Legal Synthesis

This episode features a conversation with Amol Agrawal about Central Bank Digital Currencies. 

Dr. Amol Agrawal is the professor of economics at Ahmedabad University. He has done extensive work in the fields of Macroeconomics, Banking, history of economic thought, Economic and Financial History. His blog Mostly Economics is one of the most popular blogs on Indian economics and he has spent a lot of time thinking about and writing on digital currencies

Show notes:

1. Indian Bank, Canara, Axis, South Indian Bank buy equal stakes in fintech firm IBBIC
   
2. Money creation in the modern economy
   
3. The Rich History of Banking in India » Pragati
   
4. Crypto exchange Kraken gets Wyoming bank license
   
5. Digital Currencies and Stablecoins - Risks Opportunities and Challenges Ahead
   
6. Central Bank Digital Currencies: Foundational Principles and Core Features -  Bank of International Settlements 
   
7. Libra White Paper
   
8. The Libra Black Paper

“Fintech”, “AI”, “Machine Learning” these terms are becoming more mainstream as days go by. Any average person today understands that the use of these terms in a sentence implies increasing efficiency or bringing about some technological change. However, in some quarters, this is more of a buzzword with little understanding of its application.

In this episode, Sandesh talks to Arpit Ratan, co-founder of Signzy, a no-code, banking process automation startup, on what it means to apply AI to banking processes. We talk about how technology is being used to phase out legacy processes in customer onboarding processes and know-your-customer related compliance.

Show notes:

1. Signzy’s website
   
2. Signzy raises $5.4 million from Arkam Ventures and Mastercard
   
3. Signzy ID Card verification case study
   
4. Signzy’s computer vision engine can process 3.5 million documents a day. Banks are impressed - Economic Times
   
5. It's been 32 years since the world pledged to fix the ozone layer. And it worked
   
6. Opinion | Contract enforcement: India's key to perform in Ease of Doing Business
   

Music by Rohan Shiva

Edited by Nirmal Bhansali

In this episode we understand the relevance of Information Utilities in the credit ecosystem of our country with Bhargavi Zaveri. 

Bhargavi Zaveri is a senior researcher at the Finance Research Group. She has previously held research positions at the Harvard Law School, the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi, and the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai. She was part of the team that set up NeSL, the first Information Utility in India.

Show Notes:

1. Bhargavi Zaveri’s profile
   
2. Bankruptcy Law Reforms Committee Report Vol. 1
   
3. Report of the Working Group on Information Utilities
   
4. RBI Report on the Public Credit Registry
   
5. Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Information Utilities) Regulations, 2017
   
6. RBI Deputy Governor Dr. Viral Acharya speech on Public Credit Registry
   
7. The Leap Blog - Issues with Information Utilities
   
8. Information Utility - The Untapped Pillar of IBC
   
9. Submission of Financial Information to Information Utilities under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016
   
10. NeSL in talks with states for digital e-stamping of loan papers, says MD & CEO, Livemint
    
11. Five Bankruptcies before breakfast - The Ken
    

Do check out Bhargavi’s other recent podcasts on Bankruptcy which would supplement the understanding of Information Utilities:

1. A Law Common in India: India & the United States - Cornell Law School
   Explaining bankruptcy ft. India’s new bankruptcy reforms
   
2. Interpreting India: Unpacking India’s Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code with Bhargavi Zaveri
   

Title credits: Beni Chugh (check our her episode with Legal Synthesis here)

Episode is edited by Nirmal Bhansali and the soundtrack was composed by Rohan Shiva.

Follow us on social media:
Twitter - @SynthesisLegal

Instagram - @LegalSynthesis

Financial inclusion and a well-functioning financial system are the hallmarks of any developed economy. India, for the last 73 years has been trying to solve the problem of providing access to financial services. While we are almost there now, what next? How do we make sure this access translates into benefits? How will our country now step on the path to prosperity? These are some of the broad themes we cover in this episode. We talk to Beni Chugh, a senior research associate at Dvara Research about what financial inclusion really means, how the idea has evolved, and what we can do as a society to make financial services more inclusive. In the course of the conversation, we also discuss the role of each of the stakeholders in the process, what the capacity constraints are, and the regulatory barriers that currently exist.

