As 1st Ukraine war anniv nears, all signs point to more misery with no end in sight

Digital transactions will soon surpass cash as UPI is increasingly becoming the most preferred payment mechanism in the country. Many experts are estimating that very soon India’s digital wallet transactions are going to overtake cash transactions.

—Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

Cross-border retail payments and remittances between India and Singapore currently amount to over $1 billion annually. UPI-PayNow linkage will grow in utility and will contribute more in facilitating trade.

—Lee Hsien Loong, PM of Singapore

IN SPEECH, PREZ PUTIN SUSPENDS NUCLEAR ARMS TREATY WITH U.S.

Moscow: Russian President Putin on Tuesday delivered a state-of-the-nation address. Explaining his decision to suspend Russia’s obligations under New START, Putin on Tuesday accused US and its NATO allies of openly declaring the goal of Russia’s defeat in Ukraine. “They want to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on us and try to get to our nuclear facilities at same time,” he said, declaring his decision to suspend Russia’s participation in treaty. “In this context, I have to declare that Russia is suspending its participation in Treaty on Strategic Offensive Arms.”

JOE BIDEN VISITS POLAND

Brussels: US President Joe Biden made a surprise trip to Kyiv early Monday. The trip came ahead of Biden’s planned two-day visit to Poland. The President visits Warsaw on Tuesday where he meets with Polish President Andrzej Duda

Begins

THACKERAY’S PLEA

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech is a “propaganda” and we will continue to support Kyiv and continue talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

—Giorgia Meloni, Italian Prime Minister

Crucial

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Moni Sharma

New Delhi/ Singapore: India and Singapore launched on Tuesday a real-time link to facilitate easier cross border money transfers between one of the world’s biggest recipients of remittances and an Asian financial powerhouse.

Transfers of funds will be possible using just mobile phones due to the tie-up between India’s UPI and Singapore’s facility. Such cross-border transfer arrangements typically lower costs of payments. Modi said 74 bn transactions amounting to over `126 tn, which is approx 2 tn Singapore dollar, was done through UPI in 2022.

KNOW ABOUT UPI-PAYNOW WORKING AND BENEFITS

 Now, transfer money between the 2 countries can be done just using mobile number or UPI ID

 Students and migrant workers in Singapore will be benefitted by lowcost transfer of money

 According to government data issued recently, there are currently 6.5L Indians residing in S’pore

 The payment linkage between UPI and PayNow will reduce the remittance cost by 10 percent

 Over 74 billion transactions, worth `126 trillion (or about SGD 2 trillion) carried out via UPI in ’22

 PayNow-UPI linkage is the result of collaboration between the MAS & Reserve Bank of India

State Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank and ICICI Bank will facilitate both inward and outward remittances, Axis Bank and DBS India will facilitate inward remittances. For Singapore users, service will be made available through DBS-Singapore and Liquid Group.

—Reserve Bank of India (RBI)

NSitharamanOffice @nsitharamanoffc Hon’ble @PMOIndia Shri@narendramodi & Hon’ble Singapore Prime Minister Mr @leehsienloong today witnessed the launch of crossborder linkage between India & Singapore using their respective Fast Payment Systems - Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and PayNow.

New Delhi (FIB): The Supreme Court on Tuesday, on an experimental basis, began using artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing technology for live transcription of its hearings. Announcing initiative, CJ said, “We’ll see how it works, especially in constitution bench matters, because then we’ll have a permanent record of arguments...”

‘CULPRITS OF 26/11 MUMBAI ATTACKS ROAM FREE IN PAK’

Lahore (PTI): Perpetrators of 26/11 Mumbai attacks are still roaming freely in Pak & Pakistanis should not feel offended when India talks about 2008 carnage, lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar said in Lahore event. In a viral video, writer responded to a member in the audience, ‘We should not blame each other, it will solve nothing, tense atmosphere should be doused.’

Gehlot Defends Old Pension Scheme

WE KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH THOSE OPPOSING OPS: GEHLOT

Country will become Vishwaguru only when work is done for social security: CM

Naresh Sharma

Jaipur: CM Ashok Gehlot has attacked PM Modi and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman regarding OPS. Gehlot said on Tuesday, “We have given OPS this time. Union FinMin Sitharaman is opposing OPS. PM has protested in the Parl as well. Lots ofthings were said for States implementing the OPS. We will deal with them, we know how to deal with them. If govt repeats, schemes will become stronger. We won’t let OPS come to an end.”

Gehlot was speaking at the statue unveiling ceremony at Raghunandpura in KishangarhRenwal in Jaipur dist on Tuesday. Turn to P9

AMID OPPN UNITY TALKS, KHARGE SAYS CONGRESS TO LEAD GOVT IN 2024

LISTED FOR TODAY

The Supreme Court on Tuesday listed former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray’s petition challenging the decision of the ECI to allot party name ‘Shiv Sena’ and symbol ‘bow and arrow’ to the Eknath Shinde faction for hearing at 3.30 p.m. on Wednesday.

It will be done on an experimental basis for a day or two to iron out creases in transcription before becoming a norm. —DY Chandrachud, CJI

Sania ends career with 1st round defeat in Dubai

Free Championships on Tuesday. Sania along with American partner Madison Keys suffered a straight-set defeat at the hands of Vernokia Kudermetova and Liudmila Samsonova. Sania and Keys lost 4-6, 0-6 to the formidable Russian pair in exactly one hour.

Chumukedima: At a time when there is renewed talk of Oppn unity in context of 2024 LS polls, Cong prez Mallikarjun Kharge said Cong in talks with other parties and asserted that an alliance led by Cong would come to power at Centre next year. P5

TATA BAGS TITLE RIGHTS FOR WOMEN’S PREMIER LEAGUE

New Delhi: Tata Group on Tuesday bagged title rights for inaugural Women’s Premier League beginning in Mumbai on March 4. “I am delighted to announce Tata Group as title sponsor of inaugural WPL,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah said.

KARNATAKA GOVT TRANSFERS OFFICERS ROOPA AND SINDHURI

Bengaluru: Karnataka Govt on Tuesday transferred two senior women bureaucrats IAS officer Rohini Sindhuri and IPS officer D Roopa, involved in a bitter public spat. The two officers were transferred without specifying their new posting.

Mukesh Mathrani and Shiv Prakash Purohit