Arvind’s Newsletter

I apologise for the formatting of the newsletter over last few days. I have been travelling and am not familiar with newsletters templates with my smartphone, which is leading some misalignment and changes in print fonts.

1.India and Singapore recently linked their digital payments systems, UPI and PayNow, to enable instant, low-cost fund transfers between users in the two countries

The linking of India’s United Payment Interface (UPI) and Singapore’s PayNow will help Indians transfer up to ₹60,000 (about 1,000 Singaporean dollars) a day to people in the island state quickly and easily, marking a major lowering of costs. These may be low-ticket transactions (for now) but will nonetheless benefit several hundred Indian migrants and students, and tourists from both countries. As the system stabilises and settlements become smoother the limits on transfers/ remittances is bound to be raised.

India’s robust digital payment infrastructure offers the country an opportunity to leverage its fintech capabilities and push for leadership in cross border payments. The next challenge to start with will be to tie up with digital payment entities in the US, Middle East and UK.

2.Railways on fast track to achieve its 100% electrification target by 2024.

India is now much ahead of other large railway networks in the world in terms of electrification - with the US at just 1 per cent ( US is largely dependent on diesel fuel for locomotives), China at 72 per cent and Europe at 60 per cent. In last 5 years , India’s share of electric tracks had risen from 40% to 85%.

For India electrification means a shift from diesel locomotives to electric locomotives leading to reduction in imported fuel (diesel) dependency, reliance on only one type of locomotive and reduced fuel cost.

3.A four-day workweek pilot was so successful most firms say they won’t go back reports the Washington Post.

Dozens of companies there took part in the world’s largest trial of the four-day workweek — and a majority of supervisors and employees liked it so much they’ve decided to keep the arrangement. In fact, 15 percent of the employees who participated said “no amount of money” would convince them to go back to working five days a week.

Nearly 3,000 employees took part in the pilot, which was organized by the advocacy group 4 Day Week Global, in collaboration with the research group Autonomy, and researchers at Boston College and the University of Cambridge.

Companies that participated could adopt different methods to “meaningfully” shorten their employees’ workweeks — from giving them one day a week off to reducing their working days in a year to average out to 32 hours per week — but had to ensure the employees still received 100 percent of their pay.

At the end of the experiment, employees reported a variety of benefits related to their sleep, stress levels, personal lives and mental health. Companies’ revenue “stayed broadly the same” during the six-month trial, but rose 35 percent on average when compared with a similar period from previous years. Resignations decreased.

Of the 61 companies that took part in the trial, 56 said they would continue to implement four-day workweeks after the pilot ended, 18 of which said the shift would be permanent. Two companies are extending the trial. Only three companies did not plan to carry on with any element of the four-day workweek.

4.Social media used to be free. Not anymore. Your data is no longer enough—Meta and Twitter are asking users to pay cash too.

“If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product” has long been a common refrain about the business of social media. The saying implies that you, the user, aren’t paying for apps like Instagram and Twitter because you’re giving away something else: your attention (and sometimes your content), which is sold to advertisers.

But now, this free model of social media — subsidized by advertising — is under pressure. Social media companies can’t make as much money off their free users as they used to. A weaker advertising market, privacy restrictions imposed by Apple that make it harder to track users and their preferences, and the perpetual threat of regulation have made it harder for social media apps to sell ads.

Which is why we’re seeing the beginnings of what might be a new era of social media: pay-to-play.

5.The EU’s carbon market hit a record €100 ($106) per metric ton as costs of polluting soars. It’s a milestone for one of the bloc’s key mechanisms to incentivize green investment and meet its net-zero goals.