Number of UPI transactions up 6% at 1.2 bn in Nov; value falls marginally

While the number of UPI transactions during November rose to 1.22 billion from 1 billion in October, the combined value of these declined marginally to Rs 1.89 trillion from Rs 1.91 trillion.

The number of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions via real time has reached 1.22 billion in November, compared to 1 billion in September. However, the value of UPI transactions for November was Rs 1.89 trillion — this is lower than the Rs 1.91-trillion announced last month.

These transactions were 6.1 per cent higher than in October, and 132 per cent higher on a year-on-year basis, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) data showed. Currently, 143 banks are live on UPI.

However, market players believe that the decline in value of transactions is not a cause for worry because October was a festive month. Mandar Agashe, founder and vice-chairman, Sarvatra Technologies, said, “Although the number of transactions has increased, value-wise the numbers are flat since it is being contrasted with the festive spending in October. 

However, a rise is expected once again with the New Year and Christmas celebrations around the corner. The recent news about UPI being adopted in Singapore is building its international presence, and will strengthen India’s position as a significant payments hub.”

October was a very good month for UPI because of the festive season, with transactions touching 1.15 billion for the month.

Anand Kumar Bajaj, managing director and chief executive officer, PayNearby, believes that the future of UPI is very bright. “There has been a steady rise in the volume of transactions, which clearly demonstrates the adoption of UPI services. A drastic growth will be seen once a large set of the population residing in rural areas starts using it more frequently. Enhancing awareness among retailers and end-consumers will go a long way in bringing in an exponential rise in UPI,” said Bajaj.

To push the reach of UPI further, the NPCI has collaborated with CIIE.CO and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to expand UPI to feature phones. Right now the UPI service is limited to smartphones. Interested start-ups and innovators can apply for the programme through NPCI’s website. CIIE.CO and NPCI will shortlist the most promising solution for further support.

The winner will win a cash prize of $50,000 and run a pilot of the solution with NPCI. The second and third runner-up will win a cash prize of $30,000 and $20,000, 

respectively.

Business Standard

Foreign hand: Govt sources say int'l lobbies may be behind WhatsApp spying

Govt sources said WhatsApp withheld information from the govt after the May revelations of a spyware targeting Indian users.

The government is exploring options to assess the extent of the impact caused by NSO Group’s spyware on Indian individuals even as home ministry sources said there are fears that international lobbies might have been involved in spying.

These lobbies, the ministry says, are trying to create a narrative around Indian governance as well as the economy.

“We have been investigating the spying allegations for some time and are trying to understand the extent of the damage done. We are also looking at lobby groups active in India to figure out if they were involved in this and why, and come out with a report soon on this issue,” said a senior official looking into the investigation.

WhatsApp said on October 29 it was filing a federal complaint in the US against Israeli technology firm NSO Group for a cyberattack that exploited a vulnerability in the chat app’s video-calling feature, which could compromise the target person’s device. According to reports, 121 Indians were also affected in the breach.

The breach was first reported in May this year but gathered steam in India after WhatsApp’s complaint and activists and journalists saying they received communication from Toronto-based Citizen Lab, which helped WhatsApp’s investigation of the breach.

Sources said some other investigative agencies including the National Investigation Agency (NIA) might be involved at a later stage. However, no such decision has been taken yet in this regard.

While NSO has maintained it sells only to governments, the India has so far not categorically accepted or denied buying NSO software by either the Centre, states, or government agencies. WhatsApp has said it will cooperate with the government to “do all we can to protect users from hackers attempting to weaken security”.

Business Standard

Bug creates unified payments interface IDs, Truecaller recalls app update

The firm said a new version with the fix will be available shortly for the affected users.

Call identification app Truecaller on Tuesday rolled back an update to its app after users complained of unified payments interface IDs getting created in their name without their knowledge.

Several users complained on social media about the app’s latest version (10.41.6) automatically sending an SMS from their phones, after which they began getting messages saying “Your registration for UPI app has started”.

“We have discovered a bug in the latest update of Truecaller that affected the payments feature, which automatically triggered a registration post updating to the version.

This was a bug and we have discontinued this version of the app.

so no other users will be affected,” Truecaller said in a statement. “We’re sorry about this version not passing our quality standards.

We’ve taken quick steps to fix the issue, and already rolled out a fix in a new version.”

The firm said a new version with the fix will be available shortly for the affected users.

“However, in the meanwhile they can choose to manually de-register through the overflow menu in the app.”

Business Standard