title: Count Basie

text: Basie also recorded with Tony Bennett in the late 1950s. Their albums together included "In Person" and "Strike Up the Band." Basie also toured with Bennett, including a date at Carnegie Hall. He also recorded with Sammy Davis Jr., Bing Crosby, and Sarah Vaughan. One of Basie's biggest regrets was never recording with Louis Armstrong, though they shared the same bill several times. In 1968, Basie and his Band recorded an album with Jackie Wilson titled "Manufacturers of Soul".


title: Count Basie

text: Count Basie introduced several generations of listeners to the Big Band sound and left an influential catalog. Basie is remembered by many who worked for him as being considerate of musicians and their opinions, modest, relaxed, fun-loving, dryly witty, and always enthusiastic about his music. In his autobiography, he wrote, "I think the band can really "swing" when it swings "easy", when it can just play along like you are cutting butter."


title: Count Basie

text: By 2011, four recordings of Count Basie had been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."


title: Count Basie

text: On May 23, 1985, William "Count" Basie was presented, posthumously, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan. The award was received by Aaron Woodward.


title: Count Basie

text: On September 11, 1996, the U.S. Post Office issued a Count Basie 32 cents postage stamp. Basie is a part of the Big Band Leaders issue, which, is in turn, part of the Legends of American Music series.


title: Count Basie

text: In May 2019, Basie was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Memphis, TN, presented by The Blues Foundation.


title: Count Basie

text: In 2005, Count Basie's song "One O'Clock Jump" (1937) was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. The board selects songs in an annual basis that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."


title: George Osborne

text: George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born Gideon Oliver Osborne; 23 May 1971) is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the Cameron government. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 2001 to 2017. He was editor of the "Evening Standard" from 2017 to 2020.


title: George Osborne

text: The son of the Osborne & Little co-founder and baronet Peter Osborne, Osborne was born in Paddington and educated at Norland Place School, Colet Court and St Paul's School before studying at Magdalen College, Oxford. After working briefly as a freelancer for "The Daily Telegraph", he joined the Conservative Research Department in 1994 and became head of its political section. He went on to be a special adviser to Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Douglas Hogg and work for John Major at 10 Downing Street, including on Major's unsuccessful 1997 general election campaign. In Opposition, he worked as a speechwriter and political secretary to Major's successor as party leader, William Hague.


title: George Osborne

text: Osborne was elected as MP for Tatton in 2001, becoming the youngest Conservative member of the House of Commons. He was appointed Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury by Conservative leader Michael Howard in 2004. The following year he ran David Cameron's successful party leadership campaign, and was subsequently appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. After the 2010 general election, Osborne was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Cameron–Clegg coalition. He succeeded Alistair Darling, inheriting a large deficit in government finances due to the effects of the late-2000s financial crisis. As Chancellor, Osborne's tenure pursued austerity policies aimed at reducing the budget deficit and launched the Northern Powerhouse initiative. After the Conservatives won an overall majority in the 2015 general election, Cameron reappointed him Chancellor in his second government and gave him the additional title of First Secretary of State. He was widely viewed as a potential successor to David Cameron as Leader of the Conservative Party; one Conservative MP, Nadhim Zahawi, suggested that the closeness of his relationship with Cameron meant that the two effectively shared power during the duration of the Cameron governments. Following the 2016 referendum vote to leave the European Union and Cameron's consequent resignation, he was dismissed by Cameron's successor, Theresa May.


title: George Osborne

text: Osborne served on the backbenches for a year before leaving public office at the 2017 general election. He was editor of the "Evening Standard" from 2017 to 2020. He has been chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) since 2016 and of the British Museum since 2021.


title: George Osborne

text: George Osborne was born in Paddington, London, as Gideon Oliver Osborne; he decided when he was 13 to be known by the additional first name of 'George'. In an interview in July 2005, he said: "It was my small act of rebellion. I never liked it [the name 'Gideon']. When I finally told my mother she said, 'Nor do I'. So I decided to be George after my grandfather, who was a war hero. Life was easier as a George; it was a straightforward name." He is the eldest of four boys. His father is Sir Peter Osborne, 17th Baronet, co-founder of the firm of fabric and wallpaper designers Osborne & Little. George Osborne is to inherit the baronetcy; he would thus become Sir George Osborne, 18th Baronet. His mother is Felicity Alexandra Loxton-Peacock, the daughter of Hungarian-born Jewish artist Clarisse Loxton-Peacock ("née" Fehér).


title: George Osborne

text: Osborne was educated at independent schools: Norland Place School, Colet Court and St Paul's School. In 1990 he was awarded a demyship at Magdalen College, Oxford, where in 1993 he received a bachelor's degree in Modern History. Whilst there, he was a member of the Bullingdon Club. He also attended Davidson College in North Carolina for a semester, as a Dean Rusk Scholar.


title: George Osborne

text: In 1993, Osborne intended to pursue a career in journalism. He was shortlisted for, but failed to gain a place on, "The Times" trainee scheme; he also applied to "The Economist", where he was interviewed and rejected by Gideon Rachman. In the end, he had to settle for freelance work on the 'Peterborough' diary column in "The Daily Telegraph". One of his Oxford friends, journalist George Bridges, alerted Osborne some time later to a research vacancy at Conservative Central Office.


title: George Osborne

text: Osborne joined the Conservative Research Department in 1994, and became head of its Political Section. One of his first roles was to go to Blackpool and observe the October 1994 Labour Party Conference.


title: George Osborne

text: Between 1995 and 1997 he worked as a special adviser to Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Douglas Hogg (during the BSE crisis), and in the Political Office at 10 Downing Street. Osborne worked on Prime Minister John Major's campaign team in 1997, in the run-up to the Tories' heavy election defeat that year. After the election, he again considered journalism, approaching "The Times" to be a leader writer, though nothing came of it.


title: George Osborne

text: Between 1997 and 2001 he worked for William Hague, Major's successor as Conservative Party leader, as a speechwriter and political secretary. He helped to prepare Hague for the weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions, often playing the role of Prime Minister Tony Blair. Under the subsequent leaderships of Michael Howard and David Cameron, he remained on the Prime Minister's Questions team.


title: George Osborne

text: Osborne was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton, Cheshire, at the June 2001 election. He succeeded Independent MP Martin Bell, who had defeated the controversial former Conservative minister Neil Hamilton in 1997 but had kept his promise not to stand there at the following election. Osborne won with a majority of 8,611 over the Labour candidate, becoming (at that time) the youngest Conservative MP in the House of Commons. At the 2005 election he was re-elected with an increased majority of 11,731 (securing 51.8% of the vote), and in 2010 increased his majority still further to 14,487.


title: George Osborne

text: He was appointed in September 2004 by then Conservative leader Michael Howard to the Shadow Cabinet, as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.


title: George Osborne

text: Following the 2005 general election, Howard promoted him to Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer at the young age of 33. Howard had initially offered the post to William Hague, who turned it down. Press reports suggest that the second choice for the post was David Cameron, who also rejected the job, preferring to take on a major public service portfolio (he was made Shadow Secretary of State for Education). Thus, Howard seems to have turned to Osborne as his third choice for the role. His promotion prompted speculation he would run for the leadership of the Conservative Party when Howard stepped down, but he ruled himself out within a week. Osborne served as campaign manager for David Cameron's leadership campaign, and kept the Shadow Chancellor's post when Cameron became leader later that year.


title: George Osborne

text: When David Cameron was asked in 2009 whether or not he would be willing to sack a close colleague such as Osborne, he stated, "With George, the answer is yes. He stayed in my shadow cabinet not because he is a friend, not because we are godfathers to each other's children but because he is the right person to do the job. I know and he knows that if that was not the case he would not be there."


title: George Osborne

text: At this time Osborne expressed an interest in the ideas of "tax simplification" (including the idea of flat tax). He set up a "Tax Reform Commission" in October 2005 to investigate ideas for how to create a "flatter, simpler" tax system. The system then proposed would reduce the income tax rate to a flat 22%, and increase the personal allowance from £4,435 to between £10,000 and £15,500. However, the idea of a flat tax was not included in the 2010 Conservative Party manifesto.


title: George Osborne

text: During Osborne's response to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's "Pre-Budget Report" on 5 December 2005, he accused Brown of being "a Chancellor past his sell-by-date, a Chancellor holding Britain back". In an interview the same week, he also referred to Brown as "brutal" and "unpleasant". Osborne was rebuked in October 2006 by Michael Martin, the Speaker of the House of Commons, when he attacked the Chancellor at Oral Questions by citing a comment attributed to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions John Hutton, describing the Chancellor as likely to make an "effing awful" Prime Minister. It was widely suggested that Osborne was leading an assault on Brown that would allow the Conservatives to discredit him without damaging David Cameron's public image. That month, Osborne faced criticism from some quarters for appearing to suggest that Brown was "faintly autistic". After Osborne spoke in an interview about his own ability to recall odd facts, a host suggested to him that he may have been "faintly autistic"; he responded by saying that "We're not getting onto Gordon Brown yet".


title: George Osborne

text: In September 2007, ahead of the publication of the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review, Osborne pledged that the Conservative Party would match Labour's public spending plans for the next three years. He promised increases in public spending of 2% a year, and said Labour charges that the Conservatives would cut public spending were "a pack of lies". He also ruled out any "upfront, unfunded tax cuts".


