The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Sanjay Malhotra, stated at an event on Tuesday that BRICS countries, including South Africa, are considering establishing links between their instant payment systems and central bank digital currencies.
The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Sanjay Malhotra, stated at an event on Tuesday that BRICS countries, including South Africa, are considering establishing links between their instant payment systems and central bank digital currencies.
The BRICS organization includes countries such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. India will host the annual summit in 2026. Malhotra noted in Mumbai that cross-border payments are of interest to all BRICS participants due to significant potential for cost reduction.
He added that several options are under consideration, including Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and the interconnection of instant payment systems. Furthermore, the governor announced that the central bank will continue working on the internationalization of the rupee and promoting the use of local currencies for international trade and settlements.
Malhotra also emphasized that the Reserve Bank of India views Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a resource to be utilized, rather than merely a risk requiring containment. He called on creditors to inventory all AI models in use and develop board-approved AI governance policies, as Indian banks cannot remain passive.
Central banks worldwide are closely monitoring the use of AI by banks amid concerns over cyberattacks, as well as operational and governance risks. Malhotra stated that 'innovation and security are not opposing goals, but rather mutually complementary requirements for a resilient financial system.'
Malhotra outlined two possible directions, and South Africa has advanced further in one of them than the other. Regarding the interconnection of instant payment systems, the South African Reserve Bank is already undertaking this work, albeit through the Southern African Development Community (SADC) rather than through BRICS.
The BankservAfrica’s Transactions Cleared on an Immediate Basis platform allows payments between South Africa and Zambia within 60 seconds since 2024, with plans for future expansion of regional corridors. In July, the Angolan Kwanza became the second settlement currency accepted in the SADC real-time clearing system after its launch in 2013, joining the Rand.
The Governor of the Reserve Bank, Lesetja Kganyago, who heads the SADC Central Bank Committee, described this as a step towards achieving the G20 goal of faster and cheaper cross-border payments by 2027. Kganyago previously stated that instead of a common BRICS currency, BRICS central banks are working on the interconnectedness and compatibility of their national payment systems to simplify cross-border settlements.
Concerning digital currency, the Reserve Bank has been more cautious. Last year, it told TechCentral that a Rand-based CBDC could enhance efficiency and reduce costs in the SADC money transfer market if developed with compatibility and regional cooperation in mind, but it had not formed a formal position on retail CBDC use cases. The Reserve Bank remains cautious about a retail digital Rand currency, which says little about its readiness for wholesale CBDC agreements between central banks for settlements, which is a different instrument.
XRP price forecasts suggest that the recent drop to the $1 mark may be part of an ongoing downtrend that has significantly damaged XRP holder portfolios. Despite news about growing demand for XRP Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), the price chart shows few signs of recovery.
In contrast, the pre-sale of the Moonberg cryptocurrency ($MBX) has started very successfully, as traders seek access to an artificial intelligence-based trading terminal that already boasts over 650,000 community members. The $MBX token offers various use cases within the Moonberg trading infrastructure, making it an attractive option for utility-oriented crypto traders.
The XRP price briefly fell below $1 before recovering by a couple of cents. This level has been closely monitored by both bulls and bears for several weeks, meaning its breach could signal the start of another decline. Technical analysis indicates that bears maintain control. XRP continues to form higher lows and lower highs, and weak momentum and position below key moving averages reinforce the bearish outlook.
Positive reports of inflows into XRP ETFs have failed to support the price, as selling pressure continues to intensify. Increased institutional demand apparently has not convinced retail traders that XRP is worth holding, given that comparable large-cap tokens like HYPE and TRX are performing better. Benzinga forecasts a target price for XRP of $1.81 by the end of 2026, but this would likely require a brilliant second half for the entire altcoin market. CoinCodex is less optimistic, setting a maximum target of $1.20, implying a 20% increase from the current price. Overall, XRP price forecasts do not inspire confidence in a major recovery.
Moonberg is a multifunctional crypto trading hub focused on providing the latest AI-based tools, as well as data scanning and tracking features that usually require access to several different services. Among its tools: Moonberg processes 53.4 billion data points and 130 patented metrics. It possibly offers a wider range of tools than competitors like Nansen, which primarily focuses on blockchain analytics, and Arkham, which specializes in wallet tracking and entity analysis.
