According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data for the year ended 2009-10, more and more Indians are using more of debit cards than credit cards.

Subrat Pani, business head- cards, Kotak Mahindra Bank, remarked that debit card shopping has now become more convenient because of an increase in point of sale terminals in many shopping centers.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

Indians are using more of debit cards than credit cards for their banking transactions, says the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data for the year ended 2009-10. While the transactions through debit cards jumped by 42 per cent at Rs 26,418 crore in the last fiscal from Rs 18,547 crore in 2008-09, it slipped by 4 per cent for credit cards to Rs 62,852 crore from Rs 65,356 crore. In the same period, the number of debit cards in circulation has also increased by 33 per cent as compared to a fall in credit card circulation by 10 per cent over the previous year. The total number of debit cards increased to 17 crore in 2009-10 from 12.8 crore in 2008-09. On the contrary, the total number of credit cards went down to 23.4 crore in 2009-10 from 25.9 crore in 2008-09. “Shopping through debit card has become more convenient now due to rise in point of sale terminals in various shopping centres,” says Subrat Pani, business head- cards, Kotak Mahindra Bank. “Volume of transaction has increased due to easy availability of debit cards, which are given with every newly opened bank account.” Industry experts also attribute the popularity of debit card to the cautious attitude of Indian consumers as a result of the recent economic downturn.

Pani also said that economy downturn was one of the biggest reasons for the negative trend in credit cards besides loss of employment and banks becoming more cautious to issue credit cards to check defaults.

The hottest gadget of the moment — the iPad – was mobbed by technophiles at Apple Stores in Europe and Asia.

Buyers vied to wield their credit cards and this was evident by long lines snaking down streets in Paris, London, Tokyo, and Frankfurt.

From USAtoday.com:

At the Apple Store in Frankfurt, Germany, hundreds lined up — including a few who arrived as early as 3 a.m. Some said they’d arrived so early not because they wanted to own it first — but simply to get an iPad at all.

By 8 a.m., some 450 people squealed as Apple employees inside lowered a black curtain and began applauding. The glass doors swung open and people who had been given numbered tickets while waiting in line were let in by security to buy the device.

“I’m a bit embarrassed to be part of the masses, but the thing is, tonight it’s going to be sold out,” one man, who was not identified, told AP Television News.

In Tokyo, about 1,200 people lined up in the famous Ginza shopping district, chanting a countdown ahead of the store’s 8 a.m. opening. Excited buyers gushed over the tablets, saying they couldn’t wait to start using them.

In Paris, at the Apple Store in the commercial gallery underneath the Louvre, Cara Garisch, 26, a software developer from South Africa, said she planned to use it to read newspapers and surf the Web.

“It’s magic,” she said. “Even my mom can use it.”

Apple Inc., based in Cupertino, California, said earlier this month that it had sold one million iPad devices in the United States in just 28 days.