title: George Osborne

text: Osborne's school and university contemporary, financier Nathaniel Rothschild, said in October 2008 that Osborne had tried to solicit a £50,000 donation from the Russian aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska, which would have been a violation of the law against political donations by foreign citizens. Rothschild had hosted Deripaska, Osborne, Peter Mandelson and others at a party in his villa in Corfu. The alleged solicitation of a donation occurred on Deripaska's yacht during the party.


title: George Osborne

text: The Electoral Commission received a formal complaint initiated in a letter by the Liberal Democrats' Home Affairs spokesperson, Chris Huhne, urging them to investigate the allegations against Osborne. The Commission rejected the claims and said it saw "no information" suggesting an offence. The accusation was referred to by the press as 'Yachtgate'. Osborne denied claims he had attempted to solicit a donation from Deripaska and said that he had "made a mistake" by meeting with him.


title: George Osborne

text: On 14 November 2008, in an intervention described by the BBC's Nick Robinson as "pretty extraordinary", Osborne publicly warned that the more the government borrows, the less attractive sterling becomes to hold. He said: "We are in danger, if the government is not careful, of having a proper sterling collapse, a run on the pound." Labelling Gordon Brown's tactic a "scorched-earth policy" that a future Conservative government would have to clear up, Osborne continued: "His view is he probably won't win the next election. The Tories can clear this mess up after I've gone."


title: George Osborne

text: In 2009 and 2012 Osborne was criticised for his expense claims, in particular for the claims for mortgage interest payments on his Cheshire properties. Osborne had funded the purchase of a country farmhouse and adjoining paddock in Cheshire before he became an MP in 2001 by way of a £455,000 extension of the mortgage on his London home. In 2003 he substituted a new £450,000 mortgage on the Cheshire property, which he then designated as his second home, or "flipped". As a result, he was able to claim up to £100,000 in mortgage interest on the house and paddock between 2003 and 2010, when the regulations changed. In 2012 it was revealed that the paddock had been legally separate from the farmhouse.


title: George Osborne

text: The Liberal Democrats said he had a "moral obligation" to pay an estimated £55,000 in capital gains tax to the public purse which he had saved through the designation or "flipping" of his London property as his main home. He had previously paid back £1,193 spent on chauffeur fares and overpayments on his mortgage after a complaint from a Labour activist, and it also emerged that he had claimed £47 for two copies of a DVD of his own speech on "value for taxpayers' money". The report of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards found that although Osborne had breached the rules, the offence was "unintended and relatively minor". Osborne said he had received "flawed" advice and not benefited personally.


title: George Osborne

text: During the 2010 general election campaign Osborne was considered to have been sidelined, owing to his perceived unpopularity and the perception by both Liberal Democrat and Labour strategists that he was a "weak link".


title: George Osborne

text: Osborne was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer on 11 May 2010, and was sworn in as a Privy Counsellor two days later. On 4 October 2010, in a speech at the Conservative conference in Birmingham, Osborne announced a cap on the overall amount of benefits a family can receive from the state, estimated to be around £500 a week from 2013. He also announced that he would end the universal entitlement to child benefit, and that from 2013 the entitlement would be removed from people paying the 40% and 50% income tax rates.


title: George Osborne

text: In February 2011 Osborne announced Project Merlin, whereby banks aimed to lend about £190bn to businesses in 2011, curb bonuses and reveal some salary details of their top earners; meanwhile, the bank levy would increase by £800m. Osborne's 2011 Autumn Statement was delivered to Parliament on 29 November 2011. It included a programme of supply-side economic reforms such as investments in infrastructure intended to support economic growth.


title: George Osborne

text: In 2012, Osborne cut the 50% income tax rate on top earners and figures from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs showed that the amount of additional-rate tax paid had increased under the new rate from £38 billion in 2012/13 to £46 billion in 2013/14, which Osborne said was caused by the new rate being more "competitive". In October 2012, Osborne proposed a new policy to boost the hiring of staff, under which companies would be able to give new appointees shares worth between £2,000 and £50,000, but the appointees would lose the right to claim unfair dismissal and time off for training.


title: George Osborne

text: In February 2013, the UK lost its AAA credit rating—which Osborne had indicated to be a priority when coming to power—for the first time since 1978. His March 2013 budget was made when the Office for Budget Responsibility had halved its forecast for that year's economic growth from 1.2% to 0.6%.


title: George Osborne

text: Osborne announced on 16 May that he would deliver a second Budget on 8 July, and promised action on tax avoidance by the rich by bringing in a "Google tax" designed to discourage large companies diverting profits out of the UK to avoid tax. The second Budget also increased funding for the National Health Service, more apprenticeships, efforts to increase productivity and cuts to the welfare budget. The July budget postponed the predicted arrival of a UK surplus from 2019 to 2020, and included an extra £18 billion more borrowing for 2016–20 than planned for the same period in March.


title: George Osborne

text: In Osborne's 2016 budget he introduced a sugar tax and raised the tax-free allowance for income tax to £11,500, as well as lifting the 40% income tax threshold to £45,000. According to "The Guardian", Osborne was "the driving force" behind the BBC licence fee agreement which saw the BBC responsible for funding the £700m welfare cost of free TV licences for the over-75s, meaning that it lost almost 20% of its income. "The Guardian" also noted Osborne's four meetings with News Corp representatives and two meetings with Rupert Murdoch before the deal was announced. Following the UK's vote to leave the European Union in June 2016, Osborne pledged to further lower corporation tax to "encourage businesses to continue investing in the UK". Osborne had already cut the corporation tax rate from 28% to 20%, with plans to lower it to 17% by 2020.


title: George Osborne

text: The "Financial Times" describes Osborne as "metropolitan and socially liberal. He is hawkish on foreign policy with links to Washington neo-conservatives and ideologically committed to cutting the state. A pragmatic Eurosceptic". There is evidence of this commitment to cutting the state in his party's manifesto, with Osborne and the Conservatives seeking to cut the deficit "faster and deeper" than any other main party as well as committing to various tax cuts such as inheritance tax and national insurance. According to an IFS report before the 2010 general election, the Conservatives needed to find more money from cuts beyond what they had outlined than any other major party, although the report was also critical of Labour and the Liberal Democrats. He has stated that the British economy must diversify away from London following the 2008 banking crisis, most notably in the form of the Northern Powerhouse policy proposals which aim to improve transport links and boost science and technology investment in the cities of the North in order to increase economic output.


title: George Osborne

text: After previously drawing parallels between Ed Miliband's economic views and those of Karl Marx in "Das Kapital", in a 2017 interview with former Treasury colleague Lord O'Neill, Osborne said Marx's thesis in "Das Kapital" that capitalists would take an increasing share of wealth from the proceeds of economic production at the expense of workers could be argued as an accurate description of something that appeared to be occurring under the process of globalization, arguing that there was a need to "democratise capital" and ensure "that people have more capital in capitalism", such as larger pensions and more opportunities for savings and home and share ownership.


title: George Osborne

text: Whilst David Cameron was prime minister, Osborne was widely viewed as a potential future leader of the Conservatives were Cameron to stand down and trigger a leadership contest, despite being seen as a relatively unpopular figure with the general public. Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi suggested that the closeness of his relationship with Cameron meant the two effectively shared power in the 2010–16 government, whilst commentators pointed to Osborne's hand in Cabinet reshuffles. He worked hard on rebuilding his image after the much-criticised 2012 budget.


title: George Osborne

text: Michael Deacon of "The Daily Telegraph" has described Osborne as "the prince of the parliamentary putdown" after, during one House of Commons debate, he managed to taunt both Ed Balls and Norman Baker in one sentence. Osborne denied rumours that he had referred to his colleague Iain Duncan Smith as "not clever enough", which were published in Matthew d'Ancona's book "In It Together".


title: George Osborne

text: On 28 June 2016, Osborne ruled out standing as a candidate in that year's party leadership election, stating he was "not the person to provide the unity" his party needed.


title: George Osborne

text: Osborne was sacked by Theresa May on 13 July 2016, following her appointment as Prime Minister. He returned to the backbenches and Philip Hammond replaced him as Chancellor. It was announced on 4 August 2016 that Osborne was to be made a Companion of Honour in the Resignation Honours list following David Cameron's resignation. Unlike Cameron, Osborne intended to remain an MP and stand for Parliament again in 2020, although proposed boundary changes could have led to the abolition of his Tatton constituency.


title: George Osborne

text: In September 2016, he launched the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, a body bringing together business leaders and politicians to promote regional devolution.


title: George Osborne

text: By October 2016, he was writing a book called "Age of Unreason"; it is a diatribe against "populist nationalism". Osborne's lucrative speaking engagements for a range of financial institutions since his dismissal as Chancellor helped make him the highest earning MP in 2016. In February 2017 he started a new role as a part-time advisor to BlackRock, the world's largest fund manager, for a salary of £650,000 for a one-day a week. The job was approved by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, which stated that during Osborne's time as Chancellor "there were no specific policy decisions ... that would have affected BlackRock", and the Permanent Secretary at the Treasury had "no concerns" about Osborne taking up the role.


title: George Osborne

text: In 2017, Osborne became the first Kissinger Fellow at the McCain Institute for International Leadership. While the institute is based in John McCain's home state of Arizona, Osborne will remain in the UK.


title: George Osborne

text: Osborne announced he would be standing down as MP for Tatton in April 2017, a day after the 2017 general election was declared. He did not rule out returning to the Commons at some point. "It's still too early to be writing my memoirs", he wrote in a letter to his constituency party, adding he did not "want to spend the rest of my life just being an ex-chancellor. I want new challenges".


