The surprise factor in AGS Transact’s IPO and Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget feat

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Editor's note: Ashwin here. The surprisingly bright start to ATM management firm AGS Transact Technologies’s IPO goes against the popular belief that cash is no longer king. Its peer CMS Info has already made a successful debut in the market, and a third cash management company, Radiant Cash, is set to join them. What’s the lure for investors? Someone else has shown deft management of cash. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has pulled off a feat that few of her predecessors managed. It’s a good thing leading up to the Union Budget in a fortnight. But there’s a question. Read on. For investors, ATM > Paytm? If you’re like me, your weekly ATM cash withdrawal routine is probably a thing of the past. With Unified Payments Interface becoming more and more ubiquitous, the need to carry cash in our wallets continues to diminish in our everyday lives. Cutting down cash usage and moving towards a “less cash” economy is, in fact, one of the stated objectives of the government. It, therefore, comes as a surprise that two of India’s largest ATM and cash …