Pine Labs has started 2022 with a big announcement. The leading merchant commerce platform has received a new investment of US$20 million from India’s largest commercial bank, the State Bank of India (SBI).

Pine Labs a fintech company that serves prominent large, mid-sized, and small merchants across India and Southeast Asia.

Its cloud-based software platform enables it to offer a wide range of payment acceptance and merchant commerce solutions including enterprise automation systems such as inventory management and customer relationship management. Its stored value platform includes issuing, processing, and distributing digital gift cards for corporate customers around the world.

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Pine Labs has recorded incredible success thus far. In 2021 alone, the company raised almost US$600 million from a marquee set of new investors and followed it up with a US$100 million fundraise from the US-based Invesco Developing Markets Fund.

In addition to augmenting its merchant commerce offerings at the offline point-of-sale, Pine Labs is now looking to invest in scaling Plural, its newly launched brand of online payment products, and emerge as an omnichannel partner of choice for merchants.

According to B. Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs, having the largest bank of India, the State Bank of India places their trust in them, welcomes them in this journey where they are empowering merchants with seamless and secure payment experiences across offline and online platforms.

“In the last one year, several marquee investors have placed their trust in our business model and growth momentum and that is a gratifying feeling. This association with SBI is a personally satisfying experience as I had started my career selling financial services technology to SBI,” added Rau.

In April 2021, Pine Labs acquired Southeast Asian startup Fave in a deal valued at US$45 million as the Indian firm looks to strengthen its consumer-focused offerings in the domestic and international markets.

Since then, the company has continued expanding its Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) business across India and Southeast Asia. It also has a leading presence in the Gift, Prepaid and Stored Value segment through its 2019 acquisition of Qwikcilver.

The BNPL industry has been seeing growing competition in Southeast Asia as more companies are now jumping on the bandwagon and offering such services. Last month, Pine Labs announced a regional partnership with insurtech firm Igloo as well.

Towards the end of 2021, Pine Labs also announced the launch of Plural Tokenizer, a tokenization solution that works across leading card networks. This Card-on-File or CoF tokenization solution will replace the debit or credit card details of the cardholder with what are called ‘tokens’ or randomly generated numbers. The launch is in line with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines that mandate no entity other than the card issuer or card networks to store actual cardholder data with took effect from January 1, 2022.

The post Pine Labs secures investment from India’s largest bank appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

India has always been the country with state-of-the-art research and development centres focusing on chip design–but never one that produces chips locally. The government however plans to change this with a US$10 billion incentive scheme intended to boost the country’s semiconductor and display manufacturing. So far, the announcement has managed to lure American chipset giant Intel Corp to set up its first semiconductor manufacturing unit in India.

Currently, India relies on overseas manufactures for almost all of its semiconductor requirements. Since the world is fighting a severe chip shortage, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is even offering about US$30 billion in incentives to woo some of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers to set up shop in India and give the domestic industry a fillip.

Overall, India is looking to push electronics manufacturing to be worth US$300 billion in the next six years from the current US$75 billion now. The bigger dream though, is to turn India into a global electronics production hub.

What does the plan entail?

Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told a news briefing the plan would help develop “the complete semiconductor ecosystem – from the design of semiconductor chips to their fabrication, packing and testing in the country”. 

Additionally, as the government statement reads, the program will usher in a new era in electronics manufacturing by providing a globally competitive incentive package to companies in semiconductors and display manufacturing as well as design.”

Currently, under the plan, the government will extend fiscal support of up to 50% of a project’s cost to eligible display and semiconductor fabricators, the government’s statement shows. The country’s administration expects the scheme to create about 35,000 high-quality positions, 100,000 indirect jobs and attract investment worth 1.67 trillion rupees (US$8.8 billion).

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According to Ashwini, the government is looking at least two greenfield semiconductor fabs and two display fabs in the country, while at least 15 units of Compound Semiconductors and Semiconductor Packaging are expected to be established with government support under this scheme.

Under the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme, support will be provided to 100 domestic companies of semiconductor design for Integrated Circuits (ICs), Chipsets, System on Chips (SoCs), Systems & IP Cores and semiconductor linked design. It is under the DLI scheme that an incentive of up to 50% will be offered to eligible expenditure. Besides that, product deployment linked incentives of four to six percent will be provided on net sales for five years.