title: George Osborne

text: Then still an MP, Osborne was announced on 17 March 2017 as the next editor of the "Evening Standard", a position which he assumed on 2 May. Critics of his appointment questioned his lack of journalistic experience and his intention to remain MP for Tatton during his tenure with the newspaper, which other MPs said would constitute a conflict of interest and devalued the role of an MP. He was also accused of breaking the post-ministerial employment rules of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments by accepting the editorship without the committee's approval.


title: George Osborne

text: "Private Eye" subsequently documented in detail the relationship between Osborne and "Standard" owner Evgeny Lebedev, who appointed Osborne as editor. During Osborne's time as Chancellor of the Exchequer he regularly pledged Treasury money to "Standard" charitable campaigns, such as his offer in 2015 to match readers' donations by up to £1.5 million to the "Standard"s Great Ormond Street Hospital appeal. In September 2015, the newspaper ranked Osborne in joint-first place on its annual 'Progress 1000' list of the most influential people in London. It was also highlighted that, as Chancellor, Osborne failed to tackle the advantageous tax status for so-called non-doms, which Lebedev was understood to benefit from, while Lebedev's paper strongly supported the Conservative Party in the 2015 general election and the Conservatives' candidate Zac Goldsmith in the 2016 London mayoral election.


title: George Osborne

text: After stepping down from politics, Osborne took on several engagements in addition to his work as editor. Among them was being named a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a dean's fellow at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in September 2017. He specialised in research on international politics and the global economy. He continued to advise the asset manager BlackRock and also began advising his brother's firm 9Yards Capital. He joined 9Yards, a growth stage venture capital firm focused on financial technology and IT logistics investments, in 2018 as a partner and chairman.


title: George Osborne

text: In mid-2018, the "Standard" reported a loss of £10 million for the last year to the end of September. That year the paper dropped 'London' from its title to reflect greater national and international ambitions as part of a relaunch. For 2018, the "Standard" reported a £11.5 million loss amid speculation of "ad struggles".


title: George Osborne

text: In February 2020, questions were raised about Osborne's future at the "Standard". On 12 June it was announced that he would step down as editor to move to the role of editor-in-chief. He was succeeded as editor by the former deputy editor of British "Vogue" and sister-in-law of David Cameron, Emily Sheffield, on 1 July 2020.


title: George Osborne

text: In a profile of Osborne published by "Esquire" magazine in September 2017, it was said that he had commented to several staff at the "Evening Standard" that he would not be satisfied until Theresa May was "chopped up in bags in my freezer". While Osborne had used macabre imagery about May in the past, he did not directly comment on the incident, although he was criticised for the alleged remark. An editorial in the "Standard", published nearly a week later, was interpreted as Osborne's apology to May. It said "harsh words" had been said in connection with the Prime Minister's Brexit policy, but "intemperate language, even when said in jest" was inappropriate.


title: George Osborne

text: In 2018 Osborne was discussed as a potential candidate for Mayor of London in the election scheduled to be held in 2020. He said that as well as considering a bid, he would not rule out a return to Parliament. However, in an interview he said he would not stand for mayor as it would clash with his role as editor of the "Evening Standard".


title: George Osborne

text: In July 2019, the "Financial Times" reported that Osborne was seeking backing to replace Christine Lagarde as managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Osborne needed to be nominated by directors on the IMF's executive board, who were elected by member countries, to enter the contest. Both European and British government sources said that Osborne, who backed Boris Johnson in the Conservative Party leadership election, would likely be the British nomination, due in part to Johnson's accession to Prime Minister. Lagarde's replacement was to be selected by the executive board, where the United States, Japan and China held the largest shares of the total vote. Several UK government figures, including Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid, endorsed Osborne for the role. Boris Johnson spoke to US President Donald Trump in a phone call to rally support for Osborne. On 6 September 2019, Osborne abandoned his IMF leadership attempt, and sources later confirmed that the chief executive of the World Bank, Kristalina Georgieva, had been put forward as the European Union's nominee.


title: George Osborne

text: In August 2020, Osborne's name was suggested as a possible candidate for chairman of the BBC as, according to the "i" newspaper, he had maintained "good relations" with Boris Johnson. In October "The Telegraph" reported that ministers had raised the salary cap to £160,000 a year for the role, and that they might have raised it further to £280,000 in order to tempt Osborne. Richard Sharp was later appointed.


title: George Osborne

text: Osborne left his roles at the "Evening Standard" and BlackRock in March 2021, and in April became an investment banker at Robey Warshaw.


title: George Osborne

text: In June 2021 it was announced that the trustees of the British Museum had unanimously elected Osborne as the museum's chairman. He joined the museum's board of trustees on 1 September 2021 and formally became chairman on 4 October.


title: George Osborne

text: Osborne is heir apparent to his family's Irish baronetcy, of Ballentaylor and Ballylemon in County Waterford. In 2009, he had an estimated personal fortune of around £4 million, as the beneficiary of a trust fund that owns a 15% stake in Osborne & Little, the wallpaper-and-fabrics company co-founded by his father, Sir Peter Osborne.


title: George Osborne

text: Osborne married Frances Howell, author and elder daughter of Lord Howell of Guildford, a Conservative politician, on 4 April 1998. The couple have two children, both born in Westminster:


title: George Osborne

text: In May 2018, "The Daily Telegraph" reported that Osborne and his siblings had discovered "with delight" that their maternal grandmother Clarisse Loxton-Peacock (a glamorous Hungarian émigrée) was Jewish, and therefore that in Jewish law they are Jewish too.


title: George Osborne

text: In April 2021, Osborne announced his engagement to his former adviser Thea Rogers. They have one son:


title: Kukulkan

text: K’uk’ulkan, also spelled Kukulkan, ( ""Plumed Serpent"", ""Amazing Serpent"") is the name of a Mesoamerican serpent deity that was worshipped by the Yucatec Maya people of the Yucatán Peninsula before the Spanish conquest of Yucatán. The depiction of the Feathered Serpent is present in other cultures of Mesoamerica. Kukulkan is closely related to the deity Qʼuqʼumatz of the Kʼicheʼ people and to Quetzalcoatl of Aztec mythology. Little is known of the mythology of this Pre-Columbian era deity.


title: Kukulkan

text: Although heavily Mexicanised, Kukulkan has his origins among the Maya of the Classic Period, when he was known as "Waxaklahun Ubah Kan" (), the War Serpent, and he has been identified as the Postclassic version of the Vision Serpent of Classic Maya art.


title: Kukulkan

text: The cult of Kukulkan/Quetzalcoatl was the first Mesoamerican religion to transcend the old Classic Period linguistic and ethnic divisions. This cult facilitated communication and peaceful trade among peoples of many different social and ethnic backgrounds. Although the cult was originally centred on the ancient city of Chichen Itza in the modern Mexican state of Yucatán, it spread as far as the Guatemalan Highlands and northern Belize.


title: Kukulkan

text: In Yucatán, references to the deity Kukulkan are confused by references to a named individual who bore the name of the god. Because of this, the distinction between the two has become blurred. This individual appears to have been a ruler or priest at Chichen Itza who first appeared around the 10th century.


title: Kukulkan

text: Although Kukulkan was mentioned as a historical person by Maya writers of the 16th century, the earlier 9th-century texts at Chichen Itza never identified him as human and artistic representations depicted him as a Vision Serpent entwined around the figures of nobles. At Chichen Itza, Kukulkan is also depicted presiding over sacrifice scenes.


title: Kukulkan

text: Sizeable temples to Kukulkan are found at archaeological sites throughout the north of the Yucatán Peninsula, such as Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Mayapan.


title: Kukulkan

text: In the Yucatec Maya language, the name is spelt "Kʼukʼulkan" () and in Tzotzil it is "Kʼukʼul-chon" (). The Yucatec form of the name is formed from the word "kuk" "feather" with the adjectival suffix "-ul", giving "kukul" "feathered", combined with "kan" "snake" (Tzotzil "chon"), giving a literal meaning of "feathered snake".


title: Kukulkan

text: Kukulkan was a deity closely associated with the Itza state in the northern Yucatán Peninsula, where the religion formed the core of the Territorial religion. Although the worship of Kukulkan had its origins in earlier Maya traditions, the Itza worship of Kukulkan was heavily influenced by the Quetzalcoatl religion of central Mexico. This influence probably arrived via Putún Maya merchants from the Gulf Coast of Mexico. These Chontal merchants probably actively promoted the feathered serpent worshipers throughout Mesoamerica. Kukulkan headed a pantheon of deities of mixed Maya and non-Maya provenance, used to promote the Itza political and commercial agenda. It also eased the passage of Itza merchants into central Mexico and other non-Maya areas, promoting the Itza economy.


title: Kukulkan

text: At Chichen Itza, Kukulkan ceased to be the Vision Serpent that served as a messenger between the king and the gods and came instead to symbolise the divinity of the territory.


title: Kukulkan

text: El Castillo, Chichen Itza served as a temple to Kukulkan. During the spring and fall equinoxes the shadow cast by the angle of the sun and edges of the nine steps of the pyramid combined with the northern stairway and the stone serpent head carvings create the illusion of a massive serpent descending the pyramid.


title: Kukulkan

text: After the fall of Chichen Itza, the nearby Postclassic city of Mayapan became the centre of the revived Kukulkan worshipers, with temples decorated with feathered serpent columns. At the time of the Spanish colonization, the high priest of Kukulkan was the family patriarch of the Xiu faction and was one of the two most powerful men in the city.


title: Kukulkan

text: The religion of Kukulkan spread as far as the Guatemalan Highlands and northern Belize, where Postclassic feathered serpent sculptures are found with open mouths from which protrude the heads of human warriors.


