Latest news with #PhonePe
New Indian Express
a day ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Odisha Crime Branch begins probe into Gopalpur gangrape; Priyanka Gandhi slams state govt
BHUBANESWAR /BERHAMPUR: The Crime Against Women and Children's Wing (CAW&CW) of Odisha Crime Branch began probe into the gangrape of the 20-year-old student on Gopalpur beach even as Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday lit into the state government accusing it of failing to prioritise women's safety. In a strongly worded post on X on Wednesday, Priyanka said the incident highlighted the growing violence against women in Odisha. 'The brutal assault on a girl student by ten individuals in Gopalpur, Odisha, is a heinous crime that warrants strong condemnation. Harshest words are not enough to condemn the brutality meted out to the girl. The incident highlights the growing violence against women in Odisha,' said the post. While the horrific crime grabbed national attention, the CAW&CW team, led by IG S Shyni, visited the crime scene and examined a radius of 300 metre. It also met the survivor who is now being provided psychosocial support. Sources said, the Crime Branch is looking to fast-track the investigation and submit the chargesheet at the earliest. During probe, it was found that the stretch of the beach where the crime took place on Sunday has seating areas for tourists but does not have illumination. The CAW&CW team also enquired how the rape survivor and her friend reached the beach. It has come to light that around 8 pm on Sunday, Gopalpur police with all-terrain vehicle was patrolling and even passed the crime spot. Seeing the vehicle, the accused apparently gagged the victim and her male friend and waited till the patrol went away. The rape survivor apparently mentioned this in her statement. Though the team refused to divulge any detail about the ongoing probe, sources said, it examined the mobile phone to which the male friend of the rape survivor paid Rs 1,000 using PhonePe. The accused had apparently extorted money from the duo and it was the phone number which helped the police to trace the accused within hours of the incident.
Coin Geek
2 days ago
- Business
- Coin Geek
Walmart-backed Flipkart gets RBI nod to lend with new license
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT)-backed Flipkart has obtained a lending license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), enabling it to provide loans directly to consumers and sellers on its platform. This development makes Flipkart the first major e-commerce company in India to receive a non-banking financial company (NBFC) license, representing a notable advancement in the country's financial services landscape. According to a Reuters report, this is also the first time India's central bank has issued a NBFC license to a major e-commerce firm, permitting it to extend credit but not accept deposits. While most e-commerce companies in India currently partner with banks or NBFCs to offer financing, this license allows Flipkart to provide loans independently, creating a more profitable lending model for the company. Flipkart, majority-owned by U.S. retail giant Walmart with an over 80% stake, submitted its application for the lending license in 2022, the report said. In 2024, the company was valued at $37 billion during a $1 billion funding round led by Walmart. As part of its strategic realignment, Flipkart is relocating its parent company from Singapore to India. Walmart also has plans to eventually list the 17-year-old e-commerce firm on the stock market. Walmart's 2018 acquisition of Flipkart also included ownership of fintech company PhonePe, which is similarly preparing for an initial public offering (IPO). Flipkart is expected to begin its lending operations within the next few months. However, the official launch will depend on the completion of several internal steps, including the appointment of key executives, the formation of its board, and the finalization of its business strategy. The company intends to extend credit directly to consumers through its well-known e-commerce platform and fintech app, Additionally, it may provide financing options to sellers using its marketplace. Amazon enters financial services with Axio acquisition At the same time, Flipkart's competitor Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has expanded its presence in financial services by acquiring a non-banking lender, Axio. The Indian startup, in which Amazon has held a stake for the past six years, announced in a blog post that the acquisition agreement was finalized in December following the completion of due diligence. This move reinforces Amazon's growing focus on financial offerings in one of its fastest-expanding markets. 'In December, after successful completion of due diligence, we signed an agreement with Amazon for a proposed acquisition of Axio. The transaction will now await the required regulatory approvals,' the company said. 'The proposed acquisition aims to build on a successful six-year business and equity partnership centered around delivering accessible and affordable credit to customers across the country… Amazon has been an invaluable partner in this journey, and we have more to accomplish together… This means reaching more under-served customers, diversifying our offerings to address more unmet needs, and continuing to strike the right balance of customer experience, risk management, and affordability as we strive to responsibly expand access to credit across the country,' it added. E-commerce market in India to touch $550 billion by 2035 India's e-commerce industry has been expanding rapidly, with its market value reaching approximately $125 billion in 2024. Projections suggest that this figure could rise to $550 billion by 2035, according to Statista. The sector is highly competitive, with numerous domestic and international players vying for dominance. Walmart's Flipkart and Jeff