IPO-bound PhonePe announces UPI payments on feature phones
Live Events
Fintech firm PhonePe announced rollout of UPI-based payments for feature phones with the purchase of GSPay technology stack from conversational engagement platform Gupshup.GSPay is a mobile application built on top of UPI 123PAY , the UPI payment solution for feature phones by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). PhonePe said it will customise and extend the recently acquired GSPay IP and launch its own feature-phone based UPI payment mobile app on new feature phones in India, over the next few quarters.PhonePe will offer basic UPI features, such as P2P transfers, offline QR payments, and receiving money from other UPI customers to users' mobile numbers or self-QRs, to create full payment interoperability between feature phones and smartphones.'This (feature phones) segment of users has been historically underserved by the digital financial industry and the broader startup ecosystem. We hope we can enable crores of these feature phone customers to participate in India's burgeoning digital payments market," said Sameer Nigam, cofounder and chief executive of PhonePe.According to industry data, India had approximately 24 crore feature phone users in 2024, and 15 crore more feature phone shipments are expected over the next five years.The company has recently added Zarin Daruwala to it board of directors, where she joins CEO Nigam, Walmart chief financial officer John David Rainey, former revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj and others.Daruwala retired as the CEO of Standard Chartered Bank-India on March 31 after a nine-year-long stint. Before that, she managed the wholesale banking business of ICICI Bank as president of the vertical. In this capacity, she also served on the boards of key ICICI group companies, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, and ICICI Securities. In the past, she has been on the board of JSW Steel.PhonePe has started the process to list on the Indian exchanges by converting into a public company from a private entity in April 2025.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Local Court Lawyers Up In Arms Over Shifting Of 34 Digital Courts
New Delhi: Lawyers from the district courts decided on Saturday to roll back their decision to abstain from work in protest against the shifting of the judges of the 34 digital Negotiable Instruments Act courts to the Rouse Avenue courts. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now A statement released by the All District Courts Bar Association of Delhi on Saturday said that the lawyers' coordination committee met the chief justice of and was assured that all digital courts would function strictly as digital platforms only. The remaining proceedings and judicial work only would be conducted in the regular local courts, the statement said. "Necessary directions are being issued to all presiding officers instructing them not to insist on the physical appearance of any stakeholders, including parties, counsel, police officers, etc, in c+ourt," the statement added. On May 30, high court chief justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya inaugurated the 34 digital courts at the Rouse Avenue Courts complex to hear cases under the NI Act. Only judges of these courts will operate from Rouse Avenue, while the staff —readers, ahlmads and stenographers — will operate from their respective districts. The association on Friday, June 6 decided to abstain from work opposing the decision of shiftingthecourts. The digital courts deal with cases related to cheque bounces across six court complexes. The Lok Sabha was informed by the Union law minister in Dec 2024 that Delhi ranked fourth among top five Indian states with regard to NI Act cases and has 4.5 lakh pending cases. A judge in a NI Act court, on average, holds 80 hearings every day. According to the National Judicial Data Grid, until June 7, there were 15.1 lakh cases, of which 31% were cheque bounce cases. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Last year, advocate Jagriti Jain filed a public interest litigation, highlighting administrative lapses in the digital NI Act court in North district. The petition pointed out the huge pendency of cases as well as connectivity problems of the portal used for digital hearings. In April 2024, a division bench comprising then acting chief justice Manmohan and justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora directed steps to be taken to address the issue of digital connectivity and network problems. On May 22 this year, the bench disposed of the Jain's PIL, noting that connectivity issues had been resolved after the registrar general of the high court submitted a report on May 9 outlining the remedial measures taken. A second digital NI Act court was established in the North district and all pending matters were evenly distributed between the two courts. Advocate Parthesh Bhardwaj, who appeared for Jain, told TOI, "As of June, with multiple functioning courts, better cause list management and strengthened technical infrastructure, the average time between hearings at digital NI Act courts in all districts has significantly reduced."
