Evenings and Weekends in Sydney

Get out and enjoy Sydney! There are many spectacular sights, treats and activities you’ll want to experience. As a historic city of good size, Sydney offers a little of everything.

Or stay even longer! You’ll find accommodations to suit your needs and easily accessible transportation.

During your Negotiations.com training, you’ll have evenings and weekends to get out and enjoy Sydney. In this free time, you’ll be spoilt for choice as to how you want to experience Australia’s most iconic city.

For Architecture, Shopping, and Opera

While in Sydney you have to see the beautiful Sydney Opera House. That’s the distinctive building on the harbor with the roof like a ships’ sails. It’s become the icon of Sydney. There are restaurants and shopping right there and, of course, the operas.

For the shoppers among you, Sydney offers many venues for that. One of them is the Queen Victoria Building built in the 1890s with stained glass windows and a vast cupola. It covers a full city block and offers 180 excellent fashion venues all in one place. There are even jewelers where you can purchase some of the famous opals Australia is known for.

The Nightclubs and Live Music

For your downtime after a day of training, there’s plenty of options. Nightlife, bars, clubs, and dancing can be found in the city center of Sydney.

There are a couple of ‘eat streets’ in the city center, too, for evening meals with your friends.

Sydney hosts a thriving music scene with local, national and world bands performing at various venues.

One classically Australian bar is the Bald Faced Stag Hotel, a venue for local and national acts almost every night of the week. Also recommended is the Marrickville Bowling Club. Your hotel will be able to direct you to any of these locations.

The Beaches, Trails, and Barrier Islands

Within the city’s boundaries is Sydney Harbor National Park. The area provides hiking, surfing, and diving. It also offers opportunities to learn about the first peoples, geography, and geology of the area. Learn about the Barangaroo, the Cadigal and the Bennelong – rich cultures that continue to influence the culture of Sydney and beyond.

Sydney is also known for Bondi Beach with its famous surfers and huge waves. It’s only 8 km (about 5 miles) from the city center with white sand beaches, ice cream vendors and beach bars nearby. They even have lifeguards and calmer pools at either end of the beach for the less adventurous swimmers and surfers.

An inland tour2

If you enjoy the countryside, good wine, and drink, then one of the food and wine trails just outside of Sydney might entice you. These are Australian things – an auto or hiking tour set up to take you through beautiful scenery along a route of eateries, breweries, and wineries. The tours can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a full day.

Sydney offers excellent accommodation and transportation. Choose from two-star through five-star hotels. Transportation is available via car rentals, buses, ferries and trains depending on your preferences.

Give Negotiatons.com Sydney a call for recommendations to fit your needs. We can provide you with websites and phone numbers when you sign up for your training. Don’t miss out on everything Sydney has to offer while you’re here!

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Why live-in before marriage? Because it’s a boon

It’s the sort of thought that would bring our parents to a horrified halt. There is the real fear a grandparent might catch a whisper of it, and there will be a scene reminiscent of an Ekta Kapoor serial.

But ask the younger generations, and it’s common knowledge that it might just be the smart choice.

  1. Try Before You Buy

Live together or learn how to live together, and however bad it might be to realize that you can’t do it, it’s still better than having to get a divorce.

Just don’t treat a live-in relationship like a trial, where you can bail out any time. If you aren’t serious enough to stick it out through the hard times, then it’s better just to break up. The idea is to try and avoid a messy break-up!

  1. Low-Key Living

Even if you’re convinced that the two of you are going to get married and live happily ever after, it’s still a good idea to have a live-in relationship.

Why? Because then you learn to adjust together without all the stress and expense of a marriage hanging over your shoulder.

After a wedding, buying a new fridge or going on a vacation might be impossible because all of your spare cash is gone in the marriage. It creates a lot of extra stress when you’re learning how to adjust to a new person in your space.

  1. Learn the Differences From A Roommate

I am a great roommate/flatmate. I’ve heard it from 7 out of 8 people I’ve lived with, so it has to be right! So I’m sure to have a great married life, right? Nah.

Treating a married life like having a roommate is going to end pretty badly!

Learn how to live with a spouse, how to live with someone permanently and deal with the problems that crop up. It will take time to unlearn behaving like a roommate.

