#Changes in FASTag rules

[hitchzone24]

Essential Fastag Update you need to know for 2024

Starting from 1st August 2024, several important updates regarding FASTag usage and compliance have been introduced by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). These updates aim to streamline the toll payment process and ensure a more secure and efficient system for vehicle owners. Here’s what you need to know about the new FASTag rules effective from August 1, 2024.

i) KYC Updates

One of the significant changes is the requirement for Know Your Customer (KYC) updates. Vehicle owners with FASTags issued three to five years ago mist update their respective KYC details by October 31, 2024.

This update is mandatory to continue using the FASTag service without any interruptions. If your FASTag is older than five years, you will need to replace it with a new one to comply with the regulations.

ii) Linking Vehicle Information

From April 1, 2024, the "One FASTag, One Vehicle" policy became mandatory. This policy requires each FASTag to be uniquely associated with a specific vehicle. All FASTag users must link their tags to the vehicle’s registration number (VRN), chassis number, and owner’s mobile number. New vehicle owners must update their registration number on the FASTag within 90 days of purchase. This measure helps prevent misuse and makes certain that each transaction is correctly attributed.

iii) Verification of Database

FASTag service providers are now required to verify and update their databases regularly. This includes a confirmation that the linked vehicle details match the ones in the VAHAN database so that everything is accurate and up-to-date.

iv) Linking Mobile Number

Each FASTag has to be linked with the mobile number of the owner. This linkage ensures better communication between the users and providers of FASTag. Furthermore, users will also benefit from receiving timely updates, notifications, and alerts.

Make sure your mobile number is correctly linked to avoid missing out on any crucial information.

v) Photo Upload

Lastly, to make sure that the vehicle associated with FASTag is correctly identified, providers must upload clear photographs of the vehicle. The images include the front and side of the vehicle as well as a clear view of the FASTag that’s affixed to the vehicle.

This requirement enhances security and ensures that the FASTag is being used correctly and legally.

Overall, by adhering to all the above guidelines, vehicle owners can ensure a smooth and hassle-free toll payment experience. Thus, it’s wise to stay updated and make the necessary changes before the final deadline of October 31, 2024 or you’ll have to face the penalty of double the toll charges.

[vosostore01]

Pay Your Customers Bills Anytime, Anywhere with the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS)

We've all had the experience of standing in queues to pay our electricity or water bills, or any other municipal bills for that matter. Paying government bills in India was insanely difficult, tedious, and time-consuming. More than that, it was a waste of time. But, on the recommendation of the RBI, the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) launched the BBPS. Users of the BBPS can pay a variety of municipal bills all under one roof thanks to its comprehensive platform and integrated payment system. It was a significant step toward changing India's payment system, similar to the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS).

What is Baharat bill payment system? 

Here are some important objectives of BBPS-

The Bharat Bill Payment System, also known as BBPS, is a payment ecosystem that NPCI has conceptualized. For all recurring bills, it serves as a one-stop shop and offers payment services whenever and wherever. One can pay all types of bills, such as those for electricity, loans, water, credit cards, tuition, and more, through a single gateway.

The rules for the Integrated Payment System were established by the RBI in November 2014. After that, NPCI created BBPS and launched it formally in 2016.

BBPS develops a platform to link payment service providers, retail bill outlets, and banks and non-banks engaged in the bill aggregation business.

What kind of bills can be paid via BBPS?

BBPS accepts payments for the following bills via various payment methods:

Water bill

Gas bill

Loan repayment 

Fastag recharge 

Landline recharge 

Postpaid recharge 

Broadband bill

LIC premium 

Education fee

Electricity bill

Insurance premium 

Housing society bill

Conclusion 

In India, BBPS is becoming more popular. Since the implementation of this incredible payment system, no longer have to wait in long queues to pay their municipal bills; instead, they can do so anytime by Voso Franchise Partner.

