M K SINHA

  Thailand's direct sales business is likely to remain flat this year, attributed to the pandemic. Kittawat Ritteerawee, president of Thailand Direct Selling Association (TDSA) and managing director of Amway Thailand, said the overall direct sales industry is expected to stay at 70 billion baht, the same tally as 2019 when the industry grew by 2-3% from 2018. Direct sales offer a good opportunity as a sideline job during the pandemic," he said. "With the pandemic, we expect the direct sales business is likely to see flat growth during 2020 and 2021," he said. "We've overcome all crises to continue growing for 33 years, whether it was the Asian financial crisis or the Gulf War in 1991," said Mr Kittawat. "This is because the company is always prepared and adapts to the changing situation." Online sales have increased to 30% so far, up from 15% before the crisis. He said health products now contribute up to 65% of the company's total sales,

The direct selling industry   reported gross sales of Rs 7,500 crore in the April-September period, growing 4.7% year-on-year, as consumers stepped up shopping through the direct selling channel amid nationwide lockdowns. The sector had reported sales of Rs 7,200 crore in the corresponding year-ago period. A new report by industry body Indian Direct Sellers Association (IDSA)  said the sector saw 53 lakh new entrants of direct sellers and consumers in the first six months of the present financial year. At a time when most businesses faced a downturn, direct selling has recorded a significant increase in gross sales in back-to-back quarters of the current fiscal. With increased awareness about immunity, health and nutrition, the wellness  segment registered the highest year-on-year growth of 20.45% during the period. Sales of cosmetics were also close to 20%, while homecare and household products grew 15.17%. Wellness, cosmetics and homecare are the largest segments of direct selling in

Reserve Bank had announced in the Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies dated October 09, 2020, that the Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) will be available round the clock on all days of the year. Accordingly, RTGS 24x7x365 will be launched with effect from 00:30 hours on December 14, 2020. India will become one of the few countries in the world to operate its RTGS system round the clock throughout the year. This comes within a year of operationalising NEFT 24x7 by the Reserve Bank. RTGS, which began its operations on March 26, 2004 with a soft launch involving four banks, presently handles 6.35 lakh transactions daily for a value of ₹4.17 lakh crore across 237 participant banks. The average ticket size for RTGS in November 2020 was ₹57.96 lakh making it a truly large value payment system. RTGS uses ISO 20022 format which is the best-in-class messaging standard for financial transactions. The feature of positive confirmation for credit to beneficiary accounts is al