Show notes:

1. Dvara Research
   
2. Last-mile Delivery of PM Garib Kalyan Yojana Benefits during the COVID-19 Pandemic - Aarushi Gupta, Anupama Kumar, Janani A.P, Social Protection Initiative, Dvara Research
   
3. When Microcredit is unsuitable - Vaishnavi Pratap and Rachit Khaitan, Dvara Research
   
4. Household Finance in India: Approaches and Challenges -  Vishwanath C, Monami Dasgupta & Misha Sharma, Dvara Research
   
5. The Risk Aggregator Model in Banking for India - Madhu Srinivas & Deepti George, Dvara Research
   
6. Artificial Intelligence in Digital Credit in India - Anubhutie Singh & Srikara Prasad, Dvara Research
   
7. Let’s stop kicking the can down the road: Highlighting important and unaddressed gaps in microcredit regulations - Nishanth K & Deepti George, Dvara Research
   
8. Financial Regulation of Consumer-facing fintech in India: Status quo and Emerging Concerns - Beni Chugh, Dvara Research
   
9. Report of the Household Finance Committee - Reserve Bank of India
   
10. Who is inclusive fintech really including? - Devraj Hom Roy
    
11. Fintech for Financial Inclusion - AFI
    

There has been a trend of increasing investments in legal technology companies. Many of the biggest firms, internationally and in India have launched their own incubator programmes to build tools and systems that can help reduce effort put in by lawyers. Through a conversation with Marisha Thakker, a Legal Solutions Architect at Dentons - we breakdown the decision making process of adopting legal technology, and what kind of culture is required to disrupt the processes in the legal industry.

SHOW NOTES:

1. Legal Tech Startups are born in India. Digital Tools may just transform the business of law - ET Prime
   
2. A 5 point guide to digitizing an Advocate’s office -  Sans Paper
   
3. Want to use tech to become a better lawyer? Start here. - Advait Shukla
   
4. Indian Legal Tech
   
5. Introducing DeepK for Legal Contracts - DeepK Contract Analysis
   
6. The CAM Innovation Lab
   
7. Fuse - Allen & Overy
   
8. Linkubator Podcast - The Legal Technology and Innovation Podcast
   
9. Dentons
   
10. Lawyers Not Lawyering
    
11. Legal Tech: The Future of Legal Services in India -  Bar & Bench
    
12. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud - Future of Virtual Courts and Access to Justice in India - Nyaaya Forum
    
13. Dr. Aditya Sondhi, Senior Advocate on Why Courts must resist going entirely virtual 
    
14. Finish: Give yourself the gift of done by Jon Acuff
15. Law Firms Billing Rates Survey 2019 - India Business Law Journal

Music by Rohan Shiva

Over the last couple of years, the big tech companies have been increasing their presence in the Indian financial services market. In this episode, with the help of Shohini Sengupta, we try to look at the incentives for these companies and what should the regulators keep in mind to ensure financial stability. 

Show Notes:

• Don’t be Evil - Rana Foroohar
• Big Tech ‘Banks’, Financial Stability and Regulation - Jorge Padilla
• Big Tech in Finance: Opportunities and Risks -  Bank of International Settlements
• Big Tech and the changing structure of financial intermediation - Working Paper - Bank of International Settlements
• Fintech and Market Structure in Financial Services - Financial Stability Board
• BigTech in Finance: Market Developments and potential financial stability implications - Financial Stability Board
• Tech Giants in Banking: The Implications of a New Market Power -  Nicola Bilotta and Simone Romano
• How big tech is dragging us towards the next financial crash - The Guardian
• HDFC bank is ‘too big to fail’: Weak regulatory mechanisms mean this RBI certificate is no insurance against failure - Shohini Sengupta
  

We're launching a new podcast series - Legal Synthesis. It's a podcast about the interface between law, finance and technology. If you're someone who's interested in these fields, and are eager to learn something about these issues, this podcast is for you.