘Blockchain for Good’ Ideathon, a platform for college students to come up with solutions for making crypto more accessible and inclusive. Binance also partnered with India-based crypto influencers and educ...
Brain drain: India’s crypto tax forces budding crypto projects to move
India’s 30% crypto tax came into law on March 31 and was effective April 1, despite warnings from several stakeholders about its possible ill impact on the budding crypto industry. As predicted, within just a couple of weeks of the new crypto tax law coming into effect, trading volume across major crypto exchanges dropped as much as 90%. The decline in trading activity was attributed to traders either moving their funds away from centralized crypto exchanges or adopting a holding strategy over trading. Many crypto exchanges were hoping that a crypto tax would at least offer some form of recognition to the crypto ecosystem and help them get easy access to banking services. However, the effect has been the opposite. On April 7, the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) issued a ...
Crypto exchange CoinDCX raises $135M funding to support Indian Web3
Crypto exchange CoinDCX became India’s first crypto business to complete a Series D funding round, raising $135 million in support of various Web3 and crypto initiatives in the country. The latest funding round resulted in CoinDCX doubling its valuation to $2.15 billion, which was led by Pantera and Steadview and saw participation from prominent investors including Kingsway, DraperDragon and Republic. Existing investors such as B Capital Group — a venture capitalist firm from Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin — Coinbase, Polychain and Cadenza also joined in on the oversubscribed funding round to increase their investments in the crypto exchange. Excited to share that CoinDCX has raised over USD 135 million, in our latest Series D funding round. Another step closer to our dream of m...
