29 NOVEMBER 2014: RBI introduces Bharat Bill Payment System

Ø  The critically endangered Forest Owlet, which was till now considered to be endemic to the Satpura mountain ranges in central India, has now been spotted in Western Ghats by naturalists. The elusive bird was recently spotted in Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary in Palghar District of Maharashtra by naturalist Sunil Laad, officials of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) said. For nearly 113 years, the forest owlet was considered to be extinct, until researchers rediscovered it in 1997 in Toranmal Reserve Forest in the Satpura ranges.

Ø  Prototypes of indigenously developed ‘green sports cars’, locally made in Gujarat, during the first day of the CII Auto Show Gujarat 2014 in Gandhinagar.

Ø  Parliament cleared the Labour Laws (Exemption from Furnishing Returns and Maintaining Registers by Certain Establishments) (LLE) Amendment Bill, 2014, with the Lok Sabha giving its nod for the draft legislation that reduces small establishments’ obligations to file returns. The Bill would have been cleared by voice vote but for Trinamool Congress member Suagata Roy insisting on a division on his amendment that sought to restrict the exemption on filing returns to those establishments that employed less than 25 people instead of the limit of 40 provided in the Bill. Mr. Roy’s amendment was defeated as the Opposition benches were practically empty while the government mustered the numbers to ensure the Bill sailed through the House where the BJP is in a majority. The 2014 Bill stipulates “small” establishments would cover those employing between 10 and 40 workers as against 19 in the Principal Act, and increases the number of laws under which small establishments enjoy exemptions from nine to 16. It provides for maintenance of registers and returns in electronic form.

Ø  Market capitalisation of all listed companies on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Asia first stock exchange, reached historic milestone of Rs. 100 lakh crore-mark for the first time.

Ø  The Reserve Bank of India on Friday came out with the final guidelines for the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), which will help consumers pay multiple bills like electricity, telephone and school fees at a single point of transaction. The BBPS is an integrated bill payment system offering inter-operable and accessible bill payment service to customers through a network of agents, enabling multiple payment modes, and providing instant confirmation of payment. The RBI-promoted payment retail gateway and the issuer of the Rupay debit Cards, the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has been appointed as the nodal body. The apex banks has set a Rs.100-crore net worth and domestic registration as qualifying conditions for those seeking to be authorised collection agents. RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had first announced the central bank’s intention to set up BBPS in the second quarterly monetary policy review last year, after which a committee was constituted to suggest the way forward. Stressing on the need to have such a system in place, the RBI pointed to a 2013 estimate, which said over 30,800 million bills amounting to Rs.6.22 lakh crore are generated each year in the top 20 cities alone.