Innovation to be critical in driving UPI growth and usage, says NCPI COO Praveena Rai

Innovation will be critical to driving UPI growth and usage in India, Praveena Rai, Chief Operation Officer at NPCI said in a panel discussion ‘How to Make Real Time Payments Ubiquitous?’. Rai emphasised on the impact made by solutions like RuPay credit cards linked to UPI and UPI Lite in making this digital payment system popular among people.     

“UPI is deeply ecosystem-driven and tech-driven driving transformation of the payment industry in India,” Rai said adding that the technology stack to ensure a seamless user experience was crucial.

The discussion was hosted by Mindgate Solutions Pvt. Ltd -  a digital payment solutions provider and was attended by representatives from leading Indian banks like HDFC Bank, and State Bank of India (SBI) among others.

"UPI has been a game changer in the payment industry by bringing technology to the forefront and allowing ecosystems to grow without any inhibitions,” Ramesh Laxminarayan, CIO & Group Head-IT, HDFC Bank said.

“The role of data will also be critical as UPI will continue to connect to other ecosystems. And I feel Mindgate has the potential to be a truly global in beyond payments with the scale and deep tech expertise,” she said.

“CBDC, CBKonnect PFMS products for government business address critical needs of the bank and Mindgate is in for future partnership growth for HDFC. We look forward to our future partnership with Mindgate in the payment space," Laxminarayan said further.

“South Indian Bank was one of the first banks to go live on UPI. We believe many banks and organisations will adopt this model, where they will have a single partner like we do with Mindgate and invest in their model in the future,” Sony A, CIO of South Indian Bank said.

Meanwhile, George Sam, Business Head and Co-Founder of Mindgate Solutions said, "The world is moving towards real-time payments, and the key to success in this transition lies in the leadership of central banks, the adoption of overlay digital services while leveraging the benefits of the public cloud.  Open Banking, digital wallets, and digital ID systems are essential components as well as use of Data and AI.”