At Singularity University’s Exponential Finance Summit in New York last month, Peter Diamandis talked about technology, money and a demonetized world. We all have access to everything at the palm of our hands due to advanced technology, robots implying higher efficiency and lower cost. But technological unemployment follows. The counterbalance to technological unemployment, is the demonetization of living. The most common example of this phenomenon is the smartphone where a bunch of different things can be performed in a single device. Demonetization is one of the factors of technological disruption, where money is taken out of the equation for a given product or service, making it available to everyone. Communication, Entertainment, Energy, Transportation, Housing, Education, Healthcare are a few fields of example Diamandis gave in this context. Read more at https://singularityhub.com/2017/06/08/technology-will-erase-jobs-but-also-make-everything-cheap-or-free/

Finance is a daunting subject for someone who is not a numbers person. But understanding concepts like EBITDA and net present value are important no matter where you sit on the org chart. Here are some strategies for boosting your financial acumen. Get acquainted with your company’s income statement. Reproduce the numbers in a spreadsheet then group them into categories of profit and loss. Your goal is to understand how much your company spends and where it makes money. Play with the numbers. Experiment with the figures on the balance sheet by going through a series of “what if” scenarios. What if prices were lower? What if revenue was higher? This exercise helps you internalize how financial models work. Find a financial mentor. Foster a relationship with a senior financial or operations manager who can teach you and answer your questions. This person can also serve as a sounding board for financial decisions you need to make. Read more at: https://hbr.org/2017/03/how-to-improve-your-finance-skills-even-if-you-hate-numbers

Bitcoin is not something the average person will ever use to buy and sell stuff, but is useful mainly as digital gold-as an investment, also a useful way of moving money across international borders, and that will likely be its main application over the next several years. It is most valuable as something that enables financial phenomena that have never existed before, what is known as "programmatic finance." Read more at: http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21722235-bitcoin-far-only-game-town-surge-value-crypto-currencies

Some volunteers of a nonprofit volunteer outfit are going door to door in Odisha. They are collecting data about schools, health facilities, Panchayat, roads, etc. These data points are being analyzed by a not-for-profit development organization which will use this data and will draft a development plan for Member of Parliament. The idea is to filter the data into meaningful information which will help in reducing the gap between real needs and actions. Some big consultancies are also working together with politicians for the same purpose. Data analytics tools are used to determine demographic profiles and socioeconomic aims. Read the full article here: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2016-02-02/news/70283182_1_data-analytics-tools-prime-minister-narendra-modi

The credit facilities for business have always created a negative impact on credit score. The requirement of capital has been the prime concern for a successful business. The credit score is recorded as per the credit facilities one takes from the financial institutions. The credit score indicates the status of the person and takes into account the financial condition of the person. The credit score record the history and the individual have a specific allotted number by which the financial institutions check before giving credit. Rate shopping helps in continuous evaluation of interest rates before any credit purchase. The FICO score helps in determining the credit score in the daily basis transactions. The FICO scores determine how one individual is capable of maintaining their proper credit score. One with a high FICO score tends to take less credit on credit cards and maintain a proper debit credit ratio. The credit reports are essentially important to determine the credit score of an individual.

Read more at:  http://www.business2community.com/finance/understanding-many-credit-inquiries-can-hurt-credit-score-01284708

Sustainable development is the development of the society, keeping in mind the needs of the present as well as future generations. It is this development that is the ultimate goal of every nation. For this, UN will launch a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2016. These goals will give rise to various important questions such as:

• How will we achieve these goals?
• Who will finance these goals?
• Which countries will need most resources and of what type etc.

For answer to these questions, the decision makers refer to the data provided by various international institutions like UN, IMF, World Bank, etc. But while doing this, they face a big hurdle i.e. Incompatibility of Data in terms of definitions, methodologies and sources.

Now, with the data revolution going on and big data and analytics taking the centre stage, we now have an opportunity to collect and produce high quality data that will provide the right information on the right things at the right time. The need is – its correct implementation.

To know more, please read the following article by Gail Hurley and Jos Verbeek at brookings.edu:

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/future-development/posts/2015/05/26-financing-for-development-hurley%E2%80%8F

Banking and finance are an indispensable part of our lives.  Though the world today is divided into rich and poor, but the common fact amongst these two groups is that they need funds to invest and grow. To meet this common need of these two different groups, we have two different institutions:

• Investment Banks
• Microfinance Institutions

Matthew Johnston, in his article at Investopedia.com, has compared these two financial institutions in terms of their history, use, recent trends as well as examples.

To know more, please visit the following link:

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/052215/how-microfinance-and-investment-banking-compare.asp

Over the past few years, the impact of globalization, amongst other things, has also been seen on Supply Chain. It’s not restricted to one place or country, rather, Supply Chain function has also spread its wings across countries. This change has affected the entire working of businesses. The change in supply chain has also affected the finance department of the firms. It has to adopt its practices to comply with these changes.

Now, a new era of supply chain is on its rise i.e. Digital Supply Networks. Be it the use of robots or 3-D printing, ‘digital’ is the key word.  Once again, its impact on the finance team is huge. This impact has been discussed by David Axson and Gary Hanifan in their article on IndustryWeek. They state the following 3 major effects:

• Release of working capital
• Improved forecasting
• New control philosophy

But the big question is- Are the CFOs and their finance teams ready for this?

To know more, please visit the following link:

http://www.industryweek.com/finance/finance-ready-demands-digital-supply-chains

Cloud is a buzzword that has been taking circles in the IT world for the past few years. Today, every organization demands more software deployment and significant reduction in the response time. To achieve improvement in efficiency and to utilize the resources better, cloud is the sure shot answer.  Cloud infrastructure is also improving its efficiency, availability and security. People who were looking at cloud with suspicion, are now preparing themselves to adopt the technology in a large scale. Cloud is definitely here to stay. There are 3 types of cloud services in offer, namely public, private and hybrid. In the BFSI sector, as data security is one of the core issues, the tendency towards private cloud preference is obvious.

Johnson K Jose, Deputy General Manager, IT Department, Federal Bank, talks about the benefits of adopting cloud model & preference for private cloud in BFSI sector. To read about his views, visit the following link:

http://ibm.informationweek.in/interviews/item/245-private-cloud-is-the-preferred-flavor-in-the-bfsi-segment.html