By combining these capabilities with charting, strategy development, and trade execution, Moonberg reduces the need to switch between separate platforms for analysis, wallet tracking, charting, and trade execution. The native utility token of Moonberg is now available through the official $MBX pre-sale. The total supply of $MBX is limited to one billion tokens. The pre-sale releases tokens in batches, with the first allocation, valued at $375,000, already sold out. Unusually for a pre-sale, the technology determining the token's value can already be tested and used by hundreds of thousands of traders. The token offers several practical use cases within the Moonberg ecosystem.
XRP price forecasts suggest that a major recovery in 2026 is unlikely. The recent dip below $1, even if brief, showed that the downtrend that has plagued the chart over the past year is far from over. The Moonberg pre-sale is well-positioned to capitalize on the sluggishness affecting major coins like XRP, offering a utility token tied to an established crypto trading terminal with a large user base and AI-powered trading solutions unavailable elsewhere.
XRP could recover above $1 if institutional demand continues to grow and the overall altcoin market improves. However, its pattern of higher lows and lower highs indicates that the bearish trend remains unchanged. Before a sustained recovery becomes more likely, XRP must reclaim the $1 level and hold above it.
An old adage in the automotive world, attributed to Carroll Shelby, states that 'horsepower sells cars, but torque wins races.' Although this statement sounds poetic, it oversimplifies reality. While power impresses in technical specifications, a powerful sports car can seem weak at low RPMs if it lacks adequate torque in that range. In competitions, success does not depend solely on top speed on the final straight, but rather on the ability to accelerate after corners and regain speed.
Shelby experienced this dynamic in the early 1960s. While Ferraris used smaller displacement V12 engines with high revs to achieve impressive figures on paper, Shelby adapted the AC Cobra and the Ford GT40, equipped with V8s up to seven liters (the famous 427 cu in), which possessed high low-end torque. This allowed Shelby's cars to advance instantly on circuits like Le Mans and Sebring, surpassing opponents who had to constantly shift gears and wait for the engine to reach high RPMs to exit slow corners. The result was the GT40's domination over Ferrari at Le Mans between 1966 and 1969.
However, when the task shifts from winning a race to moving a 57-ton heavy goods vehicle up the Serra do Mar, Shelby's tactic transcends the track and becomes a fundamental principle of industrial physics. Unlike gasoline sports cars, which require high RPMs and stratospheric power to generate performance, the diesel engine operates in reverse: it provides overwhelming force precisely when a conventional engine is barely starting, often before 1,500 rpm. Trying to move 40 tons with a high-revving, low-torque engine would require fragile components and unsustainable thermal consumption, something diesel solves by its nature.
When pressing the accelerator of a large pickup truck or watching a truck pull away at a traffic light, one feels a dry and immediate impulse, a direct result of applied physics. To understand why the engine developed by Rudolf Diesel in the late 19th century became vital to global transport infrastructure, it is necessary to analyze three central elements: mechanical geometry, maximum cylinder pressure, and fuel composition.
The basis of the mechanics is the formula Torque = Force × Radius ($ au = F imes r$). Torque represents the moment of force applied to a rotating shaft. In an internal combustion engine, the Force (F) is generated by expanding gas pushing the piston down, and the Radius (r) corresponds to the length of the crankshaft arm. Diesel engines are intentionally designed to maximize both these variables simultaneously.
While performance-focused gasoline engines generally adopt an oversquare or short-stroke architecture—where the cylinder diameter is greater than the piston stroke, allowing for high RPMs—the diesel engine does the opposite: it is essentially undersquare, combining a long stroke with a narrower cylinder. This longer stroke requires the crankshaft to be positioned further from the axis center, creating a significantly larger mechanical lever arm, similar to using a longer lug wrench.
The devastating force driving the piston is determined by the compression ratio. In a modern turbocharged gasoline engine, the static compression ratio ranges between 9.5:1 and 10.5:1, generating maximum pressures between 80 and 110 bar. Exceeding this limit causes detonation. The diesel engine, by compressing only air and not fuel, does not have this impediment. With compression ratios ranging from 16:1 to 18:1 (potentially reaching 22:1), the air is heated above 600°C, allowing the diesel, injected under extreme pressures (exceeding 2,500 bar in piezoelectric systems), to spontaneously ignite.
The result is that the maximum pressure in a cargo diesel easily reaches 180 to 230 bar or more. Compared to a gasoline engine, which operates with about 100 bar on a short lever arm, the diesel combines over 200 bar of pressure with a long lever arm, resulting in more than double the vertical force on the piston and, consequently, gigantic torque at very low RPMs. Furthermore, the Diesel cycle injects fuel progressively as the piston descends, providing a continuous and sustained push, which keeps the torque curve flat from 1,400 rpm, delivering the brute force needed to move heavy loads.