title: Kukulkan

text: Stories are still told about Kukulkan among the modern Yucatec Maya. In one tale, Kukulkan is a boy who was born as a snake. As he grew older it became obvious that he was the plumed serpent and his sister cared for him in a cave. He grew to such a size that his sister was unable to continue feeding him, so he flew out of his cave and into the sea, causing an earthquake. To let his sister know that he is still alive, Kukulkan causes earth tremors every year in July.


title: Kukulkan

text: A modern collection of folklore from Yucatán tells how Kukulkan was a winged serpent that flew to the sun and tried to speak to it but the sun, in its pride, burnt his tongue. The same source relates how Kukulkan always travels ahead of the Yucatec Maya rain god Chaac, helping to predict the rains as his tail moves the winds and sweeps the earth clean.


title: Kukulkan

text: Among the Lacandon Maya of Chiapas, Kukulkan is an evil, monstrous snake that is the pet of the sun god. She destroys much of the world until she tries to herself during the long trip—the trip between the life and death. During the trip, she meets a boy who shares food with her and follows her back to the human world. She returns with him and constructs her own country.


title: Kukulkan

text: Followers of the "Cult of Kukulkan" are portrayed as antagonists to Lara Croft in the video game "Shadow of the Tomb Raider".


title: Kukulkan

text: In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film "" (2022), Nico Cortez portrays K'uk'ulkan as one of the many gods hiding from Gorr the God Butcher in Omnipotence City. In the MCU film "" (2022), Tenoch Huerta Mejía portrays Namor, who is called K'uk'ulkan by the people of his underwater kingdom of Talokan, who worship him for his mutant abilities.


title: Kukulkan

text: In the anime series "Beyblade Burst", the character Kurt Baratier owns a Bey called "Beat Kukulkan", whose avatar is modelled after the winged serpent itself.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: Like many other Western nations at the time, Germany suffered the economic effects of the Great Depression with unemployment soaring around the Wall Street Crash of 1929. When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, he introduced policies aimed at improving the economy. The changes included privatization of state industries, tariffs on imports, and an attempt to achieve autarky (national economic self-sufficiency). Weekly earnings increased by 19% in real terms from 1933 to 1939, but this was largely due to employees working longer hours, while the hourly wage rates remained close to the lowest levels reached during the Great Depression. In addition, reduced foreign trade meant rationing of consumer goods like poultry, fruit, and clothing for many Germans.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: The Nazis believed in war as the primary engine of human progress, and argued that the purpose of a country's economy should be to enable that country to fight and win wars of expansion. As such, almost immediately after coming to power, they embarked on a vast program of military rearmament, which quickly dwarfed civilian investment. During the 1930s, Nazi Germany increased its military spending faster than any other state in peacetime, and the military eventually came to represent the majority of the German economy in the 1940s. This was funded mainly through deficit financing before the war, and the Nazis expected to cover their debt by plundering the wealth of conquered nations during and after the war. Such plunder did occur, but its results fell far short of Nazi expectations. Overall, according to historian Richard Overy, the Nazi war economy was a mixed economy that combined free markets with central planning; Overy describes it as being somewhere in between the command economy of the Soviet Union and the capitalist system of the United States.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: The Nazi government developed a partnership with leading German business interests, who supported the goals of the regime and its war effort in exchange for advantageous contracts, subsidies, and the suppression of the trade union movement. Cartels and monopolies were encouraged at the expense of small businesses, even though the Nazis had received considerable electoral support from small business owners.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: Nazi Germany maintained a supply of slave labor, composed of prisoners and concentration camp inmates, which was greatly expanded after the beginning of World War II. In Poland alone, some five million people (including Polish Jews) were used as slave labor throughout the war. Among the slave laborers in the occupied territories, hundreds of thousands were used by leading German corporations including Thyssen, Krupp, IG Farben, Bosch, Blaupunkt, Daimler-Benz, Demag, Henschel, Junkers, Messerschmitt, Siemens, and Volkswagen, as well as the Dutch corporation Philips. By 1944, slave labor made up one-quarter of Germany's entire civilian work force, and the majority of German factories had a contingent of prisoners.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: The Nazis came to power in the midst of the Great Depression. The unemployment rate at that point in time was close to 30%. At first, the new Nazi government continued the economic policies introduced by the government of Kurt von Schleicher in 1932 to combat the effects of the Depression. Hitler appointed Hjalmar Schacht, a former member of the German Democratic Party, as President of the Reichsbank in 1933 and Minister of Economics in 1934. The policies he inherited included a large public works programs supported by deficit spending—such as the construction of the Autobahn network—to stimulate the economy and reduce unemployment. These were programs that were planned to be undertaken by the Weimar Republic during conservative Paul von Hindenburg's presidency, and which the Nazis appropriated as their own after coming to power. Hjalmar Schacht created a scheme for deficit financing, in which capital projects were paid for with the issuance of promissory notes called Mefo bills, which could be traded by companies with each other. Schacht was one of the few finance ministers at the time to take advantage of the end of the gold standard to increase deficit spending. This was particularly useful in allowing Germany to rearm because the Mefo bills were not Reichsmarks and did not appear in the federal budget, so they helped conceal rearmament. When the notes were presented for payment, the Reichsbank printed money. This proved inadequate in 1938, when a large share of Mefo's five-year promissory notes fell due, so the government employed "highly dubious methods" where "banks were forced to buy government bonds, and the government took money from savings accounts and insurance companies" in order to pay the holders of Mefo bills, due mainly to a serious government cash shortage. Meanwhile, Schacht's administration achieved a rapid decline in the unemployment rate, the largest of any country during the Great Depression. By 1938, unemployment was practically extinct. Price controls kept inflation in check but also squeezed out small farmers.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: The main economic priority of the Nazi government, which set it apart from previous German governments, was to rearm and rebuild Germany's military in preparation for an eventual war to conquer "Lebensraum" ("living space") in the East. Thus, at the beginning of his rule, Hitler said that "the future of Germany depends exclusively and only on the reconstruction of the Wehrmacht. All other tasks must cede precedence to the task of rearmament" and "in case of conflict between the demands of the Wehrmacht and demands for other purposes, the interests of the Wehrmacht must in every case have priority." This policy was implemented immediately, with military expenditures quickly growing far larger than the civilian work-creation programs. As early as June 1933, military spending for the year was budgeted to be three times larger than the spending on all civilian work-creation measures in 1932 and 1933 combined. Nazi Germany increased its military spending faster than any other state in peacetime, with the share of military spending rising from 1 percent to 10 percent of national income in the first two years of the regime alone. Eventually, it reached as high as 75 percent by 1944.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: The first financial package for rearmament was adopted by the Nazi government in June 1933, and it was extremely ambitious. Schacht approved a figure of to be spent on military buildup over eight years. By comparison, the entire national income of Germany in 1933 was , so the government was not merely proposing to increase military spending, but to make military production the primary focus of the national economy. Earlier in April, the cabinet had already agreed to release the military from the normal processes of budgetary oversight. Germany's international treaty obligations would not allow such extensive rearmament, so Hitler withdrew from the Geneva disarmament talks and from the League of Nations in October 1933. The German government feared that this might provoke immediate war with France at the time, but it did not. Still, the fear that war might come before Germany was prepared for it served to create a sense of urgency and reinforced the rearmament program. The army and the navy prepared to quickly expand their capacity and manpower. Plans were made to secretly build an air force (forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles), and the army prepared to introduce conscription within two years and grow to 300,000 soldiers by 1937 (also in violation of the Treaty of Versailles). At first, the navy did not benefit much from these rearmament plans, because Hitler wished to fight a land war in Europe and even hoped to make an alliance with the British Empire whereby the British would retain control of the seas. However, at the insistence of Admiral Erich Raeder, an expansion of the navy was also approved in 1934. This included the projected construction of 8 battleships (Versailles allowed a maximum of 6), 3 aircraft carriers, 8 cruisers (Versailles permitted 6), 48 destroyers (Versailles permitted 12), and 72 submarines (completely banned by the treaty). The unprecedented size of the military budget was impossible to hide from foreign observers. When Hitler was asked for an explanation, he claimed that Germany was "engaged only in essential maintenance and renewal expenditure."


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: The enormous military buildup was financed to a large extent through deficit spending, including Mefo bills. Between 1933 and 1939 the total revenue of the German government amounted to , whereas government expenditure (up to 60% of which consisted of rearmament costs) exceeded , thus causing a huge deficit and rising national debt (reaching in 1939). Joseph Goebbels, who otherwise mocked the government's financial experts as narrow-minded misers, expressed concern in his diary about the exploding deficit. Hitler and his economic team expected that the upcoming territorial expansion would provide the means of repaying the soaring national debt, by using the wealth and manpower of conquered nations.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: An elaborate bureaucracy was created to regulate imports of raw materials and finished goods with the intention of eliminating foreign competition in the German marketplace and improving the nation's balance of payments. The Nazis encouraged the development of synthetic replacements for materials such as oil and textiles. As the market was experiencing a glut and prices for petroleum were low, the Nazi government made a profit-sharing agreement with IG Farben in 1933, guaranteeing them a 5 percent return on capital invested in their synthetic oil plant at Leuna. Any profits in excess of that amount would be turned over to the Reich. By 1936, Farben regretted making the deal, as the excess profits by then being generated had to be given to the government.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: In June 1933, the "Reinhardt Program" for infrastructure development was introduced. It combined indirect incentives, such as tax reductions, with direct public investment in waterways, railroads and highways. It was followed by similar initiatives resulting in great expansion of the German construction industry. Between 1933 and 1936, employment in construction rose from only 666,000 to over 2,000,000. Cars and other forms of motorized transport became increasingly attractive to the population, and the German motor industry boomed. However, Germany's attempt to achieve autarky meant imposing restrictions on foreign currency, which caused a shortage of rubber and fuel for civilian use by 1939 and resulted in "drastic restrictions on the use of motor vehicles".