[newseaters]

Fastag हुआ अनिवार्य, चेक भुगतान का नया तरीका लागू, जानिए क्या-क्या हुए बदलाव

Fastag हुआ अनिवार्य, चेक भुगतान का नया तरीका लागू, जानिए क्या-क्या हुए बदलाव

1 Jan 2021 Rules Changing: 2020 की कढ़वी यादें भुलाकर दुनिया ने नए साल में प्रवेश कर लिया है। यह जानना भी बहुत जरूरी है कि 1 जनवरी 2021 से कौन से नियम बदल गए हैं या नए नियम लागू हो गए हैं। घरेलू रसोई गैस के दाम हर माह की तरह अपडेट हुए। अच्छी बात यह रही कि कोई बदलाव नहीं हुआ। वहीं कुछ ऐसे नियम में बदले, जिनका सीधा असर आम आदमी पर पड़ेगा। कहीं राहत महसूस हुई है, तो कहीं जेब पर बोझ बढ़ा है। जानिए 1…

[vilaspatelvlogs]

साल ही नहीं, बहुत कुछ बदला: लैंडलाइन से मोबाइल पर कॉल करने से पहले 0 लगाना होगा, चेक से पेमेंट का सिस्टम भी बदलेगा

साल ही नहीं, बहुत कुछ बदला: लैंडलाइन से मोबाइल पर कॉल करने से पहले 0 लगाना होगा, चेक से पेमेंट का सिस्टम भी बदलेगा

Hindi News Welcome 2021 Rules Changing From 1 January 2021 | Cheque Payment Rule WhatsApp Smartphone Working; What Are 10 Big Changes That Will Impact You From Today Ads से है परेशान? बिना Ads खबरों के लिए इनस्टॉल करें दैनिक भास्कर ऐप 21 मिनट पहले कॉपी लिंक कोरोना-कोरोना करते-करते साल बीत गया। नया साल नई उम्मीदें लेकर आया है। उम्मीदें कुछ बेहतर होने की। उम्मीदें कुछ नया होने की। उम्मीदें कुछ…

[edwincollme]

How will AI change the nature of jobs in India?

The advent of globalisation in the last decade of the 20th century was a watershed event in the history of Indian economy. The gradual unfolding of globalisation led to innumerable changes in the nature of jobs. Be it the primary, secondary or tertiary sector,  each one underwent a paradigm shift. However, it were the primary and secondary sectors which were most affected. The tertiary sector started witnessing a gradual expansion. As such the contours of the emerging jobs in the next two decades adjusted to this change.

The global economy now is changing and it is changing at brisk pace. In the age of neo globalisation, where every country is connected to each other,  India is no exception. Economy of India  is also changing and reacting to the global market.

 The clocks of change

When we refer to change in the post globalisation period, we are actually referring to the change in the nature of jobs due to emergence of artificial intelligence. With most of the global technological giants automating, there is always a fear of joblessness across all the sectors. This fear mostly dwells in the unorganized sector and the workforce subjected to repetitive jobs. As entrepreneurs are preoccupied with the ideology of capitalism, this notion would not allow them to see anything beyond profit, even if it comes at the cost of survival jobs. Then what is the way to survive in the age of post capitalism. The answer is artificial intelligence itself. Short and time bound artificial intelligence course would be the panacea to deal with joblessness.

 Emergence of AI courses

Let us briefly understand how artificial intelligence course will resolve the so called dichotomy between man and machine. Here we would need to imagine a scenario where a worker operates on a hole drilling machine and that too manually. For all practical purposes, an AI embedded machine would be much suited to take over this work. However, the AI machine would not be able to takeover the entire course. This means that certain inputs and critical decision making will need to be reserved for the experience of the worker. In a critical scenario, if the machine is enabled to take over the entire process, it may create mayhem in an extreme case of uncertainty. Hence, if the operators are skilled in artificial intelligence course, they would not only supplement the machine but also make it fool proof. 

 Numbers don't lie

 A survey conducted with attendees of Intelligent Automation, Chicago, 2017 revealed the following figures:

· 53 percent participants had mooted that they plan to partially automate 29% of their business processes using emerging technologies. 

· About 39% of participants had confirmed that the major challenge in implementing machine  learning is Standardization of systems before implementation step.

· One more thought provoking finding is that 69% of participants confirmed that the technologies will be employed for more value-added work and 9% felt no impact will happen.

 The scenario in India 

India is not immune from the changes which are taking over worldwide. India has already chalked out a path of automation along the lines of Digital India. Digital India is said to be a mission that would realistically leave no sector immune from its impact. Be it logistics, railway, fastags, education, healthcare, manufacturing, maintenance, management, banking or other businesses, the path of automation has already been cleared by digital India.  