An independent ‘India Semiconductor Mission (ISM)’ will also be set up to drive the long-term strategies for developing a sustainable semiconductors and display ecosystem in the country. According to reports, it will be led by global experts in the semiconductor and display industry, and will act as the nodal agency for efficient and smooth implementation of the scheme.

So far, as per reports by local media, guidelines will be issued in early January 2022 on modalities of applying for semiconductor incentives, and that players will be given about 45-90 days to respond.

Intel joins the semiconductor league in India

Just days after the government announced the scheme promoting semiconductor manufacturing in India, Ashwini welcomed Intel to India in a response tweet to Intel’s India SVP and the president of Intel Foundry Services.

Intel – welcome to India. https://t.co/1Wy90HfAjy

— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) December 28, 2021

Intel, however, told Business Today that it has no new plans to announce at this time. “Intel India is Intel’s largest design centre outside of the US and we have been investing towards accelerating innovation and design engineering in India over the last two decades. However, we have no new plans to announce at this time,” a company spokesperson said.

The post India to allocate US$10b to boost semiconductor sector appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Twitter hackers targeting accounts of prominent individuals isn’t something new. In fact, there have been several high-profile cases of social media accounts like Twitter of celebrities, politicians, and sports personalities that have been breached over the years.

While celebrities who’ve had their social media pieces hacked did not have such a huge impact on their followers, it’s a different ball game when politicians get their accounts hacked. The most recent high-profile hack on Twitter was on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal Twitter handle.

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According to reports, the Indian Prime Minister’s Twitter handle @narendramodi was very briefly compromised. The matter was escalated to Twitter and the account was immediately secured. However, it wasn’t only until the account had tweeted.

Several screenshots of the tweet read, “India has officially accepted bitcoin as legal tender. The government has officially bought 500 BTC” and would be “distributing them to all residents of the country.” The tweet which came with a possible scam link has since been deleted.

The Twitter handle of PM @narendramodi was very briefly compromised. The matter was escalated to Twitter and the account has been immediately secured.

In the brief period that the account was compromised, any Tweet shared must be ignored.

— PMO India (@PMOIndia) December 11, 2021

The Twitter account has more than 70 million followers, which is one of the most for any world leader. While it is unsure who exactly hacked the Twitter account, the damage may have already been implicated to the followers.

Modi’s has already made headlines in crypto news when the government announced plans to regulate cryptocurrencies with some officials even calling for a ban on crypto trading in the subcontinent to protect their citizens. India is also one of the many countries that do not recognize Bitcoin as a legal tender.

Interestingly, it is not the first time the Prime Minister’s Twitter account has been compromised. Last year, the Prime Minister’s relief fund was taken over and a series of fake tweets were sent out seeking donations to an account belonging to the hackers.

Last week, Reuters reported Modi saying that emerging technologies such as cryptocurrencies should be used to empower democracy, not undermine it. Indian policymakers felts unregulated transactions in digital currencies could hurt macroeconomic and financial stability. While India initially planned to ban cryptocurrencies, the Modi government is now instead considering legislation to regulate their use.

India’s plan to regulate cryptocurrencies comes at a time whereby the global adoption of crypto is also increasing. In Southeast Asia, countries like Singapore and Thailand are already seeing higher crypto adoption among their citizens with some financial industries in both nations also accepting crypto payments.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Commonwealth Bank announced plans to allow users of its CommBank app to trade cryptocurrencies while Japan is planning to limit the number of issuers of cryptocurrencies. In the US, three US agencies have issued a joint statement that they plan on making regulations between banks and cryptocurrencies clearer. Over in China, the government has declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal and banned citizens from working with crypto-related companies.

Despite this, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt cryptocurrency as legal tender. Last month, the country’s president Nayib Bukele said he planned to build the world’s first “Bitcoin City” which is funded initially by Bitcoin-backed bonds.

Twitter hackers are one thing, but crypto hacking could be potentially a problem in India. The question now is, how will the market react once India launches its official digital currency and regulate crypto.