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: The Great Depression had spurred increased state ownership in most Western capitalist countries. This also took place in Germany during the last years of the Weimar Republic. However, after the Nazis took power, industries were privatized "en masse". Several banks, shipyards, railway lines, shipping lines, welfare organizations, and more were privatized. The Nazi government took the stance that enterprises should be in private hands wherever possible. State ownership was to be avoided unless it was absolutely necessary for rearmament or the war effort, and even in those cases "the Reich often insisted on the inclusion in the contract of an option clause according to which the private firm operating the plant was entitled to purchase it." However, the privatization was "applied within a framework of increasing control of the state over the whole economy through regulation and political interference," as laid out in the 1933 Act for the Formation of Compulsory Cartels, which gave the government a role in regulating and controlling the cartels that had been earlier formed in the Weimar Republic under the Cartel Act of 1923. These had mostly regulated themselves from 1923 to 1933.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: Companies privatized by the Nazis included the four major commercial banks in Germany, which had all come under public ownership during the prior years: "Commerz– und Privatbank", "Deutsche Bank und Disconto-Gesellschaft", "Golddiskontbank" and "Dresdner Bank". Also privatized were the "Deutsche Reichsbahn "(German Railways), at the time the largest single public enterprise in the world, the "Vereinigte Stahlwerke A.G." (United Steelworks), the second largest joint-stock company in Germany (the largest was IG Farben) and "Vereinigte Oberschlesische Hüttenwerke AG", a company controlling all of the metal production in the Upper Silesian coal and steel industry. The government also sold a number of shipbuilding companies, and enhanced private utilities at the expense of municipally owned utilities companies. Additionally, the Nazis privatized some public services which had been previously provided by the government, especially social and labor-related services, and these were mainly taken over by organizations affiliated with the Nazi Party that could be trusted to apply Nazi racial policies.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: One of the reasons for the Nazi privatization policy was to cement the partnership between the government and business interests. Hitler believed that the lack of a precise economic programme was one of the Nazi Party's strengths, saying: "The basic feature of our economic theory is that we have no theory at all". Another reason was financial. As the Nazi government faced budget deficits due to its military spending, privatization was one of the methods it used to raise more funds. Between the fiscal years 1934–35 and 1937–38, privatization represented 1.4 percent of the German government's revenues. There was also an ideological motivation. Nazi ideology held entrepreneurship in high regard, and "private property was considered a precondition to developing the creativity of members of the German race in the best interest of the people." The Nazi leadership believed that "private property itself provided important incentives to achieve greater cost consciousness, efficiency gains, and technical progress." Adolf Hitler used Social Darwinist arguments to support this stance, cautioning against "bureaucratic managing of the economy" that would preserve the weak and "represent a burden to the higher ability, industry and value."


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: The month after being appointed Chancellor, Hitler made a personal appeal to German business leaders to help fund the Nazi Party for the crucial months that were to follow. He argued that the experience of Weimar Republic had shown that "'private enterprise cannot be maintained in the age of democracy.' Business was founded above all on the principles of personality and individual leadership. Democracy and liberalism led inevitably to Social Democracy and Communism." In the following weeks, the Nazi Party received contributions from seventeen different business groups, with the largest coming from IG Farben and Deutsche Bank. Many of these businesses continued to support Hitler even during the war and even profited from persecution of the Jews. The most infamous being firms like Krupp, IG Farben, and some large automobile manufacturers. Historian Adam Tooze writes that the leaders of German business were therefore "willing partners in the destruction of political pluralism in Germany." In exchange, owners and managers of German businesses were granted unprecedented powers to control their workforce, collective bargaining was abolished and wages were frozen at a relatively low level. Business profits also rose very rapidly, as did corporate investment.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: The Nazis granted millions of marks in credits to private businesses. Many businessmen had friendly relations to the Nazis, most notably with Heinrich Himmler and his Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft. Hitler's administration decreed an October 1937 policy that "dissolved all corporations with a capital under $40,000 and forbade the establishment of new ones with a capital less than $200,000," which swiftly effected the collapse of one-fifth of all small corporations. On July 15, 1933 a law was enacted that imposed compulsory membership in cartels, while by 1934 the Third Reich had mandated a reorganization of all companies and trade associations and formed an alliance with the Nazi regime. Nonetheless, the Nazi regime was able to close most of Germany's stock exchanges, reducing them "from twenty-one to nine in 1935," and "limited the distribution of dividends to 6 percent." By 1936 Germany decreed laws to completely block foreign stock trades by citizens. These moves showed signs of Antisemitism and a move toward a war economy, with the belief that the stock market was being operated by Jews.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: The rhetoric of the Nazi regime stated that German private companies would be protected and privileged as long as they supported the economic goals of the government—mainly by participating in government contracts for military production—but that they could face severe penalties if they went against the national interest. However, such threats were rarely carried out in practice, and historians Christoph Buccheim and Jonas Scherner state that "companies normally could refuse to engage in an investment project designed by the state without any consequences." Private firms refused government contracts and directions on many occasions. In 1937, "de Wendel", a coal mining enterprise, refused to build a hydrogenation plant. In 1939, "IG Farben" denied a government request to increase its production of rayon and refused to invest in a synthetic rubber factory despite this being an important project for the regime. "Froriep GmbH", a company producing machines for the armaments industry, successfully demanded cheap credit from the Nazi government under a threat of cutting back investment if its demand was not met. The regime generally used monetary incentives, such as guaranteed profits, to persuade businesses to support its goals, and freedom of contract was generally respected even in projects important for the war. According to Buccheim and Scherner, the reason why businesses sometimes refused these incentives was out of long-term profitability considerations. The government usually tried to persuade them to join military projects, but firms were worried about overcapacity in case the armaments boom would end. They did not want to commit themselves too much to war-related production for the future.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: Other historians dispute the Buccheim and Scherner thesis that the general absence of state coercion means there was no real threat of it. They believe that many industrialists feared direct state intervention in private industries if the Nazi government's goals were not fulfilled, and that their choices were affected by this concern. Peter Hayes argues that although the Nazi regime "wished to harness business's energy and expertise" and "generally displayed flexibility in order to obtain them, usually by offering financing options that reduced the risk of producing what the regime desired", the government was nevertheless also willing to resort to direct state intervention as a "Plan B" in some cases, and these cases "left an impression on the corporate world, all the more so as government spokesmen repeatedly referred to them as replicable precedents." Thus, the Nazi state did not resort to "blunt-instrument forms of coercion" because it did not need to, not because it was unwilling to do so. After 1938, "examples had been made, fear inspired, and the lessons internalized, on both sides of the business-state divide." Hayes describes Nazi economic policies as a "'carrot-and-stick' or 'Skinner Box' economy" in which corporate decisions "were increasingly channeled in directions the regime desired" through a combination of "government funding and state-guaranteed profit margins" on the one hand, and a series of regulations, penalties, "the possibility of government compulsion, and the danger that refusal to cooperate could open opportunities to competitors," on the other hand. As such, he argues that "the Third Reich both bridled and spurred the profit motive." Hayes concludes that "Nazi economic policies structured opportunities and thus corporate executives' choices. Did businessmen retain free will? Of course, they did. Was their autonomy intact? I think not."


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: The Nazis were hostile to the idea of social welfare in principle, upholding instead the Social Darwinist concept that the weak and feeble should perish. They condemned the welfare system of the Weimar Republic as well as private charity, accusing them of supporting people regarded as racially inferior and weak, who should have been weeded out in the process of natural selection. Nevertheless, faced with the mass unemployment and poverty of the Great Depression, the Nazis found it necessary to set up charitable institutions to help those they deemed to be racially-pure Germans in order to maintain popular support, while arguing that this represented "racial self-help" and not indiscriminate charity or universal social welfare. Thus, Nazi programs such as the Winter Relief of the German People and the broader National Socialist People's Welfare (NSV) were organized as quasi-private institutions, officially relying on private donations from Germans to help others of their race—although in practice those who refused to donate could face severe consequences. Unlike the social welfare institutions of the Weimar Republic and the Christian charities, the NSV distributed assistance on explicitly racial grounds. It provided support only to those who were "racially sound, capable of and willing to work, politically reliable, and willing and able to reproduce." Non-Aryans were excluded, as well as the "work-shy", "asocials" and the "hereditarily ill." Successful efforts were made to get middle-class women involved in social work assisting large families, and the Winter Relief campaigns acted as a ritual to generate public sympathy. Meanwhile, in addition to being excluded from receiving aid under these programs, the physically disabled and homeless were actively persecuted, being labeled "life unworthy of life" or "useless eaters."


