Big Tech worries

.One universal concern is the emergence of the “era of the apps”. With their immense user base, the big tech companies designed costly but clever apps which the merchants or startups had little recourse but to use for reach and distribution. Nations around the world are now waking up to Big Tech’s power through data dominance ,neutralising competition, infringing on privacy.

For governments world over, the real nightmare had long been the money power behind political influencing. The digital avatar of social media added a whole new dimension to their very survival. The political collective has recognised its Trojan Horse in Big Tech. The merits of the License Raj of the past, this time in the digital regime, are being rediscovered.

R Narayanan

Navi Mumbai

Oil matters

Apropos ‘The great political influence on fuel prices, particularly LPG’ ( November 9), auto fuel prices are likely to remain stable despite the volatility in global crude prices and rupee depreciation.

The promise to reduce cost of the domestic LPG cylinder for certain sections of the society, is on the radar of all political parties.

The Centre’s cut of LPG prices by ₹200 per cylinder is likely to be in place for now.

Similar could be the case with the retail prices of the twin auto fuels (petrol and diesel). A classic case of politics trumping economics.

Vinayak G

New Delhi

SFBs’ dilemma

With reference to the article ‘Can SFBs, Fintechs gel?’ (November 9), the author has rightly pointed out that SFBs need differentiated strategies to serve low-income consumers.

NewGen SFBs are making their presence in urban areas. SFBs must expand to rural areas to exploit the untapped potentials.

SFBs need to focus more on expanding their business rather than aspiring to become a global bank. A strong HR team and internal management team is the need of the hour.

RV Baskaran

Chennai

Being digitally savvy

Apropos the news “Indian Banks outperform global peers in digital maturity score” (November 9), while it is heartening that Indian banks have scored better than the global average in digital banking maturity (DBM), they are still far away from the top 10 per cent performers recognised as “Digital champions”.

The main reason for this is the slow pace of digitalisation, though the pace has increased in recent times.

Indian banks have to be more pro-active in adopting technology to attract the customers.

Personal financial management, personal financial advice and providing services in business trends for various sector clients with the help of in-house research teams and a host of non-banking services, are some of the areas where banks can make a difference to the customers and become digitally savvy.

Kosaraju Chandramouli

Hyderabad

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