India has a lot of public policy mishaps such as this. It seems that the people making these rules oftentimes don't do adequate research regarding what's feasible for such a large developing, and rapidly changing country.<p>A couple of other examples:
There was recently a rule to limit SMS spam by limiting each cell phone to receive a max of 100 texts per day, there still is a rule where you can't entering the country twice within a certain number of days without getting prior permission, IIT students were arbitrarily limited in the number of hours they could spend online because some administrator thought they should get out more, etc.
Notice how they made the post on Feb 14, but show only data for Feb 1. Is it really surprising that the first day with the new system saw fewer transactions? Making claims that this move "permanently hobbles India's mobile commerce" based on evidence like this is surely unwarranted.<p>I really think 3D secure is a good move. All it requires is entering your internet banking password at the time of making the transaction. Is this really so bad for usability?
Reminds me of the law that existed up until recently in south korea mandating that all financial transactions had to be encrypted using ActiveX. Yes. You read that right. It is as mad as it sounds.<p><a href="http://www.kanai.net/weblog/archive/2007/01/26/00h53m55s#003095" rel="nofollow">http://www.kanai.net/weblog/archive/2007/01/26/00h53m55s#003...</a>
India's systems are generally not designed for the "new entrants" and most of the incumbents design the system with walled gardens to protect themselves.<p>For a startup like us who have a web based software like basecamp, there is no way we can charge subscription services. Infact no payment gateway exists for us to take credit card payments from Indian customers.<p>Thanks to PayPal, we can serve international customers much easily. I have a lot of anger against the people who run India's large services as if its an entitlement, without caring for the new entrants.
One reason Government has to come up with restrictions like that is because banks and credit card companies do not protect the consumer in case of card theft unlike here in the US where the customer is liable for only the first $50.<p>All the fraudulent charges are the customers responsibility.
I have stopped using credit cards online for over a year, prefer online banking based payments, because it is one username and 2 passwords(authentication, transaction)<p>I dont like 2 factor authentication, especially with mobile/sms, when I am abroad or travelling, I still can do my transaction
This is nothing. Every time somebody finds an easier way of doing things, the government and the babucracy finds a way of muscling in and making it as bad as all the earlier options. Some of it is not bad, but others are nuts. I should start a list.<p>- Vehicles registered in one state cant be used for too long in another state<p>- Banks have insane policies<p>- Online electronic tax filing requires that you complete the process in paper format as well. To complete the electronic process you have to send it in by normal snail mail as well. And you cant get acknowledgments.<p>- Universities don't recognize each other between states<p>-
I feel this is a good thing!<p>If you are stupid enough to fail to use and understand the new system, they you wont be able to purchase it.<p>And thus they will end up avoiding huge credit card debt's like poor Americans.<p>Also hardly anyone buys from Amazon and only pathetic people buy from apple iTunes.