  1. Have Some Privacy

The minute you’re married, you’re going to have many well-meaning (or not!) relatives asking about your ‘plans.’ When the question is –  are you going to give them a kid to play with?

Apart from offering them a fluffy toy and suggesting that kids aren’t toys, the other alternative is just to grin and bear it.

When you’re already trying to adjust to a new living situation, these small constant stressors can become unbearable.

  1. Enjoy Yourself!

Following directly on from the above, once you’re married, in a way you’re everybody’s business. Your parents, your spouse’s parents, every relative you haven’t ever heard of will come out of the woodwork to explain the ‘realities of life’ to you.

Have a live-in relationship and enjoy the private time that you can have together without having to take into account roommates, relatives, and everyone else.

Whatever you do, always be honest with each other and learn how to take the little problems less seriously. It’ll make both marriages and live together much more comfortable!

Keyword: Live in before marriage

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Why live-in before marriage is a boon

You’ve met a person, and realized that they’re THE person. So, the most natural next step is tying the knot. Right? Maybe not. How about living together for a while before calling the priest? It just might be the best decision you’ve made as a couple.

After the fireworks

While the initial stages of any relationship are arguably the most exciting and ‘through the roof,’ it should be borne in mind that your relationship will evolve. And time is critical here.

Marriage is a long-term commitment and decisions about it shouldn’t be made in haste. Living with your partner gives you that buffer time and brings you face to face with the realities of marriage and your relationship in general.

By cohabitating (that’s the fancy term for living together by the way) with your partner, you will experience how your lifestyle ties in with your partner’s.

Though mental and emotional compatibility is excellent, your lifestyle should not strongly conflict that of your partner’s.

Chores: Big and small

If you thought that was never going to happen, we’ve got news. Sharing a house and making it a home together requires a lot of effort.

You see, it’s easy to maintain oneself for an evening date. But when you know you’re going back to the same house after movie night, and there are clothes to remove from the washer, the leaking showerhead to fix and plants to water, things get real – real quick.

So, go ahead and share the apartment with your partner and get a dry run for what’s to come very soon. After all, practice never hurt anybody.

Money matters

Yeah, this is a big one that no couple likes talking about. Finances play a vital role in effectively running a household.

And if you are looking to take your relationship to marriage, living in together will provide you with the much-needed experience of dealing with money matters together. It’s important to know where the bread comes from and how bills stack up.

When you start living together things like budgeting and expenses and bills, come into play, and your partner’s spending habits stop seeming cute and surface up to something significant.

It’s best to have experience in handling finances together and sorting out spending habits before you say ‘I do.’

It may not be for you

There, I said it! As improbable and outlandish it may sound, one should not eliminate the possibility that they may realize at some point that marriage may not be their thing.

This is entirely normal and shouldn’t be ignored. So, the best way to test the waters for yourself and your partner would be to live together for a considerable period before marriage.

This also gives you an opportunity to deal with their pesky habits that you disagree with and see how they affect your relationship.

Marriage is the biggest (and probably the best) decision one makes in their lifetime. And the more effort behind the decision the better.

And also, what’s better than having a head start on the rollercoaster lives you would be living together for the rest of your lives? Hey, we’re just kidding, it’s not that scary.

LSI Keywords

Benefits of live-in relationships

Living together before marriage

Cohabitation before marriage

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Live-in before marriage – Why this lifestyle deserves a chance

“Living together before marriage- can you imagine a bigger sin?”

Ah, yes! Yes, I can. But that’s a rant for another time.

Living-in is a big decision. And you shouldn’t consider it just because your parents believe their child in a live-in would cause the sun to explode, oceans to boil, and the end of the world as we know it.

The overbearing population aside, live-in is a part of relationships. It’s got its advantages and drawbacks. But, “what will people say” is not a viable enough reason to throw the idea in the dustbin.

Before you consider if live-in is the right next step for you and your partner, let me tell you why I think it’s worth the chance.

  1. Know your partner inside-out

Every party puts their best foot forward when you have limited access to them. It’s human nature. But when you live together, you get to see things you wouldn’t have otherwise.

She hates pepperoni on her pizza. You often wake up to her coding at night. She’s just unable to share chocolates.