The immense force generated at the top of the cylinder imposes severe demands on engineering. Applying 220 bar of peak pressure to a lightweight aluminum piston designed for gasoline engines would cause catastrophic failure. Therefore, the robustness of the diesel engine is not an aesthetic issue, but a structural necessity to survive load cycles under extremely high pressures.
To withstand these conditions, diesel blocks employ nodular cast iron or modern compacted graphite iron (CGI) alloys, materials that offer fatigue resistance and torsional rigidity superior to traditional aluminum. Internally, pistons are heavy and feature cooling galleries to dissipate extreme heat, while connecting rods are made of solid forged steel, connected to large-diameter piston pins. The crankshaft uses bearings and mounts with much larger contact areas to support the load and prevent the rupture of the lubricating oil film.
This inherent mass results in greater reciprocating inertia. According to Newton's second law, the force required to accelerate and decelerate a mass in reciprocating motion increases exponentially with rotational speed. Attempting to operate a large diesel engine at high RPMs would cause the connecting rod acceleration force to exceed the combustion force, destroying the engine through inertia. Therefore, diesel engines operate in much lower RPM ranges, rarely exceeding 2,500 rpm in heavy trucks or 4,500 rpm in light pickups.
However, this speed limitation brings a benefit: the linear speed of the piston rings against the cylinder walls is much lower, resulting in much lower accumulated friction than in high-RPM engines. This combination of oversized components and low speeds is what allows these engines to cover millions of kilometers before requiring a complete overhaul.
Although torque and robustness are desirable attributes, they are not sufficient to establish diesel as the absolute standard for commercial transport. Global logistics are governed by cost per ton transported per kilometer driven, and diesel also excels in this regard.
A modern, efficient gasoline engine converts approximately 30% to 35% of the fuel's energy into actual mechanical work, losing the remainder to heat and friction. In contrast, a modern industrial or heavy-duty diesel engine easily exceeds 45% to 50% thermal efficiency. Part of this efficiency comes from the high compression ratio, which increases the theoretical efficiency of the thermodynamic cycle.
Additionally, diesel eliminates pumping losses present in gasoline engines. In the latter, the throttle body in the intake manifold restricts airflow, forcing the pistons to expend energy sucking air against this obstruction. In the diesel engine, there is no throttle body; the intake manifold remains fully open, admitting all available air.
The presidency announced that the intention to proceed with the Final Investment Decision (FID) this year was reaffirmed during a meeting held in Maputo. The meeting took place between the Mozambican President, Daniel Chapo, and the head of ExxonMobil for Upstream, Dan Ammann.
This meeting occurred at a crucial stage for the development of the large gas project in Area 4 of the Rovuma basin. This happened a few days after the American multinational communicated the choice of the consortium responsible for the main land works, a final step before the definitive approval of the investment.
At the end of the audience, Johanna Boothey, president of ExxonMobil Mozambique, described the meeting as 'very productive.' She mentioned that there was 'much discussion on how we will move forward with the Rovuma project to have a Final Investment Decision this year.' The official also detailed that possible economic and social impacts of the undertaking were debated, including job creation, social initiatives, and increased revenue for the Mozambican State.
Rovuma LNG aims to produce, liquefy, and export natural gas from reserves located 'offshore' in Area 4 of the Rovuma basin, near Cabo Delgado. ExxonMobil will be responsible for the operation of the future onshore facilities. Obtaining the final investment decision is seen as the most important pending milestone to start the project's development phase.
The land development plan foresees the construction of 12 liquefaction modules, with a total production capacity of 18.6 million tons of LNG annually, and operations are scheduled to begin in 2031. The Rovuma LNG project is conducted by ExxonMobil, acting as the delegated operator of Area 4, in collaboration with ENH, CNPC, ENI, KOGAS, and XRG.
In July, Daniel Chapo had stated to Lusa his expectation that the FID would be approved by September, characterizing Rovuma LNG as 'the largest private investment project on the African continent,' with an estimated value of approximately 20 billion dollars. The previous week, ExxonMobil announced the selection of the SMDC consortium, composed of Saipem, McDermott Energy Solutions, Daewoo Engineering & Construction, and China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corporation, to execute the engineering, procurement, and construction services for the first phase of the project.