Thus, to prevent an upcoming jobless, we will need to train our workforce in short artificial intelligence courses. This would fulfil the dual needs of digitization and skill training in artificial intelligence. In this way, what is alleged to be among one of the most fearful technological threats can prove to be a big blessing. All that is needed is to realize the potential that is encrypted in the impending artificial intelligence revolution. 

 Concluding remarks 

Andrew Yang popularly said:

"Automation is no longer just a problem for those working in manufacturing. Physical labour was replaced by robots; mental labour is going to be replaced by AI and software."

The observation of Andrew Yang befits the scenario in which India is placed. While fearing about a technological transformation in various sectors, we seem to be sceptical about the future of artificial  intelligence technology in India. To get rid of these fears, the answer is simple, that is to ride along the wave of technology and rule it in the long run!

[popularnews]

Changes From 1st March 2021: these 5 major changes will be made, including the rules of banking and Fastag, they will also have a direct impact on you. | आज से बैंकिंग और फास्टैग के नियमों में होगा बदलाव, इनका आप पर भी होगा सीधा असर

[newsnextnow]

5 major rules impacting your everyday life changing from February 2021 | Personal Finance News

5 major rules impacting your everyday life changing from February 2021 | Personal Finance News

New Delhi: Several rules that have a major impact in the lives of common man are going to change from February. These rules range from LPG Cylinder prices, PNB ATM Cash withdrawal, mandatory fastags to name a few. Since these rules are going to affect your everyday life, it is important to know more about these changes in detail. Here are  rules that are going to change from February 2021. Budget…

[enter21st]

Check payments FASTag whatsapp support and other new rules come into effect - Fastag, check payment, phone call, many changes have happened in the new year, WhatsApp will be closed on these phones

Check payments FASTag whatsapp support and other new rules come into effect – Fastag, check payment, phone call, many changes have happened in the new year, WhatsApp will be closed on these phones

January 1, 2021, that is, with the start of the new year, many major changes will be seen by the people, for the information of the people, let us know that some new rules have also been implemented. From fastag to expensive trains and from check payment to contactless card payment, January 1 or so, what are the major changes that will affect you in the first month of the new year, let us know in…

[col-life23]

1 January 2021 rules regarding lpg cyliner cheque payment fastag gst return landline phone number rule will change

1 January 2021 rules regarding lpg cyliner cheque payment fastag gst return landline phone number rule will change

Many rules related to your everyday life are going to change from the beginning of new year i.e. January 1, 2021. These include Fastag, GST, Gas Cylinder, Insurance, Check Payment, Calling, Whatsapp, Price of Trains etc. If you ignore some rules then it can harm you. However, in some places you will also benefit. From 1 January, the positive pay system (positive payment system) will be applicable…

[colddazetimetravel]

Mandatory FASTags to GST return filing: These rules are changing from next month

Mandatory FASTags to GST return filing: These rules are changing from next month

With New year coming, many rules are going to be implemented now. FasTags are going to be mandatory for all four wheelers. FASTag will be mandatory for four-wheelers or M&N category of vehicles that were sold before 1 December, 2017. New GST return filing facility is going to be mandatory for small taxpayers. Positive Pay System for cheques from 01.01.2021 is to be implemented. The issuer will…

[vilaspatelvlogs]

काम की खबर: 1 जनवरी से बदल जाएंगे आपके रोजमर्रा से जुड़े ये नियम, जेब भी होगी ढीली

काम की खबर: 1 जनवरी से बदल जाएंगे आपके रोजमर्रा से जुड़े ये नियम, जेब भी होगी ढीली

नई दिल्ली: नए साल का काउंटडाउन शुरू हो चुका है. बस कुछ रोज और हम 2021 में प्रवेश कर जाएंगे. साल बदलने के साथ-साथ कुछ नियमों में भी बदलाव होने वालें हैं. जिनका पैसों के लेनदेन, बीमा, ऑटोमोबाइल खरीदारी से लेकर  बिजनेस तक पर प्रभाव पड़ने वाला है. वैसे तो कुछ नियम जनवरी में ही लागू हो जाएंगे, लेकिन ये 1 जनवरी से प्रभावी नहीं होंगे. आइए आपको बताते हैं 2021 में होने वाले कुछ इन्हीं बदलावों के बारे…

[iloudlyclearbouquetworld]

Banking ; EMI ; LPG ; hawai yatra ; fastag ; Rule Change From 1 September ; There Will Be Changes In These 4 Rules Including Air Travel And Banking From August 1, It Will Also Have An Effect On Your Pocket. | 1 सितंबर से बैंकिंग और शेयर बाजार में निवेश सहित इन 6 नियमों में हुए बदलाव, इसका आपकी जेब पर भी होगा असर Hindi News Utility Banking ; EMI ; LPG ; Hawai Yatra ; Fastag ; Rule Change From 1 September ; There Will Be Changes In These 4 Rules Including Air Travel And Banking From August 1, It Will Also Have An Effect On Your Pocket.