He always gets up after midnight for a snack. He wakes up with you snaked around him almost every morning. He can’t stand how you invite over every dog you meet.

Live-in relationships open doors to really knowing your partner. Their likes and dislikes, pet peeves – you get to glimpse who they are on a regular, boring, uneventful Friday night just as much as when you go out on a five-star date with them.

  1. You have a roommate, with benefits

If you’re already spending a lot of your time with your partner, moving in is the cost-effective method for both of you. You’ll share:

  • Rent
  • Groceries
  • Dinner bills, and
  • Money

You earn, you spend. You share expenses for the facilities you both use. You save more as well. And you’ll always have someone to come home to.

Does that sound so bad?

  1. A sudden avalanche of responsibilities? Not so much

Marriage is very much synonymous with responsibility, especially in India.

If you directly jump into a marriage. You don’t merely marry a guy or a girl – you marry into a family. You’ve got expectations, duties, parents, in-laws and a changed life.

And to top it, you have a spouse that you still need to befriend, never mind spending a lifetime with.

In a live-in, you have a partner whom you know well. The basic understanding is – we take one change at a time and adjust accordingly.

There is no flood of life-changes that you must handle. Responsibilities are mutually discussed and accepted or discarded.

  1. Compatibility check? Yes, please!

It’s the best part of a live-in. You are free to walk out if you can see that things aren’t working well. The break-up could be ugly, or smooth, depending on how you handle it.

 It’s a no-fuss, minimal-mess method to check whether or not two people are compatible.

Try getting out of marriage. The paperwork alone would tire your soul.

Try live-in- the drawbacks aren’t sensible enough to not try it anyway.

I often wonder, you may have too, why two consenting adults living together ruffles the feathers of a majority of our delightful Indian population.

The replies – “But, there is no social responsibility!”, “What if he takes advantage of you and runs away?”, “She is using you for money, can’t you see?”, “What face would we have left in the society?”, “Because he’s an engineer and you’re a nurse- where’s the match?”.

And the time-tested classic, “What would the neighbors think?”.

Like I said, not sensible enough!

Opt for a live-in if you want to. The social stigma can be paralyzing. Don’t let it hold you back.

If your partner is the one you like, trust, and see some of your future with, go ahead!

Keyword: live in before marriage

 

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What is Recruitment 3.0?

There has been a fundamental shift in the landscape of recruitment over the past decade. With a dwindling pool of talent to choose from, the global race for best talent is on. Recruiters feel that the current system of education leaves candidates unprepared to hit the ground running when it comes to work.

Recruitment 3.0 focuses on improving the quality of hires while reducing the time to hire ratio and cost per hire ratio. The aim is to build talent pipelines with transparent 2-way communication to keep people engaged.

The Process of Recruitment

As the needs of the market and the talent changes so does the process of recruitment and the expectations of recruiters.

Recruitment 1.0 – The era of Resume Databases from 1990’s to mid-2000’s. It encompassed traditional recruiting methods with a fairly large timeline.

Recruitment 2.0 – The Rise of Social Media due to the need for community-centric consciousness around 2005 onward. The recruitment process moved online with technology for online job boards.

Recruitment 3.0 – Web 3.0 pushed the recruitment process into the digital age of Contextual Web. Google’s update to its hummingbird algorithm in Aug 2013 was designed to help it derive both context and content from Google searches.

It is expected that in the near future a search phrase of “I want an accountant in Paris with 5 years’ experience” will give customized results as Google would have pulled all data relevant to the “I” from the relevant social media accounts, company blog and CRM to give a customized search result.

The Core Philosophies of Recruitment 3.0

1. Everyone is a potential candidate – Anyone volunteering to be elected by applying for a job post or being referred or willing to be considered could be a potential candidate. Research indicates that 90{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of talent suitable for available roles is not looking for a change. The remaining 10{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of active job seekers are being fought over by competing firms and talent acquisition companies.

2. Employment Brand is Pivotal to Success – The identity of a business, its core values and its promises to its employees and customers is the employment brand. The better the brand, the better they would look to potential recruits.
Relationships sell. Potential recruits are looking for honesty, authenticity, integrity and transparency in their workplace.