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: The Nazis banned all trade unions that existed before their rise to power, and replaced them with the German Labour Front (DAF), controlled by the Nazi Party. They also outlawed strikes and lockouts. The stated goal of the German Labour Front was not to protect workers, but to increase output, and it brought in employers as well as workers. Journalist and historian William L. Shirer wrote that it was "a vast propaganda organization ... a gigantic fraud." Meanwhile, the Chamber of Economics (whose president was appointed by the Reich minister of economics) absorbed all existing chambers of commerce. By 1934 these two groups merged somewhat when the Chamber of Economics also became the economics department of the DAF. To aid this, a board of trustees run by representatives of the Nazi Party, the DAF and the Chamber of Economics was set up to centralize their economic activity.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: When it came to retail and small business, in order to coordinate workers and small businessmen, shop councils and the so-called Courts of Honour were set up to monitor retail units. Unlike Italian Fascism, Nazism perceived workers and employers in each enterprise as families; each with different roles. This was shown in their tax structure. The Nazis allowed industries to deduct from their taxable income all sums used to purchase new equipment. Rich families employing a maid were allowed to count the maid as a dependent child and reap the tax benefit.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: Real wages in Germany dropped by roughly 25% between 1933 and 1938. Along with the abolition of the right to strike, workers were also in large part rendered unable to quit their jobs. Labor books were introduced in 1935, and the consent of the previous employer was required in order to be hired for another job.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: In the 1930s, world prices for raw materials (which constituted the bulk of German imports) were on the rise. At the same time, world prices for manufactured goods (Germany's chief exports) were falling. The result was that Germany found it increasingly difficult to maintain a balance of payments. A large trade deficit seemed almost inevitable. But Hitler found this prospect unacceptable. Germany began to move away from partially free trade in the direction of economic self-sufficiency. Hitler was aware of the fact that Germany lacked reserves of raw materials, and full autarky was therefore impossible. Thus he chose a different approach. The Nazi government tried to limit the number of its trade partners, and, when possible, only trade with countries within the German sphere of influence. A number of bilateral trade agreements were signed between Germany and other European Countries (mostly countries located in Southern and South-Eastern Europe) during the 1930s. The German government strongly encouraged trade with these countries but strongly discouraged trade with any others.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: By the late 1930s, the aims of German trade policy were to use economic and political power to make the countries of Southern Europe and the Balkans dependent on Germany. The German economy would draw its raw materials from that region, and the countries in question would receive German manufactured goods in exchange. Germany would also leverage productive trade relationships with Spain, Switzerland and Sweden in areas ranging from iron ore imports and clearing and payment services. Throughout the 1930s, German businesses were also encouraged to form cartels, monopolies and oligopolies, whose interests were then protected by the state.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: In 1936, after years of limitations imposed by the Versailles Treaty, military spending in Germany rose to 10% of GNP, higher than any other European country at the time, and, from 1936 onward, even higher than civilian investments. Hitler faced a choice between conflicting recommendations. On one side a "free market" technocratic faction within the government, centered around "Reichsbank" President Hjalmar Schacht, Minister of Economics Walther Funk and Price Commissioner Dr. Carl Friedrich Goerdeler calling for decreased military spending, free trade, and a moderation in state intervention in the economy. This faction was supported by some of Germany's leading business executives, most notably Hermann Duecher of AEG, Robert Bosch of Robert Bosch GmbH, and Albert Voegeler of Vereinigte Stahlwerke. On the other side the more politicized faction favored autarkic policies and sustained military spending. Hitler hesitated before siding with the latter, which was much in line with his fundamental ideological tenets: social darwinism and "Lebensraum"'s aggressive policies. So in August 1936, Hitler issued his "Memorandum" requesting from Hermann Göring a series of Year's Plans (the term "Four-Year Plan" was coined only later, in September) in order to mobilize the entire economy, within the next four years, and make it ready for war: maximizing autarchic policies, even at a cost for the German people, and having the armed forces fully operational and ready at the end of the four years period.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: The year 1936 also represented a turning point for German trade policy. In September, Hjalmar Schacht was replaced by Hermann Göring, who was given the task to make Germany self-sufficient and able to wage war within four years. Measures enacted under Göring included slashing imports, instituting wage and price controls (with violations punishable by internment in a concentration camp), and restricting dividends to six percent on book capital. New strategic goals were introduced for the purpose of making Germany ready for war, including the construction of synthetic rubber plants, more steel plants, and automatic textile factories.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: Richard Overy has argued for the importance of the August 1936 Memorandum by stressing that it was written personally by Hitler, who hardly ever wrote anything down. The "Four-Year Plan Memorandum" predicated an imminent all-out, apocalyptic struggle between "Judeo-Bolshevism" and German National Socialism, which necessitated a total effort at rearmament regardless of the economic costs.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: In the memo, Hitler wrote: Hitler called for Germany to have the world's "first army" in terms of fighting power within the next four years and that "the extent of the military development of our resources "cannot be too large, nor its pace too swift"" [italics in the original] and the role of the economy was simply to support "Germany's self-assertion and the extension of her "Lebensraum"". Hitler went on to write that given the magnitude of the coming struggle that the concerns expressed by members of the "free market" faction like Schacht and Goerdeler that the current level of military spending was bankrupting Germany were irrelevant. Hitler wrote that: "However well balanced the general pattern of a nation's life ought to be, there must at particular times be certain disturbances of the balance at the expense of other less vital tasks. If we do not succeed in bringing the German army as rapidly as possible to the rank of premier army in the world ... then Germany will be lost!" and "The nation does not live for the economy, for economic leaders, or for economic or financial theories; on the contrary, it is finance and the economy, economic leaders and theories, which all owe unqualified service in this struggle for the self-assertion of our nation".