The post Did crypto hackers target Indian PM’s Twitter? appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

According to a statement by Amazon, over 52,000 new products are being launched by Indian exporters on Amazon websites, The Economic Times reported. Amazon has been helping Indian businesses with exports through its Amazon Global Selling program.

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“The BFCM sale marks the beginning of the global holiday season. Coming right after the festive season in India, it has traditionally been a key growth period for our selling partners and with more and more people relying on e-Commerce for products globally, we believe that the 2021 BFCM sales period will accelerate the export business for our sellers,” said Abhijit Kamra, Director of Global Trade, Amazon India.

While the BFCM sales period is expected to bring in big numbers, Amazon has also found itself in trouble with Indian law enforcement. AFP reported that Indian police have charged executives from Amazon’s local arm over claims the US retail behemoth’s online portal was used to smuggle and sell marijuana.

Two men were arrested last week with 21 kilograms (46 pounds) of the drug in central Madhya Pradesh state and told officers they were using Amazon’s India platform to ship their goods elsewhere in the country. They admitted to shipping their crop by falsely marketing it as stevia leaves, a natural sweetener, according to a police report seen by AFP on Sunday.

Executives from Amazon’s India unit had been included in the charges because of contradictions between evidence collected in the police investigation and responses received by the firm, the report said.

Neither police nor Amazon gave any indication of how many employees were facing charges. Amazon said it was investigating the case and pledged full cooperation with police in a Sunday statement to AFP.

“We do not allow the listing and sale of products which are prohibited under law to be sold in India,” a company spokesperson said.

The drugs case is the latest legal headache for the online marketplace’s Indian arm, which is also facing an antitrust probe along with Walmart subsidiary Flipkart. Both firms are being investigated by competition watchdogs over claims they gave preferential treatment to some sellers.

An opportunity for other e-Commerce players in India?

While the Amazon executives are being investigated in India, this might be an opportunity for smaller e-Commerce players in India to make a mark as well. The Indian e-Commerce industry is a rather unique one, divided between local and international brands.

Local e-Commerce players like Flipkart, SnapDeal have been competing with Amazon, which launched their business in India several years ago. In fact, Amazon’s business with local partners in India is worth about US$6.5 billion.

The Indian Brand Equity Foundation predicts the Indian e-Commerce market to grow to US$ 111.40 billion by 2025. Much of the growth for the industry has been triggered by an increase in internet and smartphone penetration. Out of the total internet connections, about 61% of connections were in urban areas, of which 97% connections were wireless.

E-Commerce giant Shopee has also announced interest in the Indian market. Reports showed the company had begun recruiting sales employees several weeks ago but no official announcement has been made by the company yet.

At the same time, e-Commerce customers in India are also demanding better services, with a majority of them preferring services that offer them flexible payment methods and such. For example, Snapdeal started using “Online Dispute Resolution” to solve customer issues by making resolutions tech-enabled, easy, and fast.

Going back to Amazon, the probe on the company’s India unit marks the concerns that come with e-Commerce as well. As the investigations continue, the reality is, e-Commerce will not slow down, especially with BFCM just around the corner. For e-Commerce players in India, one company’s problem might just be an advantage for them.

With additional reporting from © Agence France-Presse

The post Will Amazon’s probe affect India’s e-Commerce industry? appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

In September this year, El Salvador became the first country in the world to recognize bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency as a legal tender. In the US, the purchase and exchange of cryptocurrencies are legal across the country. While there are no federal legislation or crypto regulations for crypto assets in the US, the bodies at the federal level have offered guidance to states.

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Over in Europe, Ukrainians are reported as the most avid cryptocurrency users in the world. Statistics from Chainalysis show that roughly $8 billion worth of it now enters and exits the country annually, and the volume of crypto transactions each day, about $150 million, exceeds the volume of interbank exchanges in fiat currency.

The Economic Times reports that Ukraine plans to be the cryptocurrency capital in the world. For a country that does not have a stock market, it will be interesting to see how the plan to achieve this as other European nations is also slowly beginning to realize the potential of crypto and are drafting their own crypto regulations.

