Espresso: 2.5x growth in NSE's new investor sign-ups

NSE adds 5 million new investors

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India registered 5.13 million new investors between April and July 25 this year. This is 2.5 times the number of new sign-ups for the same period a year ago.

The NSE has a registered base of over 45 million investors. While 36 percent of the 5.13 million new investors are in north India, the west, south and east accounted for 30 percent, 22 percent and 12 percent respectively.

Talent concerns at Cognizant

Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) reported an attrition rate of 31 percent in the quarter ended June 2021, compared to 24 percent a year ago and 21 percent in the previous quarter. The attrition rate indicates the number of employees leaving a company voluntarily and involuntarily.

According to CTS, the voluntary attrition rate was 29 percent in this quarter, compared to 11 percent a year ago.  The company clocked revenue of $4.6 billion in the quarter ended June 2021, up 14.6 percent over the same quarter last year.

Non-banks in CPS fray: RBI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday included non-bank payment service providers in the centralised payment systems (CPS) like RTGS (real-time gross settlement) and NEFT (national electronic funds transfer).

In its early-April monetary policy, the central bank had acknowledged the increasing importance of non-bank payment service providers in the payments ecosystem. The non-banks included by RBI are prepaid payment instrument (PPI) issuers, card networks, white-label ATM (WLA) operators, and trade receivables discounting system (TReDS) platforms.

“Direct access for non-banks to CPS lowers the overall risk in the payments ecosystem,” RBI said in a press release on Thursday. “The risk of failure or delay in execution of fund transfers can also be avoided when transactions are directly initiated and processed by the non-bank entities.”

Apollo Hospitals' enterprise solution

Apollo Hospitals’ digital arm Apollo 24/7 and Microsoft have commenced a three-month pilot of a digital healthcare solution for enterprises. Companies can use the Apollo 24/7 solution powered by Microsoft Teams to offer online healthcare to their employees.

The services include virtual consultation with Apollo doctors, ordering medicines, and collecting medical-test samples.

Kotak Mahindra Bank's phygital focus

“When it comes to digital and technology, we have leapfrogged five years in the span of a year,” says Uday Kotak, Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, in the bank’s latest annual report.

“While there will be some rebalancing when we revert to more in-person interactions, there is no going back completely, with digital extending to almost all aspects of our lives,” Kotak says.

The bank already has digital engagement for pull-based services like digital payments, service requests, chatbot and API services. But in the past year, it sought to build physical facilities around the digital offerings to help customers with services like loan documentation, and biometric account opening.

TCS' platform for Neptune Energy

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has developed a cloud-native data and analytics platform for Neptune Energy’s operations.

Neptune is an oil and gas company in the United Kingdom. TCS has used its machine-first delivery model in advanced technologies to standardise and automate Neptune's IT operations.

The platform delivers data on demand, and enables faster decision-making in Neptune's functions such as health and safety, TCS said in a press release.