Biz EOD: Jeff Bezos' India experience; India's exports decline; RBI's new norms for banks

Amazon.com's founder Jeff Bezos announced an incremental investment of $1 billion in India to digitise the country's small and medium businesses. The country's exports contracted for the fifth month in a row by 1.8 per cent in December 2019 to $27.36 billion, according to data released by the commerce ministry. With an eye on the growing number of digital transactions via credit and debit cards, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has floated new features for banks to ensure security and convenience of card users. Read for more top stories from the world of business and economy:

1. Jeff Bezos' India experience: Flying kites and $1 billion investment

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said at the Amazon Smbhav event in Delhi that the company is the best place in the world to fail.

2. India's exports decline for fifth straight month in December 2019 to $27.36 billion

India's trade deficit for the month also declined to $11.25 billion as against the deficit of $14.49 billion in December 2018.

3. Mandatory gold hallmarking set to revive 900 loss-making hallmarking centres

It is estimated that so far only less than 30,000 jewellers have registered with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and a majority of the units in the unorganised sector are yet to register with the quality control organisation.

4. YES Bank dismisses reports on 'poor' financials; says capital adequacy ratio above norms

Lender is facing a financial crunch on the back of rising non-performing assets and the exit of institutional shareholders; divergence in YES Bank's total NPAs stood at Rs 2,299 crore for FY19.

5. RBI allows users to enable, disable credit, debit cards; modify usage limit

Under the new rules, banks will be able to issue credit and debit cards that can be used only at ATMs and with PoS devices. The choice of using the cards for contactless and international transactions will lie with the user.