[kisansatta]

टोल टैक्स पर सरकार ने बदले नियम, इन्हे मिलेगा लाभ

नई दिल्ली। एक शहर से दूसरे शहर जाने वाले को इस खबर पर ध्यान देना चाहिए जैसा की हम सब जानते हैं डिजिटल पेमेंट (Digital Payment) को बढ़ावा देने के मकसद से केंद्र सरकार ने FASTag के नियमों में बदलाव कर दिया है। अब 24 घंटे के भीतर वापस लौटने पर उन्हीं वाहनों को टोल टैक्स छूट मिलेगी जिनकी गाड़ी में फास्टैग (FASTag) लगा होगा।

कहने का मतलब ये हुआ कि अगर कैश पेमेंट करके टोल टैक्स देते हैं, तो 24 घंटे के भीतर वापस लौटने पर आपको टोल टैक्स में कोई छूट नहीं मिलेगी। सरकार यह चाहती है कि सभी गाड़ियों की आवाजाही FASTag के तहत दर्ज हो।

  यूपी : बुंदेलखंड वासियों के लिए सौगात ,जल्द बन कर तैयार होगा बुंदेलखंड एक्सप्रेस-वे

  FASTag से भुगतान करने के फायदे

नए नियमों के मुताबिक, अगर 24 घंटे के भीतर वापस आते हैं तो इसमें मिलने वाले डिस्काउंट के लिए रसीद की कोई जरूरत नहीं है। टोल प्लाजा पर खुद ही FASTag के अकाउंट से पैसे कट जाएंगे। फास्टैग होने पर ही मिलेगा डिस्काउंट: बहुत सारे टोल टैक्स पर कुछ विशेष तरह के डिस्काउंट दिए जाते हैं। जैसे कुछ गाड़ियों पर डिस्काउंट के तहत टोल टैक्स नहीं लिया जाता, लेकिन अब यह डिस्काउंट तभी मिलेगा, जब उन पर फास्टैग लगा हुआ होगा।

डिजिटल भुगतान को बढ़ावा देने के लिए ये नियम बनाया गया है कि भुगतान स्मार्ट कार्ड, फास्टैग या फिर किसी अन्य प्रीपेड इंस्ट्रुमेंट के जरिए ही होगा। वहीं दूसरी तरफ बगैर FASTag लगी गाड़ी FASTag वाली लाइन में चली जाती है तो दोगुना टोल टैक्स देना होगा। साथ ही अगर FASTag एक्टिव नहीं है, त��� भी आपसे डबल टैक्स लिया जाएगा।

  राज्यों को जीएसटी मुआवजे के मुद्दे पर पहुंची सोनिया गांधी

https://kisansatta.com/government-changes-rules-on-toll-tax-they-will-get-benefits/ #BreakingNews, #HindiNews, #TollTaxRuels Breaking news, hindi news, toll tax ruels In Focus, National, Trending #InFocus, #National, #Trending KISAN SATTA - सच का संकल्प

[sheminecrafts]

Mobile payments firms in India are now scrambling to make money

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and chief executive of India’s most valuable startup, Paytm, posed an existential question in a recent press conference.

“What do you think of the commercial model for digital mobile payments. How do we make money?” Sharma asked Nandan Nilekani, one of the key architects of the Universal Payments Infrastructure that created a digital payments revolution in the country.

It’s the multi-billion-dollar question that scores of local startups and international giants have been scrambling to answer as many of them aggressively shift their focus to serving merchants and building lending products and other financial services .

New Delhi’s abrupt move to invalidate much of the paper bills in the cash-dominated nation in late 2016 sent hundreds of millions of people to cash machines for months to follow.

For a handful of startups such as Paytm and MobiKwik, this cash crunch meant netting tens of millions of new users in a span of a few months.

