Each year, over 20 million students enrol for a graduate degree in India. But as the quality of education in these institutions differs, the race to join the country’s top academic institutions is intense. In fact, with an acceptance rate of only 0.7per cent, IIT JEE has earned the reputation of being the toughest entrance exam in the world.And while India’s tertiary education sector remains among the largest in the world, only 1 out of 10 young people, overwhelmingly from affluent families, acquire a higher education. In these circumstances, as the world moves to a new skills economy driven by digitization, it becomes essential for India to reassess its twenty-first century education imperatives. 

NEFT transactions are settled in hourly batches. For weekdays, the batches are from 8 am to 7 pm. On first and third Saturdays, the settlement happens from 8 am to 1 pm.

In a notification, the central bank said it has been decided that the facility on NEFT system shall be made available from December 16, 2019 on 24X7 basis.

The first settlement will take place after 00:30 hours on December 16, 2019 (night of December 15, 2019).

The RBI has asked the member banks to keep adequate liquidity in their current account with the regulator at all times to facilitate successful posting of NEFT batch settlements.

NEFT transactions after usual banking hours are expected to be automated transactions initiated using 'Straight Through Processing (STP)' modes by the banks.

The existing discipline for crediting beneficiary's account or returning the transaction (within 2 hours of settlement of the respective batch) to originating bank will continue, it added.