Things are looking a little different over in the Asia Pacific region though. China made headlines and caused some destabilizing of the crypto market when it announced a half and crackdown on crypto trading in the country. While China has made similar announcements in the past, this time they seem pretty adamant about halting any crypto trading in the nation.

In Southeast Asia, crypto trading is gaining traction, especially among users as well. Singapore recently reported a growing trend of users preferring crypto transactions while Malaysia allowed Luno to be the first regulated cryptocurrency exchange in the country in 2019.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) also recently announced that it will enable users to do crypto trading on the bank’s app. CBA is the first major Australian bank to enable crypto trading, partnering with one of the world’s largest regulated crypto exchanges and custodians, Gemini, and leading blockchain analysis firm, Chainalysis.

Can crypto regulations reduce crypto scams?

(Photo by Ozan KOSE / AFP)

With Asia and the rest of the world reaping the benefits of cryptocurrencies, it is no surprise that India has also seen an uprise in crypto trading. However, crypto trading in India may soon have more regulations, as the country hopes to create a secure environment for the usage of cryptocurrencies.

Reports show that Narendra Modi, Indian Prime Minister, led a review meeting on digital currency over the weekend and decided that the government will continue to proactively engage with experts and other stakeholders on the evolving technology.

This is not the first time India is looking at crypto regulations. In 2018, they effectively banned crypto transactions, but the Supreme Court struck down the restriction in March 2020. The Reserve Bank of India, which has been a critic of crypto is now working on a digital currency and the government may bring a crypto bill for the cabinet’s approval as well.

Well, as crypto gains popularity in the subcontinent, there have also been rising cases of crypto scams in the country. For example, when the Netflix show Squid Game became an instant hit among viewers, scammers released Squid, a play to learn cryptocurrency, which saw its price surge by thousands of percent. However, when Squid was revealed to be a scam, its value was lost but was still enough for scammers to make off with an estimated US$ 3.38 million.

More recently, India’s “biggest ever bitcoin scam” has led to some political accusations as well with opposition leaders accusing the government of a cover-up. Indian news reports highlighted the issue which is still being investigated by authorities.

At the same time, Check Point Research, which has unveiled crypto scams in the past, has also announced discoveries of more crypto scams which have resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars lost in the past few days. The scam campaign was triggered by search engine ads targeting crypto wallet users. The campaign uses fake URLs in search engine ads to lure victims, enabling scammers to steal wallet passwords to steal funds within the wallets.

With the government deciding on crypto regulations, the Indian crypto trading market is definitely not showing any signs of slowing down yet. For now, users only need to make sure they are aware of their crypto trading and avoid falling into any scams.

India’s crypto regulations may just be what the world needs when it comes to protecting users from crypto scams. The only question now is, how strict will be the regulations be and who will it really benefit.

The post India to tighten crypto regulations? appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Mahindra & Mahindra, an Indian automaker, said last month at a forum that it expects half of its vehicles sold by 2030 to be electric, reported CNBC.

This is despite the fact that the market for India’s EVs is still in its early stages. In fact, the country’s largest automaker, Maruti Suzuki, doesn’t even sell EVs.

And this is understandable, given that there are high associated costs with owning an EV, making it out of reach for a majority of the population.

Growing India’s EV market will be a challenge, as commuters tend to opt for more affordable vehicle options, and unfortunately, gas-powered vehicles, especially cars, are far more affordable.

In fact, most people in India do not own cars, hence subsidies or tax exemptions alone aren’t likely to work to entice consumers to switch to EVs. 

This trend is also similarly seen in Malaysia, where the EV market comprises higher-end luxury or premium vehicles. The most “affordable” EV there is at a price range that’s almost four times more than what the average Malaysian can afford.

Recently as well, India’s state of Delhi decided to do away with EV tax exemptions. EV purchase subsidies are one of the key features of the Delhi EV policy. 

According to transport minister Kailash Gahlot, the government has no plans to extend the subsidy system for the purchase of electric vehicles any further. 

India’s Delhi state’s electric vehicle policy, which began early last year, subsidized the first 1,000 electric cars purchased in the capital — on a first-come, first-served basis. 