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: Germany had already been rapidly rearming and militarizing before 1936. However, it was in his memorandum of 1936 that Hitler made it clear he expected war to be imminent. He argued that the German economy "must be fit for war within four years." Autarky was to be pursued more aggressively, and the German people would have to begin making sacrifices in their consumption habits in order to enable food supplies and raw materials to be diverted toward military uses. Despite Nazi propaganda frequently depicting German families as well-dressed and driving new Volkswagen cars, consumption stagnated in the pre-war economy, with few people being able to afford cars. Speaking to a meeting of his main economic advisers in 1937, Hitler insisted that Germany's population had grown to the point where the nation would soon become unable to feed itself, so war for the conquest of "Lebensraum" in Eastern Europe was necessary as soon as possible. Therefore, if the rearmament drive caused economic problems, the response would have to entail pushing even harder in order to be ready for war faster, rather than scaling back military spending. Seeing that Hitler had taken this stance, Schacht resigned as Minister of Economics in November 1937, and the management of the economy effectively passed to Hermann Göring.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: In July 1937, the Reichswerke Hermann Göring was established as a new industrial conglomerate to extract and process domestic iron ores from Salzgitter, as the first step in a general effort to increase German steel production in preparation for war. It produced steel from low grade iron at rates unprofitable to other steel companies. At first, the "Reichswerke" began as one of the smaller German iron and steel corporations, but it was able to expand rapidly after the German annexation of Austria in 1938, by acquiring large sections of Austrian heavy industry ranging from raw material production, to armaments manufacture, to sales and distribution. A number of the Austrian firms acquired by the "Reichswerke" had owned stock in smaller foreign businesses as well, so the "Reichswerke" became the owner or co-owner of various coal, iron, and steel companies across Central Europe even before the outbreak of war. In spite of this, production of iron and steel continued to fall short of the demands of the growing military buildup, so "it became people's patriotic duty to surrender any old or unused metal objects to the authorities", and scrap metal was also collected from factories, churches, and cemeteries. The German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938-39 enabled the "Reichswerke" to undergo another major expansion immediately prior to the war, by acquiring shares in Czech coal mines, armaments firms, and iron and steel manufacturers. Initially these were not necessarily majority shares, as French and British shareholders also held significant stock in Czech companies, and the "Reichswerke" had to negotiate with them until war was declared. Later, during the war, the "Reichswerke" would expand by incorporating over 500 companies in key German industries and much of the heavy industry of occupied nations, including between 50 and 60 per cent of Czech heavy industries and slightly less in Austria. By the end of 1941, the "Reichswerke" had become the largest company in Europe, after absorbing most of the industry captured by Germany from the Soviet Union.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: The beginning of the war resulted in a British blockade which seriously restricted German access to world markets. Petroleum, sugar, coffee, chocolate and cotton were all extremely scarce. Germany used coal gasification to replace petroleum imports to a limited extent, and relied on Romanian oilfields at Ploiești. Germany was dependent on Sweden for the majority of their iron ore production, and relied on Spain and Portugal to provide tungsten. Switzerland continued to trade with Germany, and was very useful as a neutral country friendly to Germany. Until the declaration of war on the Soviet Union, the Third Reich received large supplies of grain and raw materials from the USSR, which they paid for with industrial machinery, weapons, and even German designs for a battleship. In the spring of 1940, the Soviet Union asked for two chemical plants as compensation for raw materials. The German government declined, at the insistence of the military.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: Rationing was introduced for German consumers in 1939. However, while Britain immediately put their economy on a war footing as soon as the conflict began, Germany resisted equivalent measures until later in the war. For instance, the Nazis were reluctant to increase taxes on individual German citizens to pay for the war, so the top personal income tax rate in 1941 was 13.7% in Germany, as opposed to 23.7% in Great Britain. The German government instead funded much of its military effort through plunder, especially plundering the wealth of Jewish citizens and the like, both at home and in the conquered territories.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: During the war, as Germany acquired control of new territories (by direct annexation, by military administration, or by installing puppet governments in defeated countries), these new territories were forced by the Nazi administration to sell raw materials and agricultural products to German buyers at extremely low prices. Hitler's policy of lebensraum strongly emphasized the conquest of new lands in the East, and the exploitation of these lands to provide cheap goods to Germany. In practice, however, the intensity of the fighting on the Eastern Front and the Soviet scorched-earth policy meant that the Germans found little they could use in the Soviet Union, and, on the other hand, a large quantity of goods flowed into Germany from conquered lands in Western Europe. For example, two-thirds of all French trains in 1941 were used to carry goods to Germany. Norway lost 20% of its national income in 1940 and 40% in 1943.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: Fiscal policy also emphasized the exploitation of conquered countries, from which capital was to be gathered for German investments. German-run banks, such as the Bank of Issue in Poland (), were established to manage local economies.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: The destruction caused by the war, however, meant that the conquered territories never operated as productively as Germany had hoped. Agricultural supply-chains collapsed, partly due to wartime destruction and partly due to the British blockade that prevented the import of fertilizer and other raw materials from outside of Europe. The grain harvest in France in 1940 was less than half what it had been in 1938. Grain yields also fell (compared to their pre-war levels) in Germany itself, as well as in Hungary and in the occupied Netherlands and Yugoslavia. German grain imports from Yugoslavia and Hungary fell by almost 3 million tons, and this could only be partially offset by increased deliveries from Romania. Coal and oil were also in short supply, again because Germany could not access sources outside of Europe. Germany's oil supplies, crucial for the war effort, depended largely on annual imports of 1.5 million tons of oil, mainly from Romania. Although Germany seized the oil supplies/reserves of conquered states—for example reducing France to a mere 8 percent of its pre-war oil consumption – this was still not enough for the needs of the war. Acute fuel-shortages forced the German military to cut back on training for its drivers and pilots, because training would waste fuel. The Soviets and the Americans had accurate reports of Germany's oil supplies, but refused to believe that the Nazi government would take the risk of starting a war with so little fuel security, so they assumed that Germany must have had vast amounts of well-hidden supplies that they were not able to detect. Germany also had a problem with coal, although in this case the issue was not a lack of quantity, but an inability to extract it and transport it where it was needed fast enough. Railways had been badly damaged by the war, and coal miners in occupied territories drastically reduced their productivity compared to pre-war levels. This was, in part, intentional sabotage on the part of the miners, who wished to harm the German war-effort. But it was also in part due to lack of adequate nutrition for those miners, as food from their countries was redirected to Germany.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: In 1942, after the death of Armaments Minister Fritz Todt, Hitler appointed Albert Speer as his replacement. Historians have long contended that the growing burdens of the war saw Germany move to a full war-economy under the efficient leadership of Speer. However, historian Richard Overy contends this is a myth based on the flimsy conclusions of the Strategic Bombing Survey, which relied on the views of one German official from the German Statistical Office, Rolf Wagenführ. Wagenführ was not senior enough to be aware of decision-making at higher levels. Overy shows that the military and Nazi leadership were particular about preparing the German economy for total war, as they felt that Germany had lost World War I on the Home front.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: Even before the war, Nazi Germany maintained a supply of slave labor. "Undesirables" (), such as the homeless, homosexuals, and alleged criminals as well as political dissidents, communists, Jews, and anyone else that the regime wanted out of the way were imprisoned in labor camps. Prisoners of war and civilians were brought into Germany from occupied territories after the German invasion of Poland. The necessary labor for the German war economy was provided by the new camp system, serving as one of the key instruments of terror. Historians estimate that some 5 million Polish citizens (including Polish Jews) went through them.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: A network of slave-labour camps—457 complexes with dozens of subsidiary camps, scattered over a broad area of German-occupied Poland—exploited to the fullest the labor of their prisoners, in many cases working inmates to their death. At the Gross-Rosen concentration camp (to which Polish nationals were brought in from the annexed part of Poland) the number of subcamps was 97. Under Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Auschwitz III (Monowitz) with thousands of prisoners each, the number of satellite camps was 48. Stutthof concentration camp had 40 subcamps officially and as many as 105 subcamps in operation, some as far as Elbląg, Bydgoszcz and Toruń, from the main camp. The "Deutsche Reichsbahn" acquired new infrastructure in Poland worth in excess of 8,278,600,000 zł., including some of the largest locomotive factories in Europe, the H. Cegielski – Poznań renamed DWM, and Fablok in Chrzanów renamed "Oberschlesische Lokomotivwerke Krenau" as well as the locomotive parts factory Babcock-Zieleniewski in Sosnowiec renamed Ferrum AG later tasked with making parts to V-1 and V-2 rockets also. Under the new management, formerly Polish companies began producing German engines BR44, BR50 and BR86 as early as 1940 with the use of slave labor.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: Hundreds of thousands of people in occupied territories were used as slave labor by leading German corporations including Thyssen, Krupp, IG Farben, Bosch, Blaupunkt, Daimler-Benz, Demag, Henschel, Junkers, Messerschmitt, Philips, Siemens, Walther, and Volkswagen, on top of Nazi German startups which ballooned during this period, and all German subsidiaries of foreign firms including "Fordwerke" (Ford Motor Company) and Adam Opel AG (a subsidiary of General Motors). By 1944, slave labor made up one-quarter of Germany's entire work force, and the majority of German factories had a contingent of prisoners. In rural areas the shortage of agricultural labor was filled by forced laborers from the occupied territories of Poland and the Soviet Union. The children of these workers were unwanted in Germany, and usually murdered inside special centers known as "Ausländerkinder-Pflegestätte".


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: The proportion of military spending in the German economy began growing rapidly after 1942, as the Nazi government was forced to dedicate more of the country's economic resources to fight a losing war. Civilian factories were converted to military use and placed under military administration. From mid 1943 on, Germany switched to a full war economy overseen by Albert Speer. By late 1944, almost the entire German economy was dedicated to military production. The result was a dramatic rise in military production, with an increase by 2 to 3 times of vital goods like tanks and aircraft, despite the intensifying Allied air campaign and the loss of territory and factories. Restaurants and other services were closed to focus the German economy on military needs. With the exception of ammunition for the army, the increase in production was insufficient to match the Allies in any category of production. Some production was moved underground in an attempt to put it out of reach of Allied bombers.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: From late 1944 on, Allied bombings were destroying German factories and cities at a rapid pace, leading to the final collapse of the German war economy in 1945 (Stunde Null). Food became drastically scarce. Synthetic fuel production dropped by 86% in eight months, explosive output was reduced by 42% and the loss of tank output was 35%. The Allied bombing campaign also tied up valuable manpower, with Albert Speer (Germany's Minister of Armaments) estimating that in the summer of 1944 between 200,000 and 300,000 men were permanently employed in repairing oil installations and placing oil production underground.


title: Economy of Nazi Germany

text: A major historiographical debate about the relationship between the German prewar economy and foreign policy decision-making was prompted in the late 1980s, when historian Timothy Mason claimed that an economic crisis had caused a "flight into war" in 1939. Mason argued that the German working-class was opposed to the Nazi dictatorship in the over-heated German economy of the late 1930s. However, Mason's thesis was opposed by historian Richard Overy who wrote that Germany's economic problems could not explain aggression against Poland and that the reasons for the outbreak of war were due to the ideological choices made by the Nazi leadership. For Overy, the problem with Mason's thesis was that it rested on the assumptions not shown by records. Overy argued that there was a difference between economic pressures induced by the problems of the Four Year Plan, and economic motives to seize foreign industry, materials and reserves of neighboring states. Meanwhile, Adam Tooze argued that from 1939 onward, in spite of the military successes in the West, the German economy became dependent on vital imports from the East. Tooze saw this as a reason for Hitler to attack the Soviet Union, because "[t]he Third Reich had no intention of slipping into that kind of humbling dependence that Britain now occupied in relation to the United States, mortgaging its assets and selling its secrets, simply to sustain its war effort". Up to Operation Barbarossa the German economy could not "do without Soviet deliveries of oil, grain, and alloy metals." The Four-Year Plan was discussed in the controversial Hossbach Memorandum, which provides the "minutes" from one of Hitler's briefings. The Four-Year Plan technically expired in 1940.


title: Nandamuri Balakrishna filmography

text: Nandamuri Balakrishna is an Indian actor and politician who works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He is the sixth son of Telugu matinee idol and former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh legendary actor, N. T. Rama Rao. He entered the film industry as a child artist at the age of 14 with the film "Tatamma Kala". In the mid-1980s, he graduated to acting in the lead role and soon became one of the sought after actors in Telugu cinema. In his career spanning 40 years, he has acted in over hundred films in a variety of roles. Known for his dancing skills, Balakrishna has received two state Nandi Awards for best acting.


title: Nandamuri Balakrishna filmography

text: He was the guest of honour at the 43rd International Film Festival of India. He is actively involved in politics and is a member of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founded by his father. In 2014 and 2019 he was elected incumbent M. L. A. from Hindupur for the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He is also the chairman of the trust board for The Basavatarakam Indo American Cancer Hospital and Research Institute based in Hyderabad, India.


title: If—

text: "If—" is a poem by English writer and poet Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), written circa 1895 as a tribute to Leander Starr Jameson. It is a literary example of Victorian-era stoicism. The poem, first published in "Rewards and Fairies" (1910) following the story "Brother Square-Toes", is written in the form of paternal advice to the poet's son, John.


title: If—

text: "If—" first appeared in the "Brother Square Toes" chapter of the book "Rewards and Fairies", a collection of Kipling's poetry and short-story fiction published in 1910. In his posthumously published autobiography, "Something of Myself" (1937), Kipling said that, in writing the poem, he was inspired by the character of Leander Starr Jameson, leader of the failed Jameson Raid against the South African Republic to overthrow the Boer government of Paul Kruger. The failure of that mercenary coup d'état aggravated the political tensions between Great Britain and the Boers, which led to the Second Boer War (1899–1902).


