The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has recently unveiled a variety of payment choices, on the UPI platform. The objective is to expand the accessibility of payments and achieve a milestone of 100 billion transactions every month. These new options consist of voice-assisted payments bill payments, pre-approved credit line payments using UPI LITE X, and NFC-based payments, through UPI Tap & Pay.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has introduced payment options on the widely used UPI platform, including conversational transactions. The launch of these products was announced by Shaktikanta Das, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during the Global Fintech Festival taking place.
The new offerings, such, as Credit Line on UPI, UPI LITE X, Tap & Pay, Hello! UPI and Conversational Bill Payments aim to create a digital payments ecosystem that’s inclusive, resilient, and sustainable. NPCI believes that these additions will help UPI reach its target of processing 100 billion transactions per month.
Hello! UPI enables users to make voice-enabled UPI payments through means like apps, and telecom. IoT devices in both Hindi and English languages. It will soon be available in other languages as well. “Hello! UPI” is divided into segments like Conversational Payments on UPI and BillPay Connect.
According to NPCIs statement conversational payments reflect a way for humans to interact with machines through AI-powered transactions. This development will further enhance the adoption and usage of payments across the country. NPCI has collaborated with AI4Bharat at IIT Madras to co-develop language models, for Hindi and English payment interactions.
With the introduction of BillPay Connect Bharat BillPay has implemented a nationalized system, for bill payments across the country. According to NPCI customers can conveniently. Pay their bills by sending a ‘Hi’ on the messaging app.
In addition, customers who do not have smartphones or immediate access to data can also pay their bills by giving a missed call. Such customers will receive a call for verification and payment authorization.
Furthermore, BillPay Connect offers a Voice Assisted Bill Payments facility. Customers can now. Pay their bills using voice commands on their home devices while receiving instant voice confirmation.
To enhance credit accessibility promote inclusion and encourage innovation NPCI has introduced credit lines on UPI. This new feature enables customers to have pre-credit lines from banks through UPI, which will revolutionize customer access, to credit and contribute towards a more streamlined and digital banking ecosystem.
NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) stated that this initiative will significantly expedite the process of availing connecting with and utilizing credit lines thereby driving growth and progress.
The initiative includes aspects. These include connecting approved credit lines banks creating credit products providing interest credit periods with corresponding interest rates having a clear schedule of charges offering customer engagement channels, for credit requests, and enabling the linking of various pre-approved credit lines via UPI-enabled apps for transactions.
To ensure compatibility all UPI apps, whether from banks or third-party providers will have the ability to discover and connect credit lines on UPI. They will also offer end-to-end customer services throughout the lifecycle.
Expanding on the success of the UPI LITE feature a new feature called UPI LITE X has been introduced for payments. This allows users to send and receive money without an internet connection. It enables transactions in areas with connectivity well. The NPCI mentioned that UPI LITE X is accessible to anyone, with a device supporting Near Field Communication (NFC) offering payment processing compared to other methods.
NPCI has announced a step, towards promoting the adoption of QR code and NFC technology with the introduction of UPI Tap & Pay. In addition to the scan and pay method users now have the option to simply tap NFC-enabled QR codes at merchant locations to complete their payments.
The launch event witnessed the presence of Nandan Nilekani, Advisor to NPCI and Non-Executive Chairman of Infosys along with Biswamohan Mahapatra, Non-Chairman of NPCI. These launches align with the monetary policy announcements by RBI as highlighted by NPCI.
Nilekani expressed his admiration for NPCI referring to it as a “crown jewel” of India’s technology sector that has far surpassed expectations.
The RBI established NPCI in 2008 as a profit company dedicated to payment services. Nilekani mentioned that it has laid the foundation for national information utilities and served as a model for organizations like GSTM for taxes DigiYatra app, and ONDC.
He also highlighted how India witnessed growth in startups from 1,000 in 2016 to 1 lakh, in 2023.