“The electric cars segment has received the required push in Delhi. Our focus now is to tap the two-wheeler, freight, and public transport segments of electric vehicles (EVs) as they constitute a major chunk of Delhi’s over 10 million registered vehicles. They also ply on the road more as compared to private cars, thereby causing more pollution.”

India’s adoption of EVs still needs refinement

According to Anish Shah, managing director and CEO of Mahindra Group, there will three factors that can drive EV adoption in the country. 

The first would be to reduce the cost of ownership of EVs to be on par or lower than conventional gas-powered vehicles through short-term subsidies and longer-term production efficiency. 

Secondly, there needs to be enough charging and related infrastructure, and thirdly, electric vehicles should be able to cover sufficient range on a single charge.

Currently, most EVs utilize Li-ON (lithium-ion) batteries that are notorious for their low capacity, hence spurring a need in the EV battery industry to develop better ones such as solid-state.

Unfortunately, the EV battery industry is facing a talent shortage, making the advancement of EV battery tech a challenge. 

“What we’re seeing today is for three-wheelers, electric vehicles are at cost parity – they have enough range and there is infrastructure as well,” Shah said, adding they are “starting to take off very rapidly. Four wheelers are going to be a little slower but it’s again here to stay.”

“And we would expect about half our vehicles sold by 2030 to be electric,” he added, at the CNBC Sustainable Future Forum.

The company currently sells three and four-wheeler EVs in India. Three-wheelers are a popular vehicle choice as many Indian cities are underserved by public transportation. 

India is home to about 1.5 million battery-powered, three-wheeled electric tricycles or rickshaws on its roads. Recently, Honda announced plans to begin a battery-sharing service for electric tricycles in India in the first half of 2022.

Globally, the move towards the adoption of EVs is motivated by the need to combat climate change. Conventional vehicles are powered by gasoline or natural gas — products of crude oil (petroleum) refinement, which are a major contributor to climate change.

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Haasan, who turned 67 on Sunday, said in a statement on his birthday that he was “excited to explore the emerging intersection of the digital and physical world”.

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He added that he planned to auction virtual memorabilia in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) at an unspecified time.

NFTs are essentially digital tokens that carry data and are stored in an immutable blockchain ledger. Its main purpose is to represent assets and prove their authenticity and ownership.

Celebrity NFT platform Fantico will create a metaverse game where the actor will have his own world, the statement added.

It will allow fans to interact with his digital metaverse avatar, buy memorabilia and participate in meet-and-greet sessions within the game.

“To have a legend such as Kamal Haasan on our platform will only set the trend for more creators to adapt to the future of fan engagement,” said Fantico founder Abhayanand Singh.

The announcement comes a week after Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan raised just under $970,000 from an auction of his digital memorabilia — the first for an Indian celebrity — according to NFT trading platform Guardian Link.

NFTs — digital works of art, music, animation, images or video with a certificate of authenticity created by blockchain technology — have soared in popularity in recent months.

The metaverse meanwhile has recently gained attention after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last month that the tech giant saw the virtual reality version of the internet as the future.

Veteran screen icon Haasan, who also produces, directs and sings in many of his movies, is a massive star primarily in India’s Tamil-language film industry.

grk/stu/axn/lb

© Agence France-Presse

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As the Indian economy continues to grow, energy demand is increasing and air pollution is worsening. To address these issues, country-wide efforts are being made to expand the utilization of renewable energy and to actively pursue electrification of the transportation sector, which accounts for approximately 20% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.

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There are currently more than eight million units of auto-rickshaws in India, which are mainly powered by CNG (compressed natural gas) in urban areas and have been a key challenge for electrification. Some states in India are hoping to rely fully on an electric public transport system by the end of the decade.

The country is already experimenting with e-Mobility for public transport and has even deployed electric inter-city buses across some major cities. In addition, state governments are also playing an active role in the deployment of policies encouraging the usage of electric vehicles.

For instance, Kerala aims to put one million electric vehicles on the road by 2022 and 6,000 e-buses in public transport by 2025. The state of Telangana aims to have electric vehicles sales targets for 2025 to achieve 80%. This does not only include private cars but also motorcycles, scooters, and auto-rickshaws.

Despite the increased adoption of electric tricycles, there is still a shortage of charging stations. As of 2017, the subcontinent only has 425 charging stations. The plan is to build 2800 stations by 2022.