India then moved to work with a coalition of banks to develop the payments infrastructure that, unlike Paytm and MobiKwik’s earlier system, did not act as an intermediary “mobile wallet” to serve as an intermediary between users and their banks, but facilitated direct transaction between two users’ bank accounts.

Silicon Valley companies quickly took notice. For years, Google and the likes have attempted to change the purchasing behavior of people in many Asian and African markets, where they have amassed hundreds of millions of users.

In Pakistan, for instance, most people still run errands to neighborhood stores when they want to top up credit to make phone calls and access the internet.

With China keeping its doors largely closed for foreign firms, India, where many American giants have already poured billions of dollars to find their next billion users, it was a no-brainer call.

“Unlike China, we have given equal opportunities to both small and large domestic and foreign companies,” said Dilip Asbe, chief executive of NPCI, the payments body behind UPI.

And thus began the race to participate in the grand Indian experiment. Investors have followed suit as well. Indian fintech startups raised $2.74 billion last year, compared to 3.66 billion that their counterparts in China secured, according to research firm CBInsights.

And that bet in a market with more than half a billion internet users has already started to pay off.

“If you look at UPI as a platform, we have never seen growth of this kind before,” Nikhil Kumar, who volunteered at a nonprofit organization to help develop the payments infrastructure, said in an interview.

In October, just three years after its inception, UPI had amassed 100 million users and processed over a billion transactions. It has sustained its growth since, clocking 1.25 billion transactions in March — despite one of the nation’s largest banks going through a meltdown last month.

“It all comes down to the problem it is solving. If you look at the western markets, digital payments have largely been focused on a person sending money to a merchant. UPI does that, but it also enables peer-to-peer payments and across a wide-range of apps. It’s interoperable,” said Kumar, who is now working at a startup called Setu to develop APIs to help small businesses easily accept digital payments.

Vice-president of Google’s Next Billion Users Caesar Sengupta speaks during the launch of the Google “Tez” mobile app for digital payments in New Delhi on September 18, 2017 (Photo: Getty Images via AFP PHOTO / SAJJAD HUSSAIN)

The Google Pay app has amassed over 67 million monthly active users. And the company has found the UPI pipeline so fascinating that it has recommended similar infrastructure to be built in the U.S.

In August, the Federal Reserve proposed to develop a new inter-bank 24×7 real-time gross settlement service that would support faster payments in the country. In November, Google recommended (PDF) that the U.S. Federal Reserve implement a real-time payments platform such as UPI.

“After just three years, the annual run rate of transactions flowing through UPI is about 19% of India’s Gross Domestic Product, including 800 million monthly transactions valued at approximately $19 billion,” wrote Mark Isakowitz, Google’s vice president of Government Affairs and Public Policy.

Paytm itself has amassed more than 150 million users who use it every year to make transactions. Overall, the platform has 300 million mobile wallet accounts and 55 million bank accounts, said Sharma.

Search for a business model

But despite on-boarding more than a hundred million users on their platform, payment firms are struggling to cut their losses — let alone turn a profit.

At an event in Bangalore late last year, Sajith Sivanandan, managing director and business head of Google Pay and Next Billion User Initiatives, said current local rules have forced Google Pay to operate in India without a clear business model.

Mobile payment firms never levied any fee to users as a strategy to expand their reach in the country. A recent directive from the government has now put an end to the cut they were receiving to facilitate UPI transactions between users and merchants.

Google’s Sivanandan urged the local payment bodies to “find ways for payment players to make money” to ensure every stakeholder had incentives to operate.

Paytm, which has raised more than $3 billion to date, reported a loss of $549 million in the financial year ending in March 2019.

The firm, backed by SoftBank and Alibaba, has expanded to several new businesses in recent years, including Paytm Mall, an e-commerce venture, social commerce, financial services arm Paytm Money and a movies and ticketing category.

This year, Paytm has expanded to serve merchants, launching new gadgets such as a stand that displays QR check-out codes that comes with a calculator and a battery pack, a portable speaker that provides voice confirmations of transactions and a point-of-sale machine with built-in scanner and printer.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Sharma said these devices are already garnering impressive demand from merchants. The company is offering these gadgets to them as part of a subscription service that helps it establish a steady flow of revenue.

The firm’s Money arm, which offers lending, insurance and investing services, has amassed over 3 million users. The head of Paytm Money, Pravin Jadhav, resigned from the company this week, a person familiar with the matter said. A Paytm spokeswoman declined to comment. (Indian news outlet Entrackr first reported the development.)

