We are hearing a lot about “digital arrest” scam these days, where someone pretending to be an authority figure often claiming to be a police officer makes you follow many instructions with the intent of making to transfer your hard earned money to them. There are so many people around me who have either fallen ..read more

There was a time I used to watch movies in theaters almost every weekend, sometime even two movies in a single weekend. (No. I was never a professional movie critic and did not watch movies for the living. I just love movies and the experience of watching them in cinema hall as a community experience) But, in last 5 years I have been to cinemas only once. Yesterday happened to be an unplanned visit to a mall that resulted into me watching the recent movie Kalki 2898 AD in theater. Here is me telling you how I felt while watching the movie. Many people had tagged me on X since the movie got rel ..read more

In light of so many scam messages riding on re-KYC, PAN update etc to dupe the customer, here is a lesson I learned while working for HDFC Bank. I was responsible for ensuring migration of all the cards from CBoP systems to HDFC Bank systems. After careful consideration I prepared 3 possible strategies and presented to senior management to get their approval on one of them to execute the migration. The meeting was attended by Group Head of IT, Operations and Business teams along with representatives from both banks. We all pushed by re-carding. It would have certainly meant significantly more ..read more

Watch me here in conversation with Anuj Upadhyaya, talking about myths related to our ancients epics Mahabharat and Ramayan and how to counter them. Kahi – Suni Episode 0 Mithak, Puran aur Bhrantiyan ..read more

The movie starts with the backstory of Infinity Stones and how powerful they are. It explains how a society of sorcerers was appointed to protect these stones from falling into wrong hands. Oops, wrong movie. The backstory is about the various astra which can harness the powers of various elements and animals. The most powerful of these astras is Brahmastra. Which for safekeeping was divided into three pieces and given to three different guardians for protection.  One of the guardians of these pieces is a scientist named Mohan Bhargava (SRK), who somehow keeps this very important thing o ..read more

I started working on building my start-up Sutradhar almost a year back. Not a single day has passed when people have not asked me, “why I chose to create Sutradhar and not some fintech?” Not an unexpected question, considering I have been a part of banking and fintech ecosystem in varying capacity for good 15 years. When I decided to start my entrepreneurial journey, building a fintech was the first thought that crossed my find. I brainstormed multiple Fintech ideas with potential co-founders and investors. I almost zeroed in on an idea, which had few supporters, but then something happened. I ..read more

I recently came across NPCI PayAuth Challenge, seeking proposals to improve UPI authentication process to enhance user experience and improved security. I thought this is a good reason to write a new blogpost. I have been a big advocate of risk based authentication and believe that it clearly has the potential significantly improve the authentication process without compromising the security. In fact there is a possibility of even improving security by removing blanket authentication protocol for all transactions. UPI as a transaction method requires you to register your mobile device as a tru ..read more

For last one year I have been busy building Sutradhar. It’s a platform for stories from Bhartiya Itihas and Mythology. Our ancient literature and oral folklore tradition is extremely rich and full of entertaining stories. At Sutradhar we are attempting to bring these stories to limelight by delivering them to your mobile phone. I urge all of you to give it a try. Android users can download our app here. We haven’t yet launched an iPhone app, but don’t feel disheartened; because you can subscribe to our youtube channel where we post some of our stories. Here is one such story we did recently. D ..read more

Had the most amazing conversation just now. Brace yourself and read this: Received a call from an unknown number telling me I have won lucky draw of Amazon company and have won a Tata Safari. The generous caller gave me two options, either opt for the car or get the cash equivalent to the value of the car. Since now I am in Gurgaon now, like any other person living here, I opted for the SUV. The caller asks me to send my photograph and Aadhaar copy over WhatsApp and pay 8,000 Rs as processing charges. At this point I asked the caller, “din me kitne logon ko aap aise bewakoof bana lete ho?” Th ..read more

Here is the recording of the Fireside chat with Gaurav Tripathi, recorded on 28th Nov, 2020. Hope this is useful for people following this blog ..read more