UPI Would Be Now Available In Offline Mode, A Common App For All Bank Users; Dedicated Helpline For ePayments Planned
Paytm, a private company handles around 60-70 lakh transactions a day, while United Payment Interface (UPI), a path-breaking digital payment solution launched by Indian Govt. handles only 70,000 transactions a day.
This is certainly a failure of UPI, as it is still not able to penetrate the cashless payments industry in India.
National Payments Corporation of India MD AP Hota said, “But we are not very happy. 70,000 is not really a number to be satisfied with. We believe that in the days ahead, further improvement can happen,”
Understanding a need to revamp, transform usability and accessibility of UPI, Govt. of India has undertaken a major drive in this direction.
UPI Would Be Transformed, Revamped
As per reports coming in, a new app for UPI would be launched in the next few days, which would act as a single platform for all bank users. Right now, there are more than 30 UPI apps from every bank, and the bank customer is often confused regarding its usage.
This new single UPI app has been designed in a way, so that any customer from any bank can easily use UPI to make and receive payments from customer of any other bank.
Hence, interoperability aspect of UPI would be realized via this new app from now on. This new app would basically integrate all existing features of various UPI apps into one. Thus, the user would be able to:
- Send or receive money
- Linking of accounts
- Saving profile of the user
- Changing the language
- Recording beneficiary details
- Providing balance enquiry
Besides, plans are also on to combine USSD with UPI, and integrate the services in a way that non-Internet users are also able to use these services and conduct cashless transactions.
As per available information, this new UPI app would be launched in the first week of January.
Dedicated Helpline For Digital Payments: 14444
NITI Ayog, Nasscom, TRAI and all telecom operators have combined their forces to create a common, dedicated helpline for solving all queries pertaining to digital payments at one single location.
14444 would be that helpline.
In a statement, NITI Ayog said, “Nasscom, telecom operators, along with NITI Aayog, were creating a helpline — 14444 — for addressing all queries on digital payments,”
More details regarding this one-of-its-kind helpline are still awaited.
This announcement was made during a joint meeting of all Chief Ministers to understand and solve problems related with digital payments. As per Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu, 1 million PoS terminals would be imported to expand the reach of digital payments across the nation.
We will keep you updated as more details come in..
Whenever I read about UPI, I searched for it on the internet but could not find it. The search engine does not show any UPI website. All the search results are news reports about its app launch or lead to government websites. There is no single web interface like PayTM or Freecharge where a user can start using it. All news reports would say that lots of banks are using it so it gives the feeling that there is no single gateway. I assumed netbanking is based on this UPI. I do not have smartphone so if it is available only through the app then it would remain limited to smartphone users. I use other digital wallets and they can be used through their websites. UPI will have to cover users of all devices and encourage merchants and service providers to use it.