3. Relinquish control over what other people are saying – The digital age ensures that there are many avenues for people to get their views out through social media, blogs and other web boards. Businesses cannot extend any control over the messages being posted. However, PR and marketing departments can embrace this and open a channel to officially seek community inputs to get a better angle on the perception of their businesses.

4. Relationship building is key – Differentiating your social media from others is key. Building relationships, engaging the community and keeping them interested enough to build a viable pipeline of potential employees is vital to the recruitment process.

64{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of hiring managers estimate that the best candidates are drawn from referral pools, and they have the added benefit of reducing the time to finalize recruitment from 39-45 days to 29 days. Furthermore, 47{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of the candidates through referral are known to stay for more than 3 years on average when compared to compared to the 14{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} who come from job boards.

 References:

  1. “A Vision For The Future Of Recruitment: Recruitment 3.0” – Matthew Jeffery [ERE}
  2. “RECRUITMENT 3.0 | The best source of Hires” – Hicham Gharib [LinkedIN]
  3. “Recruitment 3.0: Looking Outside The Box” – Lalit Bhagia [Accountests]
  4. “Web 3.0 And What It Means For The Future Of Recruitment” – Irene McConnell [Workology]
  5. “Required Reading For Recruiters – Recruiting 3.0 & 4.0 Explained” – Jennifer McClure [Unbridled Talent]

 

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Recruitment 3.0 – Is Social Media Changing the World of Recruitment?

What you do on Social media speaks volumes about the kind of person you are. Recruiters are using Social media networks like Linkedin, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, etc. like never before, to spot and hire the best talent in the industry. They also use these platforms to retain talent that is at risk of leaving. This is Recruitment 3.0 for you.

The first interaction that a potential worker has with the company is during the recruitment phase. It is important that this phase is carried out properly as fingers are usually pointed at the recruiter if the selected worker isn’t able to meet the expected levels of performance. Recruitment over the internet is a reality today and companies are looking beyond traditional methods of recruitment to hire talented individuals.

Recruitment 3.0

Traditionally, workers would upload their résumé against job offers posted by companies on their websites or even newspapers. Recruitment 3.0 works differently – potential candidates that are found suitable to fill the vacant roles in an organisation are reached out to by recruiters themselves. Social media users, who are keen to be spotted by companies, are also becoming increasingly careful about how they showcase themselves on the internet. Whether it’s their résumé, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter handles or their personal blogs and websites – they are all at the top of their game – they have to be.

Social Media & Hiring

Through social media, if the company wants intricate details about the potential candidate and wants to attract the best talent that could fit into its organization. Potential candidates too are looking out for reputable companies to work for and want to research extensively about the company. From what is it doing, what would it be like to work with them to whether their goals align. Essentially it all boils down to the fact that recruitment today is a two-way street where both the parties involved want to emerge as winners, and nobody wants to go home disappointed.

In the current market, a company’s reputation is of utmost importance to catch the attention of the limited pool of talent available. Companies have begun realising this and have resorted to social media to create a stronghold in the online world.

LinkedIn, in particular, enjoys unparalleled popularity in recruiting candidates – especially those of a higher grade. Welcome to the digital world where companies have gone as far as creating videos to advertise about their job openings. 

Social Media as the Game Changer

Whatever be the method of recruitment, it isn’t uncommon for recruiters to ultimately resort to social media to know more about the potential candidate. Activities of a candidate on the internet, social media, in particular, gives a great insight into the candidate’s personality and this also serves as an excellent medium to carry out extensive background checks of the candidate. It isn’t uncommon for recruiters to use the internet to validate the information that the applicant has provided – search engines like Google and social sites like Facebook give information about a candidate at the click of a button. 

Going by the pace at which things are going, traditional recruiters will soon lose out on thousands of potential candidates if they do not upgrade themselves to newer forms of recruiting like Recruitment 3.0.

LSI Keywords: recruitment, recruitment 3.0, Linkedin, social media, the internet.

 

 

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Talent Resourcing is not Head-Hunting: A View of Recruitment 3.0

How does a company recruit the best talent for a job? Matthew Jeffery, Head of Talent Acquisition at Autodesk in an article from 2011, says, traditionally there been two stages to spotting real talent.

