MAM
CNBC’s next Industry Vector to focus on telecom industry
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MUMBAI: India’s premier business channel, CNBC India will partner Sun Microsystems and SAP India to launch the fourth in the series on industry vertical forums – CNBC Industry Vector. With a focus on the Indian telecom industry, CNBC Industry Vector would comprise corporate chieftains, opinion makers and eminent personalities who would actively participate and discuss issues relevant to the Indian telecom sector. This interactive session will be held on 8 January at the Grand Ball Room of the Grand Hotel (Grand Hyatt) Delhi. The panel of speakers include the department of telecom ex secretary Shyamal Ghosh, BPL Innovision’s Rajeev Chandrasekher, BSNL MD Prithipal Singh. The CNBC series will focus on challenges faced by the telecom sector, parameters for growth in the sector, developments on limited mobility telephony, funding pressure, price wars, consolidation in the industry, among other issues.  An official release informs that this kind of platform has become all the more essential for an industry like telecom, whose fortunes have a domino effect on the rest of the economy. |
Brands
Reserve Bank of India cancels Paytm Payments Bank licence
Central bank cites compliance failures; curbs tighten as wind-up looms
MUMBAI: India’s banking watchdog delivered its sharpest blow yet to Paytm Payments Bank, cancelling its licence and effectively ending its ability to operate as a bank under the law.
The Reserve Bank of India said the entity can no longer conduct banking business under the Banking Regulation Act, citing concerns that its affairs were not being run in the interest of depositors or the public and that it had failed to meet licence conditions.
The move escalates a crackdown that has been building for months. The bank had already been barred from onboarding new customers since March 11, 2022, and later faced restrictions on deposits, credit and wallet top-ups. In January 2024, the central bank ordered it to stop accepting fresh deposits, pointing to persistent non-compliance, including lapses in customer due diligence, use of funds and technology systems.
Operationally, the bank is now on a tight leash. It may process withdrawals of existing deposits and facilitate loan referrals through banking correspondents, but it cannot take fresh deposits.
The central bank said it would apply to the high court to wind up the bank.
Paytm sought to ringfence the fallout. In a regulatory filing, it said the licence cancellation applies to Paytm Payments Bank Limited, a separate entity, and should not be attributed to One 97 Communications. It added that there is no exposure or material business arrangement with the bank and that it operates independently, without Paytm’s board or management involvement.
“As informed earlier, Paytm (One 97 Communications Limited) and its services, which have been operating without interruption, will continue to operate uninterrupted. These include the Paytm app, Paytm UPI, Paytm Gold and all other services offered by its subsidiaries and associated companies,” the company said.
The distinction may reassure users of the app ecosystem, but the regulator’s verdict is unequivocal. After years of warnings, caps and curbs, the payments bank experiment at Paytm is being shut down—decisively, and with little room left to manoeuvre.