But the reality is, electrified mobility products have issues of long-range travel, long charging times, and high costs of batteries. In fact, Tata plans to launch electric cars with a larger battery pack than its existing models.

Is battery sharing the answer for electric tricycles?  

For electric tricycles, Honda has plans to begin a battery-sharing service for electric tricycles in India in the first half of 2022. The rickshaws will be using Honda’s Mobile Power Pack e: (MPP), a new all-portable and swappable battery. Honda will work to eliminate the issues through the use of swappable batteries and by sharing such batteries.

(source honda)

As such, Honda began demonstration testing for battery sharing on electric tricycles in India in February 2021, with 30 units of electric rickshaw taxis driven for a total of more than 200,000 km in operation. Through this testing, Honda identified issues to be addressed and verified business viability.

The MPP is a portable and swappable lithium-ion battery capable of storing a large amount of electricity, more than 1.3kWh, which is an increase from the previous version of the MPP. It also features a body and handles designs reflecting the thorough pursuit of user-friendliness and excellence in handling by incorporating user feedback Honda obtained through demonstration testing.

The key features of the battery include high versatility, meaning it can be utilized as a power source for a broad range of compatible devices. It also has high durability from heat dissipation, deterioration due to high temperature, sufficient water resistance, vibration resistance, and shock resistance under the expected normal operating environment.

The built-in control unit also recognizes the conditions of the MPP and records the occurrence of all events. This data will be collected through the connector while MPP is charging and then utilized for the battery sharing operation and other secondary uses.

Battery sharing to solve battery woes?

Honda’s battery sharing service will enable rickshaw drivers to stop by at the nearest battery swapping stations being set up in the city and swap an MPP with a low remaining charge for a fully charged MPP. The use of this service will significantly reduce driver concern about running out of batteries as well as the risk of losing business opportunities with customers while waiting for rickshaw batteries to be charged.

Minoru Kato, Chief Officer, Life Creation Operations, Honda Motor Co believes MPP has huge potential to electrify all kinds of devices, including small-sized mobility products, and expand the use of renewable energy.

“By offering a battery sharing service in India, Honda will contribute to the accelerated electrification of rickshaws and expanded use of renewable energy. Moreover, Honda will continue serving people worldwide with the joy of expanding their life’s potential by further expanding the utilization of the MPP into broader areas,” said Minoru.

The company will establish a local subsidiary in India to conduct a battery-sharing service business. The subsidiary will install several Honda Mobile Power Pack Exchanger e: as battery swapping stations and conduct battery sharing services in the city. Honda will work with electric rickshaw manufacturers and begin the service in selected cities first and then expand to other areas in stages.

While the idea of battery sharing within electric tricycles seems possible, the same process unfortunately may not work for energy vehicles. This is because energy vehicles use much larger batteries and take longer to charge as well. There has been some success in the creation and usage of superchargers but it may be some time before electric vehicles can begin sharing batteries.

The post Honda to enable battery sharing for electric tricycles in India appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

EV purchase subsidies are one of the key features of the Delhi EV policy. According to transport minister Kailash Gahlot, the government has no plans to extend the subsidy system for the purchase of electric vehicles any further.

India’s Delhi state’s electric vehicle policy, which began early last year, subsidized the first 1000 electric cars purchased in the capital — on a first-come, first-served basis. 

“The electric cars segment has received the required push in Delhi. Our focus now is to tap the two-wheeler, freight, and public transport segments of electric vehicles (EVs) as they constitute a major chunk of Delhi’s over 10 million registered vehicles. They also ply on the road more as compared to private cars, thereby causing more pollution.”

About 73% of the 10 million registered vehicles in Delhi are two-wheelers. 

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On October 28, the Delhi government plans to only procure electric buses in the future, with an aim to increase the share of zero-emission vehicles in public transport to over 50%. 

The government will induct at least 2,300 e-buses into its fleet by the end of 2022, and upgrade all existing bus depots with EV charging infrastructure, reports The Hindustan Times.

Reportedly, transport officials said there is lesser demand for electric cars or four-wheelers as compared to other EV segments owing to a lack of options in the auto market. 