Flipkart’s PhonePe, another major player in India’s payments market, today serves more than 175 million users, and over 8 million merchants. Its app serves as a platform for other businesses to reach users, explained Rahul Chari, co-founder and CTO of the firm, in an interview with TechCrunch. The company is currently not taking a cut for the real estate on its app, he added.

But these startups’ expansion into new categories means that they now have to face off even more rivals, and spend more money to gain a foothold. In the social commerce category, for instance, Paytm is competing with Naspers-backed Meesho and a handful of new entrants; and heavily-backed OkCredit and KhataBook today lead the bookkeeping market.

BharatPe, which raised $75 million two months ago, is digitizing mom and pop stores and granting them working capital. And PineLabs, which has already become a unicorn, and MSwipe have flooded the market with their point-of-sale machines.

A vendor holds an Mswipe terminal, operated by M-Swipe Technologies Pvt Ltd., in an arranged photograph at a roadside stall in Bengaluru, India, on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“They have no choice. Payment is the gateway to businesses such as e-commerce and lending that you can monetize. In Paytm’s case, their earlier bet was Paytm Mall,” said Jayanth Kolla, founder and chief analyst at research firm Convergence Catalyst.

But Paytm Mall has struggled to compete with giants Amazon India and Walmart’s Flipkart. Last year, Mall pivoted to offline-to-online and online-to-offline models, wherein orders placed by customers are serviced from local stores. The company also secured about $160 million from eBay last year.

An executive who previously worked at Paytm Mall said the venture has struggled to grow because its goal-post has constantly shifted over the years. It has recently started to focus on selling fastags, a system that allows vehicle owners to swiftly pay toll fees. At least two more executives at the firm are on their way out, a person familiar with the matter said.

Kolla said the current dynamics of India’s mobile payments market, where more than 100 firms are chasing the same set of audience, is reminiscent of the telecom market in the country from more than a decade ago.

“When there were just four to five players in the telecom market, the prospect of them becoming profitable was much higher. They were scaling like crazy. They grew with the lowest ARPU in the world (at about $2) and were still profitable.

“But the moment that number grew to more than a dozen overnight, and the new players started offering more affordable plans to subscribers, that’s when profitability started to become elusive,” he said.

To top that off, the arrival of Reliance Jio, a telecom operator run by India’s richest man, in 2016 in the country with the cheapest tariff plans in the world, upended the market once again, forcing several players to leave the market, or declare bankruptcies, or consolidate.

India’s mobile payments market is now heading to a similar path, said Kolla.

If there were not enough players fighting for a slice of India’s mobile payments market that Credit Suisse estimate could reach $1 trillion by 2023, WhatsApp, the most popular app in the country with more that 400 million users, is set to roll out its mobile payments service in the country in a couple of months.

At the aforementioned press conference, Nilekani advised Sharma and other players to focus on financial services such as lending.

Unfortunately, the coronavirus outbreak that promoted New Delhi to order a three-week lockdown last month is likely going to impact the ability of millions of people to use such services.

“India has more than 100 million microfinance accounts, serviced in cash every week by gig-economy workers, who hawk vegetables on street corners or embroider saris sold in malls, among other things. Three out of four workers make a living by working casually for others or at their family firms and farms. Prolonged shutdowns will impair their ability to repay loans of 2.1 trillion rupees ($28.5 billion), putting the world’s largest microfinance industry at risk,” wrote Bloomberg columnist Andy Mukherjee.

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Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and chief executive of India’s most valuable startup, Paytm, posed an existential question in a recent press conference.

“What do you think of the commercial model for digital mobile payments. How do we make money?” Sharma asked Nandan Nilekani, one of the key architects of the Universal Payments Infrastructure that created a digital payments revolution in the country.

It’s the multi-billion-dollar question that scores of local startups and international giants have been scrambling to answer as many of them aggressively shift their focus to serving merchants and building lending products and other financial services .

New Delhi’s abrupt move to invalidate much of the paper bills in the cash-dominated nation in late 2016 sent hundreds of millions of people to cash machines for months to follow.

For a handful of startups such as Paytm and MobiKwik, this cash crunch meant netting tens of millions of new users in a span of a few months.

