Whitewolf

Defender of Freedom! Advocate of Liberty! When am not saving the world, I talk about Cricket, Movies and few other things

[Whitewolf @StupendouzMan]

A full moon day, 4 years ago #LunarEclipse

[Jasveer Singh @jasveer10]

Charging MDR on UPI will be a massive policy mistake.

The argument sounds simple, UPI costs money to run, so charge merchants a small MDR, maybe 0.25%, customers will still pay nothing. But that's not how people behave.

Today if a shopkeeper receives 1,000 through UPI, he gets 1,000. Now put a 0.25% MDR on it, and for someone receiving 1 crore through UPI, that's 25,000 gone.

What will the merchant do? Some will increase prices, some will ask customers to pay the extra charge, and many will simply say - cash de do.

This behaviour already exists in India, just look at Amex. Because of its higher merchant fee, many merchants simply refuse Amex or make you pay the extra 2-3% yourself.

The fee is "on the merchant" on paper, in real life the cost eventually reaches the customer, directly or indirectly.

That's where the real problem starts, India spent years changing people's behaviour from cash to UPI, and MDR can slowly push that behaviour backwards, from UPI to cash.

And cash isn't free either. More cash means more ATM withdrawals, more cash deposits, more cash handling by banks, more transportation and security costs.

But there is an even bigger problem. Cash is much harder to track, with UPI almost every transaction leaves a digital record, with cash, businesses can under-report sales much more easily. So you potentially increase tax leakage and the informal economy too.

This is why saying "MDR will be paid by merchants, not customers" misses the point. The merchant doesn't exist in isolation, he will change his behaviour and eventually pass the cost somewhere else.

Yes, UPI infrastructure costs money, banks, NPCI and fintech companies shouldn't be expected to run it for free forever. But before introducing MDR, the government needs to calculate something much bigger, how much does free UPI indirectly save India.

Less cash handling, fewer ATM transactions, lower banking costs, more digital transactions, better tax visibility, less black money, more formalisation.

The cost of running UPI is visible. The money UPI saves across the economy is invisible.

That's the number we should calculate before touching MDR. Otherwise, we may save 1 on UPI and create 5 of cost somewhere else.

Don't just calculate the cost of keeping UPI free, calculate the cost of making UPI paid.

[Whitewolf @StupendouzMan]

@chennaiweather How long the rains will last in Guindy?

[Dr Mansukh Mandaviya @mansukhmandviya]

A double podium finish to remember! 🥈🥉🇮🇳

Congratulations to Neeraj Chopra for winning Silver and Yash Vir Singh for securing Bronze in the Men's Javelin Throw at the Commonwealth Games.

Two Indians finishing on the podium is a historic first for this event. This is a truly proud milestone for Indian athletics!

#Cheer4Bharat #CWG2026

[Whitewolf @StupendouzMan]

@sandygrains Take care. Wishing you speedy recovery!

[Hedgie @HedgieMarkets]

🦔AI companies are bulk-buying rare books, scanning them through high-speed machines that cut the spines off, and shredding the originals. A service called ISBNdb facilitates orders of up to a million books and keeps buyers anonymous. Pre-2022 books are premium because they're free of AI-generated text. A federal judge ruled the practice is fair use because eliminating the original means only one copy exists at a time. Anthropic hired the former head of Google Books partnerships to obtain "all the books in the world."

My Take
This got to me. A bookseller told 404 Media that rare books with almost no surviving copies are being fed into this pipeline. Books that survived wars, fires, and centuries of handling are being shredded so an AI can learn to write a better marketing email.
ISBNdb's website literally says "'AI company destroys two million books' is not a headline that generates sympathy," and they still built an entire business around making it happen quietly. They offer NDAs as a feature. They coach clients to call it "digital preservation."

I've covered AI companies scraping the internet, torrenting libraries, and stealing music. This is worse because it's irreversible. You can re-upload a website. You can reprint a bestseller. You can't replace the last three copies of an 18th-century botanical text once someone shreds them for training data. And the judge said it's legal. So it's going to accelerate.
"We shred rare books and offer NDAs so nobody finds out" is a legitimate business model in 2026. What a timeline.

Hedgie🤗

[Nature is Phenomenal @AnimalGeoLife]

Have you ever seen a kingfisher slowly walking? How cute!

[Whitewolf @StupendouzMan]

Next game drop Abhishek and send Samson. After that keep a musical chairs in the dugout, whoever wins, send them as openers @GautamGambhir
#IndvsEng

[Fabrizio Romano @FabrizioRomano]

The vikings. 🚣‍♂️🥁

Beautiful to see, fantastic team making history and fantastic fan base. 🔊🇳🇴

@Majorleaguemadd 🎥🔝

[Whitewolf @StupendouzMan]

These football coaches are behaving like Ashish Nehra. Copying everything from IPL.
#fifaknockout

[HARISH PADMALOCHANAN @HARISH_2011]

Incredible viewing experience 🤩
Thank you @SonyLIV 👏👏👏👏

Suggestion:
How about putting an ad on the pitch? Or maybe show cricket on a quarter of the screen and fill the rest with ads.
#INDvsIRE #SonyLiv

[The Khel India @TheKhelIndia]

INDIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM IN SPAIN 🇮🇳🥹

The Indian Racer Kush Maini wins the FIA Formula 2 Sprint Race in the Barcelona, Spain

ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE BY KUSH 🙌

[Aroon Deep @AroonDeep]

Imagine enshittifying a service nobody even uses

[Whitewolf @StupendouzMan]

Funnily except Ishan Kishan none of the Indian players are part of the Indian T20 squad

[Cricinfo @cricinfo]

ESPNcricinfo's IPL 2026 Team of the Tournament 🚨

[Whitewolf @StupendouzMan]

@ESPNcricinfo Funnily except Ishan Kishan none of the Indian players are part of Indian T20 squad

[Whitewolf @StupendouzMan]

Kadaisila whistle than micham

[nnis Sports @nnis_sports]

🚨 Pooja breaks down in tears during the National Anthem!

After a historic day at the U20 Asian Athletics Championships 2026, Pooja was seen with tears in her eyes as the Indian National Anthem played during the medal ceremony.

What a day it was for the 19-Years-old high jumper:
• Won gold at the U20 Asian Athletics Championships
• Broke the U20 National Record
• Broke the Senior National Record with 1.93m
• Cleared the highest height ever by an Indian woman in high jump
• Breached the Commonwealth Games 2026 qualification mark

With this victory, Pooja now owns gold medals at both the Senior Asian Championships and the U20 Asian Athletics Championships.

📹 - Hong Kong, China Association of Athletics Affiliates

#IndianAthletics #Athletics @afiindia #AthleticsIndia #Pooja

[Whitewolf @StupendouzMan]

Jadeja with higher strike rate than Vaibhav was not in my IPL bingo card #GTvRR

[Whitewolf @StupendouzMan]

Batting lineup makes no sense. @ChennaiIPL back to making weird team decisions!
We are 1 bowler short now!

[The Khel India @TheKhelIndia]

THIS IS HISTORICAL STUFF FOLKS! 🇮🇳🥹

Vaishali Rameshbabu just won the FIDE Women's Candidates 2026 & Qualifies as Challenger for Women's World Championships Title!

2nd Indian Women after Humpy Koneru (2011) to Play the Women's World C'ship match!

[Sportskeeda @Sportskeeda]

Back-to-back wins for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2026 🔥💛

#Cricket #CSKvKKR #IPL2026