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“There are very few e-car variants that have an affordable price tag. Things may look up from next year, as auto manufacturers Tata and Hyundai are planning to introduce electric hatchback variants,” said a senior transport official, on condition of anonymity.

At present, very few variants of e-cars are available in the market and most of them are above ₹15 lakh.

Tata Nexon EV ranges from ₹13.99 lakh to ₹16.85 lakh, Mahindra E-Verito costs between ₹12.67-13.03 lakh, Hyundai Kona electric ranges from ₹23.71-23.91 lakh, MG ZS EV is between ₹20.99-24.68 lakh, and Mercedes Benz EQC costs around ₹1.06 crore.

The post Subsidies for electric cars in Delhi, India to be withdrawn appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

With a population of 1.4 billion, the subcontinent is home to some of the largest e-Commerce companies in the world as well. Amazon, Flipkart, and Grofers India are some of the biggest e-Commerce players in the country that continue to see positive growth, especially during the festive season.

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In fact, the festive season in India saw 60% of consumers using digital payments multiple times per week according to a study from YouGov and ACI Worldwide. The frequency in digital payments usage has also increased 57% from the previous year, with only 6% of respondents in the study stating they have no intention to use digital payments during the festive season.

The latest data from The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) showed that UPI generated 3.65 billion transactions worth INR 6.54 trillion in September, breaking all previous records both in transaction volume and value. Monthly transactions on the UPI platform have also nearly doubled since a year ago when there were 1.8 billion transactions worth INR 3.29 trillion monthly.

Statistics from Statista Research Department showed that in June 2021, providers of UPI in India recorded a total of 2.8 billion digital payment transactions worth over five trillion Indian rupees. Out of the 2.8 billion transactions, Walmart subsidiary PhonePe had a share of 46% and GooglePay a share of 35%. The third big player is Paytm with a share of nearly 12%.

“It is encouraging to see the heightened trust in digital payments by Indian consumers, which is also corroborated by the month-on-month growth in transaction volumes, increased frequency of usage among consumers, and use of digital payments for higher-value payments. This reinforces the fact that digital payments are becoming an even more integral part of our daily lives, as India continues to shine as a global leader in real-time, digital payments,” said Ankur Saxena, country leader, South Asia, ACI Worldwide.

Why are digital payments in India popular?

Digital payments in India has seen innovation in recent times, with the latest being the government’s launch of e-RUPI several months ago. Until typical digital payments, however, it comes in the form of a prepaid e-voucher from UPI.

India’s UPI illustrates how an enabling policy framework and supportive regulation can create the infrastructure needed for swift adoption. Government institutions, particularly the central bank, encouraged the use of tools such as QR codes for merchants and radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags for toll gates.

ACI and YouGov’s findings also showed that concerns over digital payments fraud have decreased, with 24% identifying it as a concern compared to 30% last year. In line with this trend, digital payments are considered the most secure way to pay for one-third (33%) of respondents, up from one quarter (24%) in 2020, and just behind cash-on-delivery (35%).

While the study showed that 50% of those preferring digital payment methods to be young adults, between the age of 24 to 35, the over-45 age group continued to divide their payment preferences between card payments and digital payments almost equally.

Judging by those figures, it’s not surprising that 57% continue to use digital payments for groceries and essentials, which remains the most common category for digital payment purchases. Nearly half of those surveyed used digital payments for apparel (48%) and electronics (47%), with other popular categories including household appliances (43%) and homewares (41%).

70% of respondents also said that with the greater dependence on online shopping that developed during pandemic-related restrictions, they now prefer online to in-store shopping. However, 60% also said they look forward to in-person shopping if adequate precautions – including social distancing – are in place.

As such, digital payments in India will most likely only see increased adoption in the future. And with schemes like buy now pay later and e-wallet services increasing, the competition in the industry is also going to be tougher. E-commerce players are aware of this and will be doing their very best to attract more customers with more digital payment flexibilities as well.

The only question now is, will these services also be able to guarantee a secured experience for users. While there have been no major incidents reported yet of any breakdown in the digital services, payment providers and e-Commerce players need to ensure they are prepared to handle the situation if it arises.

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