The UPI, or Unified Payment Interface, system has many admirers and some detractors as well. But if there is something that cannot be denied by either side, it is the monumental impact the whole system has had on the fiscal mobility of the larger Indian economy.
Sachin Bansal Scrutinizes WhatsApp and Amazon
The system has changed the way we spend. It has also increased its footprint across the board, with other payment intermediaries accommodating UPI into their systems.
Sachin Bansal, the co-founder of Flipkart and now spearheading another venture, namely Navi, a fintech company, has shared his thoughts on the matter.
While speaking at an event in the start-up and tech capital Bengaluru, Sachin Bansal said, "People have spent money, but they haven't done justice to UPI. Whether you look at Amazon Pay, Flipkart's early attempts, or WhatsApp Pay, none of them made UPI a core focus." | Representative Image
According to Bansal, the two platforms, WhatsApp and Amazon, two foreign entities that have underutilized UPI.
Bansal thinks that WhatsApp Pay and Amazon Pay's apparent poor integration of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments has created an impediment, and has limited the impact in India's fintech space.
While speaking at an event in the start-up and tech capital Bengaluru, Sachin Bansal said, "People have spent money, but they haven't done justice to UPI. Whether you look at Amazon Pay, Flipkart's early attempts, or WhatsApp Pay, none of them made UPI a core focus."
According Bansal, India's indigenous UPI system was sidelined, and has been used as a side feature.
It, according to Bansal, it is down to the fundamentals of the interface of both applications. As it is difficult to locate these services on the applications, thereby potentially undermining their usage.
Bansal's most recent venture, the fintech company Navi Group, includes Navi Finserv, Navi General Insurance, and Navi UPI. The company was recently in the news with Navi Finserv being prohibited from making loan disbursement over violation of regulatory norms.
Navi, along with other companies including Manapurram Finance's Asirvad, were also ordered to stop lending for a certain period.
The ban was however lifted, allowing the company to do business.
Furthermore, Sachin Bansal has been in the process of restructuring his company, as part of which he stepped down from the position of the company CEO, to work as the executive chairman of the company. In addition, he also appointed new executives to the vacant positions.