India then moved to work with a coalition of banks to develop the payments infrastructure that, unlike Paytm and MobiKwik’s earlier system, did not act as an intermediary “mobile wallet” to serve as an intermediary between users and their banks, but facilitated direct transaction between two users’ bank accounts.

Silicon Valley companies quickly took notice. For years, Google and the likes have attempted to change the purchasing behavior of people in many Asian and African markets, where they have amassed hundreds of millions of users.

In Pakistan, for instance, most people still run errands to neighborhood stores when they want to top up credit to make phone calls and access the internet.

With China keeping its doors largely closed for foreign firms, India, where many American giants have already poured billions of dollars to find their next billion users, it was a no-brainer call.

“Unlike China, we have given equal opportunities to both small and large domestic and foreign companies,” said Dilip Asbe, chief executive of NPCI, the payments body behind UPI.

And thus began the race to participate in the grand Indian experiment. Investors have followed suit as well. Indian fintech startups raised $2.74 billion last year, compared to 3.66 billion that their counterparts in China secured, according to research firm CBInsights.

And that bet in a market with more than half a billion internet users has already started to pay off.

“If you look at UPI as a platform, we have never seen growth of this kind before,” Nikhil Kumar, who volunteered at a nonprofit organization to help develop the payments infrastructure, said in an interview.

In October, just three years after its inception, UPI had amassed 100 million users and processed over a billion transactions. It has sustained its growth since, clocking 1.25 billion transactions in March — despite one of the nation’s largest banks going through a meltdown last month.

“It all comes down to the problem it is solving. If you look at the western markets, digital payments have largely been focused on a person sending money to a merchant. UPI does that, but it also enables peer-to-peer payments and across a wide-range of apps. It’s interoperable,” said Kumar, who is now working at a startup called Setu to develop APIs to help small businesses easily accept digital payments.

Vice-president of Google’s Next Billion Users Caesar Sengupta speaks during the launch of the Google “Tez” mobile app for digital payments in New Delhi on September 18, 2017 (Photo: Getty Images via AFP PHOTO / SAJJAD HUSSAIN)

The Google Pay app has amassed over 67 million monthly active users. And the company has found the UPI pipeline so fascinating that it has recommended similar infrastructure to be built in the U.S.

In August, the Federal Reserve proposed to develop a new inter-bank 24×7 real-time gross settlement service that would support faster payments in the country. In November, Google recommended (PDF) that the U.S. Federal Reserve implement a real-time payments platform such as UPI.

“After just three years, the annual run rate of transactions flowing through UPI is about 19% of India’s Gross Domestic Product, including 800 million monthly transactions valued at approximately $19 billion,” wrote Mark Isakowitz, Google’s vice president of Government Affairs and Public Policy.

Paytm itself has amassed more than 150 million users who use it every year to make transactions. Overall, the platform has 300 million mobile wallet accounts and 55 million bank accounts, said Sharma.

Search for a business model

But despite on-boarding more than a hundred million users on their platform, payment firms are struggling to cut their losses — let alone turn a profit.

At an event in Bangalore late last year, Sajith Sivanandan, managing director and business head of Google Pay and Next Billion User Initiatives, said current local rules have forced Google Pay to operate in India without a clear business model.

Mobile payment firms never levied any fee to users as a strategy to expand their reach in the country. A recent directive from the government has now put an end to the cut they were receiving to facilitate UPI transactions between users and merchants.

Google’s Sivanandan urged the local payment bodies to “find ways for payment players to make money” to ensure every stakeholder had incentives to operate.

Paytm, which has raised more than $3 billion to date, reported a loss of $549 million in the financial year ending in March 2019.

The firm, backed by SoftBank and Alibaba, has expanded to several new businesses in recent years, including Paytm Mall, an e-commerce venture, social commerce, financial services arm Paytm Money and a movies and ticketing category.

This year, Paytm has expanded to serve merchants, launching new gadgets such as a stand that displays QR check-out codes that comes with a calculator and a battery pack, a portable speaker that provides voice confirmations of transactions and a point-of-sale machine with built-in scanner and printer.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Sharma said these devices are already garnering impressive demand from merchants. The company is offering these gadgets to them as part of a subscription service that helps it establish a steady flow of revenue.

The firm’s Money arm, which offers lending, insurance and investing services, has amassed over 3 million users. The head of Paytm Money, Pravin Jadhav, resigned from the company this week, a person familiar with the matter said. A Paytm spokeswoman declined to comment. (Indian news outlet Entrackr first reported the development.)

