NPCI gives nod to WhatsApp Payments BHIM UPI beta, says interoperability must for public launch

NPCI; The National Payments Corporation of India, the underdog for all digital payments in the country, said that all partnering bodies must follow set or predefined rules and UPI guidelines to make the platform interoperable. This was in context to the speculation of Paytm accusing NPCI giving out favoring setbacks to Whatsapp for its Payments platform. Furthermore, NPCI says that it has given its consent to roll out WhatsApp BHIM UPI beta with a limited user base of 1 million and low per transaction limit. Four banks will join the multi-bank BHIM UPI model in phases and product will be rolled out once the beta test is successful. Multi-bank model has various advantages such as transaction load distribution, helps to integrate popular apps easily with BHIM UPI. The body further said that apps would only be enabled for full-scale public launch only if and when they incorporate interoperability, generate BharatQR codes and have both intents and collect payment options. This statement from NPCI comes in the wake of Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma accused by saying "Facebook is openly colonizing our payment system and is customizing UPI to their benefit. UPI was built as an India Stack; now some American monopoly arm-twists UPI for customer implementation." The founder said that he ...