Bezos-led Amazon continue to lead the space as top e-commerce platforms in the country. Among Indian consumers, electronics and clothing remain the most commonly purchased product categories. Several factors have fueled the industry's rapid growth, including the increasing digitization of the economy and widespread access to affordable Internet services. In 2024 alone, online sales in India were projected to grow by over 19%. As a result, the revenue potential of the sector has risen significantly, with average retail e-commerce revenue per user surpassing $85. However, data privacy issues and increasing online fraud have turned out to be the most significant hurdle in the growth of e-commerce in India. Data from the RBI's annual report show that digital payment fraud in India jumped to a record $175 million in the fiscal year that ended in March 2024 (FY2023-24). As a result, the RBI has constituted a committee to examine various aspects of setting up a 'Digital Payments Intelligence Platform' to ensure safety and security against fraud. Watch: India is going to be the frontrunner in digitalization title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""> Amazon Axio E-commerce Flipkart India Regulation Reserve Bank of India Walmart
Economic Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Digital Rupee vs Crypto: What the debate misses about the future of money
When the debate gets wrong The Digital Rupee is a sovereign, state-backed currency that retains all the regulatory control of fiat, with some of the benefits of digital settlement—speed, transparency, and auditabilit. Crypto, especially stablecoins and DeFi protocols, represents open, global finance—designed to reduce reliance on intermediaries, enable 24/7 global settlement, and allow innovation at the edges. Live Events Whether it's a CBDC or a stablecoin, the average Indian citizen wants: Instant settlement Low transaction fees Universal acceptance Interoperability across borders Clear privacy and control over their funds Google Pay PhonePe (majority owned by Walmart) Paytm (with large foreign ownership) India needs a strategic payments agenda To avoid this, India must learn from UPI's journey: Create favorable policies and early access for Indian startups to build on top of the Digital Rupee. Ensure neutral interoperability layers so no single app dominates wallet access or merchant onboarding. Offer incentives and sandboxes for fintechs and Web3 startups to create novel CBDC use cases in sectors like trade, MSME finance, insurance, and mobility. Consider public-private models where infrastructure remains open but innovation is encouraged locally. It's not Crypto vs CBDC. It's about empowering Indians A Digital Rupee that settles instantly, works offline, and integrates with UPI? Excellent. A crypto wallet that lets an Indian freelancer receive USD-stablecoins from a US client and cash out into INR at low cost? Also excellent. (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel India is in the midst of a silent revolution in money. On one hand, we have the Digital Rupee , the Reserve Bank of India 's Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), and on the other, the rapidly growing world of crypto-assets and stablecoins operating on public are vying to redefine how value is transferred in the digital age. And yet, the ongoing debate—often framed as CBDC vs Crypto—misses the point entirely. Because the real question is not about which technology wins, but who benefits from discourse often pits the Digital Rupee and crypto against each other—as if they are fundamentally incompatible. The truth is, both are programmable forms of digital money, designed for different purposes, but potentially coexisting in the same future financial focusing only on the instruments is missing the forest for the trees. What matters most is the end user's the user, convenience is kingIf the Digital Rupee delivers this, it wins. If crypto and stablecoins can do it better, they will continue gaining ground—especially among tech-savvy users, freelancers, SMEs, and far, Digital Rupee usage is modest—with just 19 banks live and around 100,000 daily transactions reported in mid-2024. By comparison, UPI clocks 350 million+ transactions a day, and stablecoins globally settled over $7 trillion in bigger problem: Not who builds it, but who controls itLet's zoom out. India built UPI—arguably the most successful public payments infrastructure in the world. But despite being a product of NPCI (a quasi-government entity), UPI adoption is now dominated by three major apps:Together, these three control over 94% of UPI transaction while UPI is Indian in origin, the monetization, data leverage, and platform control rests in the hands of foreign-backed companies. Indian startups in the payments space face high entry barriers, and the market has become increasingly difficult to penetrate due to high compliance, capital, and branding India repeats the same model with the Digital Rupee—where state infrastructure is handed over to foreign-led platforms for distribution—we will be building Indian rails for global profits, all, payments aren't just a technical tool—they are an instrument of economic sovereignty . And whoever controls the interface to money, controls much more than just the end of the day, the user doesn't care whether their money comes from a central bank node or a smart contract. They care about speed, cost, and key is not to fixate on the rails, but to ensure that the value stays in India, and Indian entrepreneurs are not locked out of building the future. Because if we don't, we risk creating another UPI story—built by India, but controlled by others. And that's a mistake we can't afford to make twice.(The author, Aishwary Gupta is the Global Head of Payments & Real World Assets at Polygon Labs): Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)
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First Post
4 days ago
- Business
