Aung San Suu Kyi receives Congressional Medal

Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi of National League for Democracy, received prestigious Congressional Gold Medal, a rare honour to any foreign leader by the US administration.

“This is one of the most moving days of my life, to be here in a house undivided, a house joined together to welcome a stranger from a distant land. This is a moment for which I have been waiting for many years,” Suu Kyi said receiving the honour.

“To be a full human being, we need both security and freedom. Without security, we cannot rest in peace necessary to discover the world to be the beautiful place that it can be. Without freedom we will be deprived of the opportunities that will make us more human and more humane,” she added.

3% fiscal deficit target for FY15 not feasible: Planning Comm

The fiscal deficit numbers will stay high and one can expect some relief only after five years. The Planning Commission believes that the fiscal consolidation targets for the next three fiscals will be off target because of the domestic and international conditions and one can expect the fiscal deficit to reduce to 3% levels only by the end of the 12th Plan ie FY17 according to the draft bill 5-year plan.

The document also say that the government did not compress the fiscal deficit target immediately. However, to achieve fiscal consolidation, the government has to bring down its subsidy levels to 1.7% by FY17 and substantially increase its revenues.

It expects the growth number to be at 9% level by FY16 and FY17.

Visa with HDFC bank will offer mobile payments

Movida mobile payments platform promoted by Visa will be going live next month with the second largest private sector lender HDFC Bank as its banking partner. Other banks also will follow suite.

Movida, is an equal joint venture between Visa and the LSE-listed mobile banking solutions company Monitise.

The product is pitted against the interbank mobile payment service (IMPS) launched by the National Payments Corporation of India(NPCI), which already has 50 banks as members.

The IMPS is an account-to-account transfer of money and requires a special registration while the Movida solution will allow for a card-to-card transfer of cash using the mobile platform.