New Indian Express
2 hours ago
- New Indian Express
Embed Indian carbon market in global trade context
The PAT experience Though there are several areas where PAT, launched in 2012, could be implemented better, it has created industry familiarity with a measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) mechanism and a good number of accredited energy auditors. The carbon credit trading scheme (CCTS) will reduce the PAT reporting frequency from three years to an annual basisthereby increasing the spend on the MRV as well as speed of emissions reduction. Absent renewable energy, a majority of industrial emissions emerge out of energy consumption. PAT compliance has entailed over ten years of industry efforts to reduce energy consumption. The low hanging fruit of energy intensity has already been picked. Industry majors have invested in best available technology. Without further investment in technology, can the obligated entities reduce emissions further or will they simply bear the cost of purchasing carbon credits from other better performers? Indian carbon market embedded in global decarbonisation PAT was an autonomous measure to discipline industrial energy consumption. It did not function under any multilateral pressure or even context. CCTS on the other hand will have to respond to linkages and contestation with several carbon markets. CCTS will be a tool to defend Indian industry against cheap imports as well as to gain access to carbon conscious export markets. Building the trade dimension into the Indian Carbon market is imperative to create policy and business opportunities. The PAT experience Though there are several areas where PAT, launched in 2012, could be implemented better, it has created industry familiarity with a measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) mechanism and a good number of accredited energy auditors. The carbon credit trading scheme (CCTS) will reduce the PAT reporting frequency from three years to an annual basis thereby increasing the spend on the MRV as well as speed of emissions reduction. Absent renewable energy, a majority of industrial emissions emerge out of energy consumption. PAT compliance has entailed over ten years of industry efforts to reduce energy consumption. The low hanging fruit of energy intensity has already been picked. Industry majors have invested in best available technology. Without further investment in technology, can the obligated entities reduce emissions further or will they simply bear the cost of purchasing carbon credits from other better performers? Indian carbon market embedded in global decarbonisation PAT was an autonomous measure to discipline industrial energy consumption. It did not function under any multilateral pressure or even context. CCTS on the other hand will have to respond to linkages and contestation with several carbon markets. CCTS will be a tool to defend Indian industry against cheap imports as well as to gain access to carbon conscious export markets. Building the trade dimension into the Indian Carbon market is imperative to create policy and business opportunities.
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
12k of SAIL's 16k tonnes of steel for tallest rail bridge supplied by Bhilai plant
Raipur: The Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has played a pivotal role in the construction of the world's tallest railway bridge over the Chenab River in Jammu & Kashmir, supplying a total of 16,000 tonnes of steel — with its Bhilai Steel Plant alone contributing 12,000 tonnes to the project. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now A senior official from the Bhilai plant confirmed the figure on Friday, hailing it as a proud moment for the Indian steel industry and a major milestone in nation-building. The Chenab Railway Bridge, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 6, 2025, is now the highest railway arch bridge on the planet, rising 359 metres above the riverbed — even taller than the Eiffel Tower. The bridge is part of the strategically crucial Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project and aims to bring seamless all-weather connectivity to Kashmir, significantly improving both civilian and military mobility. SAIL's contribution to the bridge included a wide range of steel products such as TMT bars, heavy plates, structural steel, and hot strip mill products. From the total volume supplied, the Bhilai Steel Plant alone provided 5,922 tonnes of TMT bars, 6,454 tonnes of steel plates, and 56 tonnes of structural steel. The remaining steel was delivered by SAIL's IISCO, Durgapur, Rourkela, and Bokaro plants. Officials said that the construction of this 1.3 kilometre long bridge involved the use of approximately 29,000 metric tonnes of fabricated steel, over 10 lakh cubic metres of earthwork, 66,000 cubic metres of concrete, and a vast network of 84 kilometres of cable anchors and rock bolts. Engineered to endure wind speeds of up to 266 kmph and strong earthquakes, the bridge is being seen not just as an engineering feat, but a strategic lifeline to India's northern frontier. SAIL's Bhilai Steel Plant, known for producing high-grade TMT bars with earthquake- and corrosion-resistant properties, has been a consistent contributor to key national infrastructure. Its steel has previously been used in iconic structures like the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, Atal Setu, Sela and Atal Tunnels, and even in defence applications including warships like INS Vikrant. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now According to the Bhilai plant official, the bridge is yet another example of how SAIL's quality steel is powering India's most ambitious projects. "From high-altitude tunnels to bullet trains and now the world's tallest railway bridge, SAIL steel — especially from Bhilai — is proving essential to India's infrastructure push," the official said.