- First Post
Are your UPI transactions faster? Here's the reason
NPCI has revised the response times for key UPI APIs from up to 30 seconds to as low as 10 seconds. These changes apply to APIs involved in initiating payments, checking transaction status, validating addresses, and handling reversals read more Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm are among the well-known UPI apps used by Indians. Representational image Indian consumers can now expect faster UPI payments, particularly for merchant transactions, following new guidelines from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) that significantly reduce response times for Unified Payments Interface (UPI) APIs. The updated protocols, effective June 16, aim to enhance transaction speed and reliability across platforms such as Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, BHIM, Amazon Pay, and Cred. NPCI has revised the response times for key UPI APIs from up to 30 seconds to as low as 10 seconds. These changes apply to APIs involved in initiating payments, checking transaction status, validating addresses, and handling reversals. For example, requests like 'Check transaction status' and 'Transaction reversal' must now be processed within 10 seconds, down from the earlier 30 seconds, according to the NPCI circular dated April 26, 2025. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In the circular, NPCI stated that the updates were aimed at 'improving the customer experience' and asked member banks to make the necessary technical adjustments to meet the new time thresholds. It also cautioned against these changes negatively impacting technical decline thresholds. The Economic Times cited Rahul Jain, CFO of NTT DATA Payment Services India, as saying the faster processing time will allow remitter and beneficiary banks to communicate more efficiently. 'Now the remitter and beneficiary banks will communicate amongst themselves faster and hence the transaction's status will be updated faster,' Jain said. 'If earlier it took 30 seconds to process a UPI transaction, now it could take 15 seconds. So in the same 30 seconds, two transactions can be completed instead of just one.' According to the updated response timeline, APIs such as 'Request Pay' and 'Response Pay' must now process requests in 15 seconds instead of 30. For 'Check transaction status,' 'Transaction reversal,' and 'Validate Address' functions, the new time limit is 10 seconds. Vishal Maru, global processing head at Financial Software and Systems, said the update is a response to growing transaction volumes on the UPI platform. 'Consumers will now receive faster transaction confirmations, particularly during reversals or collection requests, instances that usually induce stress,' he said. Maru added that reducing response time also decreases retry storms at the system level, which can lead to congestion and timeout errors. 'By narrowing response windows, UPI is evolving into a self-regulating and failure-resistant network,' he said. 'Even smaller and regional banks will benefit during peak hours.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD While faster API cycles could increase system costs in the short term, Maru said long-term benefits would include reduced strain on databases and improved efficiency. 'Although initial expenditures may see a slight increase, the cost per transaction is anticipated to decrease over time,' he said. India currently handles over 1,300 crore digital transactions monthly, with UPI making up the largest share. NPCI aims to scale this figure to 1,000 crore UPI transactions per month by 2026.
NDTV
4 days ago
- Business
- NDTV
UPI Transactions Can Now Be Completed In 10 To 15 Seconds: What It Means
New Delhi: Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions across India are now much quicker, thanks to new directives from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) that came into effect on Monday. Users will now see payments, balance checks, and reversals processed within 10 to 15 seconds, a sharp improvement from the earlier 30-second wait. This upgrade applies to popular UPI platforms like PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm, and others. What Has Changed? Earlier, sending or receiving money through UPI could take up to 30 seconds. With the new rules, this is cut down to 15 seconds. The time to validate a payee's address has also been trimmed from 15 to 10 seconds. Failed transactions, a common concern for users, will now be resolved faster. Instead of waiting for up to 30 seconds to check if money was deducted or returned, users will know the outcome within 10 seconds. If a transaction doesn't reach the UPI system at all due to network issues, it will now be auto-marked as failed. Apps and banks can now also check the status of pending transactions as early as 45-60 seconds after initiation. Earlier, they had to wait 90 seconds. To avoid system overload, NPCI has allowed each bank or payment app to check the status of a transaction up to three times, within a two-hour window. Limit Introduced On Balance Checks In another key change, users can now check their account balance via UPI apps up to 50 times a day. Previously, there was no limit. The cap is meant to ease network load and keep systems running smoothly, according to experts cited by PTI. Can't Change Name In UPI App To improve transparency and reduce errors, NPCI has mandated that UPI apps must show only the actual beneficiary's name during a transaction. Users will no longer be able to edit the 'beneficiary name' field within the app interface. These changes aim to prevent fraud and build confidence in digital transactions. All UPI apps and banks must implement this rule by June 30. These changes come as UPI continues to grow rapidly. In May alone, 1,868 crore transactions were made via UPI, a 33 per cent increase from last year. The total transaction value stood at Rs 25.14 lakh crore, a 23 per cent rise.