The Process of Recruitment

Recruitment process 1 was during the pre-digital days when a company advertised in mainstream media, waited for candidates to apply, short-listed them, put them through an interview and picked their ideal candidate. Recruitment process 2 was equally bureaucratic, but the difference was that candidates started applying digitally with job-sites through online resumes.

Redundancy

Jeffery says that Recruitment of talent in the first two formats is now redundant. He says a new way of talent resourcing has caught up to the advantage of the ones creating opportunity and those who use the chance to enhance their skills. Matthew Jeffery calls this new phase of talent scouting Recruitment 3.0, through the effective use of social media.

The Difference?

The primary difference is to segregate job-seekers as against talent pooling. Job-seekers may be qualified, technically-equipped and to a greater or lesser degree experienced in a given category. These candidates would only be 10{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of those applying for a role in any given sector. 90{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of the candidates are either unreached or unaware of the openings.

Potential Talent

Jeffery terms the 90{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} potentially talented but non-active as a segment. The talent potential could have skill-sets far more varied and superior to the usual job-seekers who have got used to the grind.

The way to woo a potential talent would be by defining a candidate as a volunteer to an electoral process. Choice thereby clearly emphasised as a social process where everyone is, hypothetically, talented.

Too Good to be True?

Although this might sound too good to be true, there are at least two sound reasons why Recruitment 3.0 could be the way forward.

The digitisation phase of the first generation has come to an end. Data mobilisation of the old industrial set-up has transformed manufacturing as a sector and as an economic entity.

Shift in Priorities

The old macro-system held through by hierarchy is soon to be dismantled. Digital processing of data has given way to the manufacturing of digitally integrated systems such as Internet of Things (IoT). Traditional capital has given way to impact investment scenarios shifting the way businesses operate at the human scale.

Skilled Choice

The versatile move has scaled up the definition of the job as a skilled choice rather than a mere livelihood. Livelihood itself is increasingly being viewed as a culmination of latent potential rather than as the blue-collar sector of the old industrial system.

This horizontal expansion of business convergence on a global scale makes Recruitment 3.0 as a proposition of high social capital.

Changing Realities

The shift in education as skill enhancement is another important reason why 3.0 holds more than casual water. Honing of specific skills is both a universal value-addition as well as a culture-specific symbol of talent accumulation. This potential was hitherto watered down by academic degrees that prepared nobody to the changing realities of the market.

Slow Change

But as Matthew Jeffrey himself says, employers as a group have barely awoken to infuse an “emotionally-engaged idea of transparent talent resourcing”. There are very few indicators for a breakthrough in creating an employment brand as against the building of corporate brand value.  

Primary Keyword:

Talent Resourcing

Recruitment Process

Talent Pooling

Potentially Talented

Candidate as Volunteer

Specific Skills

Employment Brand

 

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The Future of Recruitment Is Here: Recruitment 3.0

“If you meet the criteria, you get the job. If you fail to meet the standards or just get one of the interviewers angry by staring at them, you don’t.”

‘The process of hiring the best candidate for a job opening having the right skills, after finding them in an efficient manner.’

The definition of recruiting hasn’t changed over the years as well as the recruitment process either.

This changes with the arrival of recruitment 3.0, ushering in a new era for the industry. “So what is recruitment 3.0 exactly, how is it different from recruitment 2.0 or just recruitment?” Let’s jump right to the answer.

All of these points are lacking in the traditional approach to recruiting.

Make Recruitment An Engaging And Interactive Process

Every neighbour and their dog know how a general recruiting process goes by. Find a company looking for candidates with your skill set. Then contact the company with your CV and if you get selected, go past their selection process after which you get into the personal interview sessions.

Finally, if you meet the criteria, you get the job. If you fail to meet the criteria, you don’t.

This stagnant process needs an overhaul which is exactly what one of the elements of Recruitment 3.0 is.

By building an engaging process of recruitment rather than the same old non-distinguishable from the millions, you get more candidates interested. Instead of emailing CV and waiting for a long selection process, how about a live video chat with the said candidate after verification of their identity and documents?

Human Beings are social animals. We love to communicate our thoughts and ideas. Making recruitment processes transparent like this greatly piques the interest of potential candidates.

