Soon you will be able to UPI payments through voice, NPCI launches new products
NPCI said it has partnered with AI4Bharat at IIT Madras, to co-develop Hindi and English payment language models.
The NPCI launched a wide range of new payment options on widely used payment platform UPI, including voice-based payments. The products of the NPCI were launched by RBI governor Shaktikanta Das at the ongoing Global Fintech Festival. The launch took place in the presence of Advisor to NPCI and Infosys Non-Executive Chairman Nandan Nilekani and Non-Executive Chairman of NPCI Biswamohan Mahapatra.
The wide new range of products such as Credit Line on UPI, UPI LITE X, and Tap & Pay, Hello! UPI and Conversational Bill Payments which are aimed at creating an inclusive, resilient, and sustainable digital payments ecosystem and will help UPI achieve the target of 100 billion transactions per month, said NPCI.
Hello! UPI, will help users make voice-enabled payments via apps, telecom calls, and IoT devices in Hindi and English and will soon be available in several other regional languages as well. Hello! UPI has been divided into segments: Conversational Payments on UPI and BillPay Connect.
Conversational payments underscore the emergence of a novel paradigm for human-machine interaction facilitated by AI-enabled transactions that will further deepen the reach and use of digital payments in the country, NPCI said in a statement. NPCI has also said that it has partnered with A14Bharat at IIT Madras to co-develop English and Hindi language models.
With BillPay Connect, Bharat BillPay introduced a nationalised number for bill payments across the country, NPCI said. It also added that customers can now conveniently fetch and pay their bills by sending a ‘Hi’ on the messaging app. Along with this, customers without smartphones or immediate mobile data access will be able to pay bills by giving a missed call as well and customers using this method will immediately receive a call for verification and payment authorisation.
To expand access to credit, promote financial inclusion and innovation, NPCI has rolled out credit line on UPI. According to NPCI, this will enable pre-sanctioned credit lines from banks via will revolutionise customer access to credit, fostering a more streamlined and digital banking ecosystem. With this, the process of availing, connecting, and utilising credit lines will be significantly expedited, driving economic growth and progress, it added.
The initiative has several key features, including linking pre-sanctioned credit lines, creation of digital credit products by banks, establishment of interest-free credit periods and corresponding interest rates, defined schedule of charges, customer engagement channels for credit sanction requests, and the ability to link various pre-sanctioned credit lines via UPI-enabled apps for transactions, NPCI stated. They also said that to ensure seamless interoperability, all apps including bank and third-party ones, will be empowered to discover and link credit lines on UPI, as well as provide end-to-end customer lifecycle services.
Benefits of UPI
UPI Lite X was also launched for offline payments. Users through this feature will be able to send and receive money while being offline which will allow users living in places with poor connectivity to also use the benefits of UPI. This feature will be accessible to those with compatible devices that supports NPC, providing us with faster payments as they require less time to process the payments.
In a significant move towards enhancing QR code and NFC technology adoption, Tap & Pay has been rolled out, NPCI said, adding that in addition to the conventional scan-and-pay method, users will now have the option to simply tap NFC-enabled QR codes at merchant locations to complete their payments.
Terming the NPCI as the “crown jewel” of India’s technology sector, Nilekani said it has far exceeded expectations. “It has set the stage for national information utilities. Using NPCI as the template, we have several bodies of similar structures, whether it is GSTM for taxes, DigiYatra app, ONDC,” he said.
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