Tata
PhonePe, Google Pay, WhatsApp Pay, Amazon Pay and Paytm are some of the biggest and most popular UPI-based service providers in India right now. But soon, they are likely to face stiff competition from a UPI-based app from the Tata Group.
According to a report by The Economic Times, the Tata Group is seeking clearance from the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) to offer its own United Payments Interface (UPI)-based digital payments service in the country. The report citing sources said that the Tata Group has applied to the NPCI to operate as Third-Party Application Providers (TPAP) and that it is planning to launch the service as soon as next month.
Norms dictate that the non-banking payments platforms such as Amazon Pay, WhatsApp Pay and Google Pay have to partner with banks in order to offer their own UPI-based payments platforms in India. Companies usually prefer having multiple partners so that when the strain on their network increases, the payments can be distributed throughout the partner companies. It also ensures that end-users don’t face disruption while using the service. For this, Tata Groups’ digital commerce wing, Tata Digital, is in talks with the ICICI Bank to power its own UPI-based digital payments platform in India. The company is also in talks with another major private sector banking partner to power its digital payments platform.
Interestingly, the development comes at a time when the Tata Group has also finalised its plans of launching its super app dubbed as ‘Tata Neu’ during the IPL season next month. “They (Tata group) want to have this ready by the time Tata Neu is launched so more UPI payments can be enabled across the super app with ease,” the source told the publication.
Tata Neu app will give users easy access to all of Tata Digital’s apps such as BigBasket, 1mg, Croma, Tata Cliq and its flight booking service within a single app. Tata Digital is expected to make an official announcement in this regard on April 7.