Don’t Take Your Brand For Granted And Provide Better Work Environments

Big brands rely on their market name to attract new candidates each passing year. However, they forget the fact that the market is ever-changing.

Candidates are continually being snatched up by relatively newer companies that offer more or less the same pay but have a more attractive offer. This can be either due to better facilities for employees or easier selection processes.

Regardless of the underlying reason, candidates are moving away from your brand. Many of them potentially among the best fits for those roles. All this because of you, a recruiter, may be failing to acknowledge the changing trends.

This is something that is changing this new recruitment process.

Don’t Assume All Candidates Are Looking At Your Job Offer

Sure, job hunt websites, advertisements and CV searching results promise of thousands of potential candidates for a particular role. However, they may not be the most ideal.

Consider this, while unemployed, even the most experienced candidate will search for jobs. But when this isn’t the case, like when he/she is already employed, things don’t work the same way. They might be earning less than what you offer, but due to lack of interest, such potential is wasted.

Recruitment 3.0 aims towards fixing this issue. Instead of thinking traditionally, and going for the minority of interested candidates, we broaden the pool by hitting the majority too.

Candidate Psychology Can’t Be Challenged

As expressed before, human beings love to talk, and if you as a company do not acknowledge this fact, then you are in for a surprise. When companies follow a strict work environment where any form of social gathering other than that in the same designation is shunned, it will negatively affect the company.

It’s 2017 already, people have become more social than ever. One bad move by a company towards one of the employees can start a textual wildfire over social media overnight.

Word spreads, people verbally state their disagreement, and unless you are one of the Fortune 500 companies having millions of dollars to fall back on, you take a big hit. Overnight, you have lost your candidates trust and thus their determination and also end up losing untrusting candidates to other companies in the long run.

The goal of the new recruitment process would be to provide very friendly and open environments that nurture the relationship between owners and employees and develop better HR teams.

These are the changes brought up by Recruitment 3.0, which in itself is steadily evolving. Unless employment leaders who have majorly ignored these points up to this point, embrace the changes brought up by the fast-paced world they risk being ruled out.

LSI Keywords-

Primary kw- Recruitment 3.0

Variants- recruitment 2.0

Synonyms-recruitment process, new recruitment process, recruitment processes, recruiting process, recruiting.

 

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Fintech Trends in India

Socio-economic and demographic changes have increased the demand for innovative and secure Fintech in India. Fintech startups are piggybacking on the government’s initiative to reach the majority of the population with their tech-friendly regulations.

National Payments Corporation of India [NPCI], Digital India, Smart Cities, Startup India and Aadhaar are some of the prominent Government programs that help build and support this ecosystem.

The growing interests in Fintech Markets put the transaction value of Fintech sector $33 billion as of 2016, and it is expected to grow and reach $73 million by 2020 putting the annual growth rate at 22{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616}.

There is wide scope for development in the Fintech Sector, and they can be categorized into the following spheres:

 

Growing FinTech trends to watch for in 2017:

  1. Micro-Payments – Companies focusing on the FinTech Sector are capitalizing on the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and NPCI (National Payments Corporation India) to expand the ecosystem of digital payments. The increased efficiency and security of digital payments systems have increased the adoption rate of transactions via smartphones. A growing acceptance in this space will enable the objective of a cashless society.
  1. Blockchain Adoption – Blockchain is the technology behind “Crypto Currency.” It is an innovative integration of cryptography, mathematics, and economics that helps create and maintain an expansive database of transactions. It resembles a single consolidated ledger of financial activities.

The scope of applicability is large as Blockchain also promises security and credentials. According to the World Economic Forum [WEF], 80{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of the banks are expected to start Blockchain projects with big players like Goldman Sachs getting behind the concept.

Even the RBI is considering this as a means to mitigate cheque fraud.

Blockchain also guarantees operational simplicity, reduction in process & settlement time and risk mitigation.

  1. Marketplace Lending – Online lending platforms (P2P) are becoming very prominent. They primarily use non-traditional data to determine a customer’s creditworthiness. Given that almost 75{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of the Indian population does not have an established credit report, this works well in their favor.
  1. These platforms data analytics backed by algorithms to make a risk assessment for lending.The categories predominant in P2P portfolios include personal loans, commercial loans, and microfinance.
  1. Reg Tech – Regulatory technologies are evolving to accommodate the barriers to business entry. The goal here is to provide the right tools and services that will enable automation of compliance tasks, improve the accuracy of identity management and reduce risks of fraud.