Flipkart’s PhonePe, another major player in India’s payments market, today serves more than 175 million users, and over 8 million merchants. Its app serves as a platform for other businesses to reach users, explained Rahul Chari, co-founder and CTO of the firm, in an interview with TechCrunch. The company is currently not taking a cut for the real estate on its app, he added.

But these startups’ expansion into new categories means that they now have to face off even more rivals, and spend more money to gain a foothold. In the social commerce category, for instance, Paytm is competing with Naspers-backed Meesho and a handful of new entrants; and heavily-backed OkCredit and KhataBook today lead the bookkeeping market.

BharatPe, which raised $75 million two months ago, is digitizing mom and pop stores and granting them working capital. And PineLabs, which has already become a unicorn, and MSwipe have flooded the market with their point-of-sale machines.

A vendor holds an Mswipe terminal, operated by M-Swipe Technologies Pvt Ltd., in an arranged photograph at a roadside stall in Bengaluru, India, on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“They have no choice. Payment is the gateway to businesses such as e-commerce and lending that you can monetize. In Paytm’s case, their earlier bet was Paytm Mall,” said Jayanth Kolla, founder and chief analyst at research firm Convergence Catalyst.

But Paytm Mall has struggled to compete with giants Amazon India and Walmart’s Flipkart. Last year, Mall pivoted to offline-to-online and online-to-offline models, wherein orders placed by customers are serviced from local stores. The company also secured about $160 million from eBay last year.

An executive who previously worked at Paytm Mall said the venture has struggled to grow because its goal-post has constantly shifted over the years. It has recently started to focus on selling fastags, a system that allows vehicle owners to swiftly pay toll fees. At least two more executives at the firm are on their way out, a person familiar with the matter said.

Kolla said the current dynamics of India’s mobile payments market, where more than 100 firms are chasing the same set of audience, is reminiscent of the telecom market in the country from more than a decade ago.

“When there were just four to five players in the telecom market, the prospect of them becoming profitable was much higher. They were scaling like crazy. They grew with the lowest ARPU in the world (at about $2) and were still profitable.

“But the moment that number grew to more than a dozen overnight, and the new players started offering more affordable plans to subscribers, that’s when profitability started to become elusive,” he said.

To top that off, the arrival of Reliance Jio, a telecom operator run by India’s richest man, in 2016 in the country with the cheapest tariff plans in the world, upended the market once again, forcing several players to leave the market, or declare bankruptcies, or consolidate.

India’s mobile payments market is now heading to a similar path, said Kolla.

If there were not enough players fighting for a slice of India’s mobile payments market that Credit Suisse estimate could reach $1 trillion by 2023, WhatsApp, the most popular app in the country with more that 400 million users, is set to roll out its mobile payments service in the country in a couple of months.

At the aforementioned press conference, Nilekani advised Sharma and other players to focus on financial services such as lending.

Unfortunately, the coronavirus outbreak that promoted New Delhi to order a three-week lockdown last month is likely going to impact the ability of millions of people to use such services.

“India has more than 100 million microfinance accounts, serviced in cash every week by gig-economy workers, who hawk vegetables on street corners or embroider saris sold in malls, among other things. Three out of four workers make a living by working casually for others or at their family firms and farms. Prolonged shutdowns will impair their ability to repay loans of 2.1 trillion rupees ($28.5 billion), putting the world’s largest microfinance industry at risk,” wrote Bloomberg columnist Andy Mukherjee.

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[100newsup]

FASTag के नियमों में बदलाव, अगर ये गलती की तो फास्‍टैग होते हुए भी देना पड़ेगा डबल टोल टैक्स

नई दिल्ली: राष्ट्रीय राजमार्ग प्राधिकरण (NHAI) ने नए निर्देश जारी किए हैं जिसके अनुसार अगर आप अपने वाहन की आगे की विंडशील्ड पर फास्टैग (FASTag) नहीं लगाएंगे, तो आपको टोल प्लाज़ा पर डबल टोल चार्ज देना होगा। NHAI का यह कदम हाईवे पर यात्रा करने वालों को फास्टैग का इस्तेमाल करने के लिए ��्रोत्साहित करना है। एनएचएआई ने कहा कि विंडस्क्रीन पर जानबूझकर फास्टैग न लगाने से टोल प्लाजा पर अनावश्यक देरी होती…