Technology companies such Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and WhatsApp Inc. are in talks with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to enable Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-enabled payment on their platforms, a move which, if executed successfully, would significantly boost digital payments in the country.
Among the three, Google is in advanced talks with NPCI to integrate its digital payment service, Android Pay, with UPI. According to Live Mint, NPCI managing director and chief executive A.P. Hota said that the company has completed discussions with NPCI, which has in turn requested the Reserve Bank of India to consider the firm’s application.
Hota added that Facebook and its subsidiary WhatApp have also initiated talks to enable UPI-based payments on their respective platforms.
Google announced the launch of Android Pay in March 2015. The same month, Facebook announced that it would enable peer-to-peer payments through Facebook Messenger. In April this year, several news reports suggested that WhatsApp, which was bought by Facebook in February 2015, is planning to launch UPI-enabled peer-to-peer payments in India.