Delegating a lot of the redundant tasks to technology removes the burden of repetitive tasks and enables a lean business. This is a newly discovered market with promises to provide a lot of potential savings to organizations.

  1. Robo-Advisory – This market is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate [CAGR] of 68{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616}. The projected estimate for managed assets by 2025 is expected to be USD 5 Trillion.

Currently in India the apart from the wealth and asset management sectors, retail space is capitalizing heavily on robo-advisory services. Increasing investment in biometrics and security promises to enhance customer experience through digital transformation.

 

References:

  1. The India Fintech Market Map: 72 Startups Working Across Lending, Payments, Insurance & Banking” – CB Insights
  2. “#5 Fintech Trends That You May Want To Watch Out For in 2017” – Kumar Srivatsan [Entrepreneur]
  • “3 Ways Fintech Is Disrupting The Indian Lending Space” – Manavjeet Singh [CXO Today]
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Fintech trends in India Today – Fintech Shows Early Signs of Recovery After a Slow 2016

We’re five months into 2017 and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Demonetization move in the second last month of 2016 has had a tremendous impact on Financial Technology in India.

 So much so that the development of FinTech has seen unprecedented growth in the last couple of months, and Fintech start-ups are busy making hay while the sun is shining.

According to a report published by Professional Services major KPMG, investment in the sector declined to $216 million in 2016 from a whopping $1.6 billion in 2015. The Global Fintech sector may have shown signs of slowing in 2016, fast forward to 2017 and things are only looking up for this sector.

Let’s have a look at what’s happening in the FinTech space in India today:

  • Peer-to-Peer Lending:

Peer-to-peer lending, also known as P2P lending, is a trend to watch out for in 2017. Simply put, P2P lending is a win-win situation for both lenders and borrowers – lenders usually earn high returns compared to those offered by traditional financial institutions and borrowers stand a chance to borrow money at interest rates that are typically lower than those offered by banks.

A hugely unregulated sector, with as many as 30 peer-to-peer-lending agencies operating out of the country including Lendbox and Lendenclub. P2P lending is on the rise – quite a huge number of borrowers who didn’t qualify for a loan from the banks avail this platform.

  • Cryptocurrency:

Cryptocurrency is just like your traditional currency with the difference that it uses cryptography for securing your transactions, and it also controls the creation of new money. In simple layman terms, it may be referred to as digital currency.

Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency to have been ever created enjoys unparalleled popularity even as many cryptocurrencies like Zebpay, Coinsecure, and Unocoin have emerged over the years. Today, One Bitcoin equals 113458.92 Indian Rupee and continues to grow in value.

However, it is worth noting that it is a currency that is highly volatile – Mark Thomas Williams, popularly known as Professor Bitcoin, who is a member of Boston University’s faculty, suggests Bitcoin is seven times more unstable than gold and eighteen times shakier than the US dollar!

  • Social Media:

India is a huge market for Social Media giants owing to its huge population base. Tech-savvy Indians, be it buying groceries or making bank payments, prefer doing things online. This has prompted most service providers to have their Social Media channels to broaden their customer base and keep the existing clients engaged.

 FinTech companies are no different – they are using Social media like never before, so much so that a new term named “Fintech Marketing” has emerged.

Fintech companies see Social media as a way of communicating with prospective clients, thereby facilitating them to understand customer behavior and preferences which would help them in selling the right product.

Profit book, a simplified and robust cloud accounting software that has proven to be increasingly popular among small organizations to create invoices, for tax calculation and tracking inventory, for instance, has its own Facebook and Twitter handle to connect with people at another level altogether.

2017 looks to be a promising year for the Global Fintech sector – more so for India and Demonetization is only going to accelerate Fintech’s growth. Cash crunch forced your friendly neighborhood tea and vegetable vendor to look beyond printed money and accept e-payments. We’re soon gearing up for a truly digital India, aren’t we?  

LSI Keywords: FinTech, Cryptocurrency, P2P lending, Bitcoin, digital currency

 

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