A Look Back At Some Of The Biggest Economic Events Of 2016 And Early 2017
We wanted to give our readers something informative yet different and thought what better way for that than with a quick recap of the major events from 2016 to early 2017 from across the globe, India and us at KredX. 2016 has been quite a rollercoaster ride for the world and us in India. From terrifying events to groundbreaking changes and new opportunities, it certainly was a mixed bag of emotions. Let’s take a look back at some of the most impactful stories from the last year and early 2017 (in no particular order).
As the country still grapples with the after-effects of the Modi government’s brainchild, calling demonetisation a surprising move would be an understatement. The move to demonetise all ₹500 and ₹1000 banknotes from the Mahatma Gandhi series was announced on 8th November 2016 and it sure did send the nation running helter skelter! It was introduced with an aim to curtail black money used to fund illicit activity and terrorism. Though it may have been introduced with good intentions, it adversely affected the farmers, the rural population and the poor as a consequence. Although it’s immediate effect may have been indicative of not very Achhe Din, it is expected to ease out and have a positive impact in the long run.
Has demonetisation reduced the black money in circulation? Yes and this is a major win for the government!
Does that mean demonetisation would stop future black money generation? No, but GST hopefully will!
It wasn’t like the United States of America was spoilt with choices for their next President and yet they managed to elect the seemingly worst of the lot. *Slow claps for that* It isn’t sad, funny or pathetic. It’s just SCARY. Here is a man who has woken up the red necks of a truly cosmopolitan country much akin to a zombie apocalypse. And what’s better? Soon after being sworn in, Trump just signed the anti-abortion ban in the presence of an all male member team, reworked immigration laws and is going all out on Muslims in America. We wonder what’s in store for America and how it’ll impact the rest of the world. However, being the shrewd businessman that Trump is, we would like to give him the benefit of the doubt that he may indeed be able to Keep America Great.
The liquor baron of our country, the King of Good Times (literally), the man who owes a meager sum of Rs. 9000 crores to banks. Ah, where do we even begin? So here is a man who was living the dream: insane wealth, fame, women, the whole shebang. Vijay ‘Flamboyant’ Mallya. And then his empire goes kaput! While he had banks chase him in 2016 for the money he owes them, he was out living his extravagant life in London. And when he was questioned as to whether he “absconded” he vehemently denied it. Those seven heavy bags he was seen checking in is probably is in no way indicative of him defaulting his loans and fleeing the country. Interestingly, the banks managed to get an order from the SC to ban Mallya from traveling outside India only after he was comfortably overseas. Clearly, somebody had tipped him off. Though SBI has written off Mallya’s debt, this still remains a black mark in India’s financial history. Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, in his 2017 Budget announcement, in fact, proposed a separate law to confiscate assets of economic offenders who flee the country. Well, it’s no secret as to who taught the government this lesson the hard way, a little public secret if you will!
The most revolutionary economic reform of independent India, the Goods and Service Tax, is here! Financial experts and entire industries have been preparing themselves for the potential impact GST would have on the Indian economy. The tax reform is expected to benefit the common man and make a positive impact on most industries barring a few but all are expected to settle down with time. As the experts say, GST is a “short term pain for long term gain” since it is estimated to boost GDP by 1-2 % and bring down inflation by 2 % in the long run. Definitely a move in the right direction!
Fun Fact: KredX has till date discounted over 50,000 invoices and helped 2000 businesses in the process!
Now, for the latest from the world of KredX
While India and the world saw some exciting times from 2016 up till now, the fintech industry too was growing by leaps and bounds. The industry has seen an increase in the number of startups within this space in early 2017. As more policies and regulations are introduced in favour of the fintech space, we can expect to see a boom in this field. KredX too has had a fulfilling 2016 and Q1 in retrospect. Here’s a quick roundup of the latest news from KredX:
- We renamed ourselves from Mandii to KredX in 2016 to reflect our growing community of businesses and investors
- KredX raised Series A funding worth $6.25 million led by Sequoia Capital in 2016 along with our existing investor, Prime Venture Partners.
- From a seed stage startup to a rapidly growing startup, KredX has grown from its team of 3 to 50 employees today!
- We now have a fully automated platform from vendor onboarding, online documentation to downloading account statements, doing away with long, tedious manual methods and thereby eliminating any possible errors!
- KredX is now completely GST enabled
- KredX is currently diversifying our suite of products to include our expanding base of customers
While we constantly work on improving your KredX experience, we also work on making the Investor side robust since both are mutually dependent.
How has 2016 and 2017 Q1 been for you? We would love to hear from our customers in the comments section below!
