Mumbai, Sep 7: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the seventh edition of the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2026 in Mumbai on Tuesday, marking the commencement of one of the world’s largest annual fintech gatherings that brings together policymakers, regulators, financial institutions, technology companies, investors and academia.

The four-day event, scheduled from September 8 to 11, will focus on emerging technologies and their role in advancing inclusive finance. Since its inception in 2020, GFF has evolved into a global platform for discussions on the future of finance and digital innovation, according to a Press Information Bureau statement.

The theme of GFF 2026 is “Potential to Impact: Agentic AI, Tokenisation, Quantum – Trusted, Connected, Global Systems for Inclusive Finance”.

GFF 2026 has been designed as a convergence point for policy, regulation, technology, capital and industry on a common platform. It seeks to build on India’s leadership in digital payments and financial inclusion and move from potential to impact. The discussions will focus on how Agentic AI, programmable finance, quantum technologies and other critical and emerging technologies can create trusted, inclusive and measurable outcomes for citizens, enterprises and economies globally, a government statement said on Monday.

Earlier, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently positioned Mumbai not just as the financial capital of India, but as the country’s Fintech Capital. He emphasised that Mumbai historically under-leveraged its standing as India’s financial hub. By marrying traditional banking and capital markets with cutting-edge digital infrastructure, the city is evolving into an integrated fintech ecosystem.

Addressing perceptions around tech hubs like Bengaluru or Hyderabad, CM Fadnavis highlighted that Maharashtra leads the country in absolute numbers of startups, venture funding, and total unicorns, driven heavily by fintech enterprises. He further stated that Maharashtra currently houses over 60 per cent of India’s total data centre capacity (exceeding 1 GW operational capacity).

The state’s power-surplus status and dedicated cloud infrastructure provide the technical backbone required for low-latency financial transactions and digital payment processing. ​

The state government implemented dedicated fintech policies offering plug-and-play parks, single-window clearances, and rapid land allotments (often within 24-36 hours) to lower the cost and friction of doing business.

Through broader initiatives — including AI Innovation Parks, cyber-security centres, and digital public infrastructure — the administration is aligning the fintech domain with emerging technologies to secure financial networks and scale solutions globally, said the industry department sources.

Mumbai: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has issued illegal regulations to ban Garba Dandiya games for Muslim youth during Navratri starting from October 11. The state government should clarify its stand in this regard and show that no one is above the law, demanded Samajwadi Party’s Bhiwandi East MLA Raees Sheikh on Sunday. In this regard, MLA Raees Sheikh said that festivals create harmony in the society and there is a tradition of participating in festivals of other religions in India. People of other religions participate happily in Eid and Ramzan. However, Muslims are being deliberately targeted by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal. Recently, in New York, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had made a statement that ‘one who does not say ‘Muslims are not Hindus’. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad must not have taken notice of Bhagwat’s statement while issuing a fatwa to ban Garba Dandiya for Muslims. It is the policy of RSS and BJP to present one idea and actually do the opposite, this is cultural policing by Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal. Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s fatwa to ban Muslims is against the Indian Constitution. The state government should take serious note of this order. Because the possibility of creating a law and order problem due to such an extremist stance cannot be ruled out. Festivals are the culture of Indians and a celebration of sharing communal feelings. However, recently extremist organizations like Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad are trying to incite religious sentiments and incite riots during festivals. MLA Raees Sheikh has demanded that the state government take notice of this and put a ban on such acts.

Mumbai: Police has claimed to have arrested 02 main accused from Jaipur, Rajasthan, who were involved in online fraud by creating a fake Facebook page in the name of Mumbai Wizard Traders 7 and making more profits through it. The complainant woman, who lives under the limits of Oshiwara Police Station, found a Facebook page while surfing on Facebook through her mobile on July 12, 2026. The said page was created in the name of wizard traders 7 and its URL was https://facebook-com/1221162594405776. She had made a post on the said page. In it, the accused had said that by depositing Rs. 99, she would get Rs. 9999. It was written like this. When the complainant clicked on the aforementioned Facebook page, he received a message from this WhatsApp number 8426965923. An unknown person from the aforementioned number informed the complainant about this scheme. When the complainant told him about taking the Rs 99 scheme, he sent Rs 99 through Google Pay on the QR code sent by him and sent him a screenshot of it. After this, the accused contacted the complainant from different mobile numbers till 03:30 pm on July 13th and on different pretexts, forced the complainant to transfer a total of 22 transactions from his account to different accounts, thereby defrauding him of a total of Rs. 73,521. Therefore, a case was registered under Sections 318(4), 319(2) BNS and Sections 66(c), 66(d) IT Act 2000 on the complaint filed by the complainant at Oshiwara Police Station. According to the statement given by the complainant in the said case, the first accused used the Facebook page wizard traders7 used in the case. After taking the information of this Facebook account, the two main accused who committed the said crime were identified and the following accused were followed by the cyber team of Oshiwara Police Station, Mumbai from Jaipur district, Doosa district of Rajasthan state for the last 04 days. They were changing their address from time to time. The accused were arrested with the help of local police from the local police station, Shiv Daspora, South Jaipur, Rajasthan. The accused were produced before the Andheri Court and sent to police custody till September 7. The items used in the crime were also recovered from the possession of the accused. These include 02 iPhone company mobiles worth Rs. 70,000, 01 Oppo company mobile worth Rs. 10,000, a total of 11 old used SIM cards of different mobile companies, 01 NSDL Bank debit card number, 01 Paytm company QR scanner with its UPI ID paytm.s2gotdq@pty. The accused have been identified as Deepak Sitaram Meena, aged 21, unemployed, Talab village, Taluka Lalsot, District Doosa, State of Rajasthan, Harkesh Gopal Meena, aged 30, unemployed, Rajasthan Jankap Colony, Taluka Kotpotli, District Jaipur, State of Rajasthan. After arresting both of them, the police have started further action and in this case, the police have also started checking the bank accounts of the accused. The said action was carried out under the guidance of the staff of Mumbai Oshiwara Police Station and DCP Parshottam Karad.