title: If—

text: As an evocation of Victorian-era stoicism, the "stiff upper lip" self-discipline that popular culture rendered into a British national virtue and character trait, "If—" remains a cultural touchstone. The British cultural-artifact status of the poem is evidenced by the parodies of the poem, and by its popularity among Britons.


title: If—

text: In India, a framed copy of the poem was affixed to the wall before the study desk in the cabins of the officer cadets at the National Defence Academy at Pune and the Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala. In Britain, the first verse is set, in granite setts, into the pavement of the promenade in Westward Ho! in Devon. The third and fourth lines of the second stanza of the poem: "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster / and treat those two impostors just the same" are written on the wall of the players' entrance to the Centre Court at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, where the Wimbledon Championships are held. These same lines appear at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York City, where the US Open was played until 1977.


title: If—

text: The Indian writer Khushwant Singh considered the poem "the essence of the message of "The Gita" in English."


title: If—

text: Charles McGrath, a former deputy editor of "The New Yorker" and a former editor of the "New York Times Book Review", wrote that when he was in school, "they had to recite Kipling's 'If—' every day, right after the Pledge of Allegiance: 'If you can fill the unforgiving minute / With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, / Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, / And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!


title: If—

text: Pablo Neruda—like Kipling, a Nobel laureate—found a framed ornamental copy of the poem near the Duke of Alba's bedside in the Palacio de Liria. However, his view was not favourable, and he referred to it as "that pedestrian and sanctimonious poetry, precursor of the "Reader's Digest", whose intellectual level seems to me no higher than that of the Duke of Alba's boots".


title: If—

text: In the BBC's 1996 nationwide poll, "If—" was voted the UK's favourite poem, gaining twice as many votes as the runner-up.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: The National Payments Corporation of India is an umbrella organization for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India, is an initiative of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, for creating a robust Payment & Settlement Infrastructure in India. It was created by RBI for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: Founded in December 2008, the NPCI is a not-for-profit organisation registered under Section 8 of the Companies Act 2013, established by the Reserve Bank of India and Indian Banks' Association. The organisation is owned by


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: a consortium of major banks, and has been promoted by the country's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: The NPCI was incorporated in December 2008 and the Certificate of Commencement of Business was issued in April 2009. The authorised capital has been pegged at and paid-up capital is .


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: Initially, there were ten promoter banks viz. State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Citibank and HSBC. In 2016, the shareholding was diluted to include 13 additional public sector banks, 15 additional private sector banks, 1 additional foreign bank, 10 multi-state co-operative banks and 7 regional rural banks. The Board consists of Biswamohan Mahapatra as the Non Executive Chairman, Nominees from the Reserve Bank of India and Nominees from ten core promoter banks. Dilip Asbe is the current managing director and chief executive officer of the NPCI after A. P. Hota, who retired from the post on 10 August 2017.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: NPCI has created a separate subsidiary to take its product to global market. The organization is getting offers from nations around Asia, Africa and the Middle East to improve their payment infrastructure. Internationalization of RuPay and Unified Payment Interface (UPI) are the primary focus of the NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL).


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: In 2021, Malaysian company Merchantrade Asia partnered with NIPL to send remittance in India through UPI infrastructure.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: From April 2021, NPCI created a new subsidiary for Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) to increase growth especially in business to consumer segment for small businesses. This is done in view of growing traffic and workload from UPI, IMPS, Aadhaar Enabled Payment System and National Electronic Toll Collections. NBBL is a public company registered in December 2020.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: A network of Micro ATMs using Aadhaar authentication. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) announced the transactions of Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) for the month of July 2019 have crossed the milestone number of 200 million. AePS is a bank-led model which allows basic interoperable banking transactions at PoS (MicroATM) through the Business correspondent of any bank by using Aadhaar authentication.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: The Bharat Bill Payment System is a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) conceptualised system driven by the NPCI. It is a one-stop ecosystem for payment of all bills, providing an interoperable and accessible "Anytime Anywhere" bill payment service to all customers across India with certainty, reliability and safety. Bharat BillPay has multiple modes of payment and provides instant confirmation of payment via an SMS or receipt. It offers myriad bill collection categories like electricity, telecom, DTH, gas, water bills etc. through a single window. More categories may be added in the future, to include insurance premium, mutual funds, school fees, institution fees, credit cards, local taxes, invoice payments, etc. An effective mechanism for handling consumer complaints has also been put in place. Bharat BillPay transactions can be initiated through multiple payment channels like Internet, Internet Banking, Mobile, Mobile-Banking, POS (Point of Sale terminal), Mobile Wallets, MPOS (Mobile Point of Sale terminal), Kiosk, ATM, Bank Branch, Agents and Business Correspondents. Bharat BillPay supports multiple payment modes. This includes Cards (Credit, Debit and Prepaid), NEFT Internet Banking, UPI, Wallets, Aadhaar based Payments and Cash.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: A common QR code developed by NPCI in collaboration with American Express, Mastercard and Visa for ease of payments and interoperability.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: BHIM Aadhaar pay is an Aadhaar based payments interface which allows real time payments to Merchants using Aadhaar number of Customer & authenticating them through their biometrics.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: CTS is based on a cheque truncation or online image-based cheque clearing system where cheque images and magnetic ink character recognition


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: The Digital Rupee (e₹) or eINR or E-Rupee is a tokenised digital version of the Indian Rupee, to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Digital Rupee was proposed in January 2017 and will be launched in the 2022-23 financial year. The plan is to incorporate distributed ledger into Digital Rupee.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: Like banknotes it will be uniquely identifiable and regulated by Central Bank. Liability lies with RBI. Plans include online and offline accessibility. RBI will launch Digital Rupee for Wholesale (e₹-W) catering to financial institutions for interbank settlements and Digital Rupee for Retail (e₹-R) for consumer and business transactions. CBDC will remove ₹4,984.80 crore security printing cost borne by the general public, businesses, banks, and RBI on physical currency.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: A centralised clearing service that aims at providing interbank high volume, low value transactions that are repetitive and periodic in nature.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: Rupay Contactless is a contactless payment technology that allows cardholders to wave their card in front of contactless payment terminals without the need to physically swipe or insert the card into a point-of-sale device.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: FASTag is a device that employs Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for making toll payments directly while the vehicle is in motion. FASTag (RFID Tag) is affixed on the windscreen of the vehicle and enables a customer to make the toll payments directly from the account which is linked to FASTag. The latest version 2.0 can also be used to buy fuel. IDFC First Bank has become the first one to get an approval from the RBI. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has declared that all lanes at all toll plazas on national highways across the country will be dedicated Fastag lanes from 1, December 2019.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: RuPay is a domestic card scheme of India. The card has Magnetic stripe (for Backward compatibility) and an EMV chip. The RuPay card is now accepted at all ATMs, Point-of-Sale terminals and most online merchants in the country. More than 300 cooperative banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) in the country have also issued RuPay ATM cards.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: Unified Payments Interface is a real-time interbank payment system for sending or receiving money. It is integrated with more than 358 banks in India. Consumers can participate in P2P transfer as long as they both have an account in one of the registered banks. To initiate fund transfer, users have to use any UPI supporting Android or iOS app, link their bank accounts and generate BHIM UPI PIN. Funds can be transferred via the following methods:


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: Once the fund transfer is initiated, money is debited from payer's bank account and deposited in the recipient's bank account in real-time. This system works 24x7, including weekends and bank holidays.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: An USSD channel service for UPI mobile banking launched in November 2012. Only public sector telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited MTNL are offering this service. It uses quick codes for transactions and doesn't require smartphone and access to internet. The interface is developed by National Unified USSD Platform (NUUP) to overcome the problem of poor internet connectivity in rural areas with 12 regional languages. This service is being currently offered by 51 banks. BHIM app also supports USSD features. Understanding the importance of mobile banking in financial inclusion in general and of *99# in particular, various regulatory/trade bodies came together to ensure on boarding of all TSPs on *99# (USSD 1.0). With the wider ecosystem (11 TSPs), *99# was launched by Prime minister Narendra Modi on 28 August 2014, as part of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna.


title: National Payments Corporation of India

text: It a 3-step method to initiate and execute UPI services for feature phone users without the use of internet connection or USSD channel. It is based on Interactive voice response (IVR) technology which is good specially for rural areas. It is launched by RBI on 10 March 2022.


title: Galilee

text: Galilee (; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and Lower Galilee (, ; , ).


title: Galilee

text: "Galilee" refers to all of the area that is north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and south of the east–west section of the Litani River. It extends from the Israeli coastal plain and the shores of the Mediterranean Sea with Acre in the west, to the Jordan Rift Valley to the east; and from the Litani in the north plus a piece bordering on the Golan Heights all the way to Dan at the base of Mount Hermon in the northeast, to Mount Carmel and Mount Gilboa in the south. This definition includes the plains of the Jezreel Valley north of Jenin and the Beth Shean Valley, the valley containing the Sea of Galilee, and the Hula Valley, although it usually does not include Haifa's immediate northern suburbs. By this definition it overlaps with much of the administrative Northern District of Israel and with Southern Lebanon.


title: Galilee

text: The region's Hebrew name is גָּלִיל (), meaning 'district' or 'circle'. The Hebrew form used in Isaiah (or 8:23 in different Biblical versions) is in the construct state, leading to (), meaning 'Galilee of the nations', which refers to gentiles who settled there at the time that the book was written, either by their own volition or as a result of being deported there.


title: Galilee

text: The borders of Galilee, split into Upper Galilee and Lower Galilee, were described by Josephus in his "The Jewish War":