While UIDAI has given a nod for face authentication, banks need to join the process.
This Budget positions India's taxation ideology as not merely a revenue source but as a strategic catalyst for growth, inclusion and long-term confidence.
Rediff explains why the system, not the Budget, is the problem.
Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Wednesday exhorted the fledgling fintech ecosystem to focus on the underserved sections of the society to deepen financial inclusion. Speaking at the annual Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, Malhotra accepted that serving the "privileged" will be a lucrative business, but urged the smaller companies to focus on the underserved.
The Reserve Bank on Thursday affirmed its commitment to continue with its supervisory measures aimed at early identification of risks and vulnerabilities. The central bank would also focus on enhancing cyber resilience and capabilities of Supervised Entities (SEs) by implementing the recommendations of the inter-regulatory Working Group, which has uniform baseline cybersecurity guidelines for financial entities, it said in its annual report.
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is stepping beyond vehicle manufacturing to build a national electric-mobility ecosystem.
'When I met the prime minister, he asked me, "Dr Ganguly, what do you do with people in your company who lie to you?"' 'I said, "Prime Minister, we counsel them and give them a gentle warning. If they lie again, they are sacked".' '"This is my problem,'" Rajiv responded. "I can't sack people in government".' A revealing excerpt from former Hindustan Lever Chairman Dr Ashok S Ganguly's We Are Our Future: Reflections On Life.
Budget 2026 sticks to fiscal discipline, shuns populist measures despite five key state elections coming up, but ends up rattling stock markets with a higher transaction tax on derivatives trading.
Nearly 7 out of every 10 P2M UPI transactions take place in high frequency categories like groceries, restaurants, pharmacies, fuel service stations, bakeries and utility services such as electricity, gas, water and sanitation.
While the move may give a competitive edge over rivals like Bangladesh in the global market, several industry bodies raised concerns that many state governments may not implement it on the ground.
Eyewear major Lenskart is gearing up to launch its first pair of AI-powered smart glasses by the end of December, marking a step towards positioning itself as a technology-led lifestyle brand, according to people familiar with the matter.
'The focus needs to shift towards the ability to collect payments, particularly in tier-3 to tier-4 areas where acceptance is still lacking.'
Gujarat police arrest a woman allegedly involved in trafficking job aspirants to Myanmar and Thailand for cyber slavery. The accused lured people with promises of high-paying jobs and forced them to work for international cyber crime syndicates.
A bill to repeal the MGNREGA and introduce a new rural employment law, the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), has been circulated among Lok Sabha members.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is in no rush to launch the central bank digital currency (CBDC) nationwide, as its most promising use case - cross-border payments - depends on other countries rolling out their own CBDCs simultaneously for the system to work effectively. That said, the CBDC pilot is progressing well, with the user base in India expanding to about seven million, said RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar.
'This marks a turning point for Paytm, with the regulatory environment looking much clearer than it has been in the last two years.'
An hour-long disruption could affect around 40 million UPI transactions.
Amazon Pay UPI has crossed 100 million customers, with the online platform used mainly for e-commerce transactions, utility bill payments and mobile recharges, the company announced on Monday.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and insisted on demands pertaining to the state, including on Fair Recovery Price of sugarcane, All India Institute of Medical Sciences for Raichur, the release of flood relief among others.
'The real story of 2025 is that India officially stopped being a 'market of the future' and started acting as the world's primary economic engine.'
The Indian government has introduced a next-generation e-passport with enhanced security features, including an embedded RFID chip, to combat forgery and impersonation. The rollout follows successful pilot testing and implementation across India and abroad.
'The Indian consumer is moving so quickly and they have so many options.'
With a confident new generation of innovators, India now has the scale and self-belief to shape its own digital destiny marked by creation, observes Ajay Kumar chairman, UPSC.
Non-banking entities such as fintech firms will have to tap into use cases beyond peer-to-peer (P2P) and peer-to-merchant (P2M) transactions to scale up the presence of the retail version of the central bank digital currency (CBDC), which is also known as the e, said industry players. These use cases will enable programmable transactions across domains, including the government's direct benefit transfer (DBT) schemes, with subsidies restricted to specific purposes such as food coupons, hospital bills, fertilisers, pesticides, and cross-border remittances.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday asked fintech firms to focus on risk management at a time when criminals are using AI to mimic voices, clone identities and create lifelike videos to manipulate people.
We propose an expert group be set up to form a national strategy on digital fraud. This group would bring together skills in financial regulation, security economics, cyber defence, and public communications, and an understanding of the Indian financial and security systems. It should lay the foundations of a coordinated approach by the Indian State in fighting digital fraud, suggest Ajay Shah and Nandkumar Saravade.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday released draft guidelines for streamlining the onboarding and monitoring of Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) operators to counter frauds perpetuated through the ecosystem. Banks and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) are required to comply with these directions within three months from the date of issue of the guidelines.
Several companies across sectors like finance, healthcare, wellness, retail technology, and asset management are bracing up to hit the D-street. With an unprecedented 1.7 lakh crore raised in 2025, the momentum is likely to sustain in 2026.
'Illegal gambling operators are systematically exploiting India's advertising and payment infrastructure, siphoning off crores of rupees from outside the country.'
Private sector lender Axis Bank on Wednesday launched the country's first contactless wearable payment devices to allow customers make on-the-go transactions more conveniently. Announcing the 'Wear N Pay' wearable devices brand, Axis Bank said it is the first bank in India to offer such a service. The bank has partnered with Thales and Tappy Technologies to design and create these products, which are exclusively available on the Mastercard platform, it said in a release.
Banks and NBFCs are launching festival offers, including lower loan rates, cashback, EMI schemes and GST-linked benefits to tap rising demand ahead of Diwali
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on Thursday issued orders restraining commercial transactions routed through intermediaries by a card network. The central bank, without naming the card network, said the intermediary with an arrangement with the network, did not have the authorisation to function under the Payment and Settlement Systems (PSS) Act. This led the regulator to suspend the arrangement till further notice.
UPI has catapulted India into the forefront on the global digital payments landscape. Working hand in hand, the AePS payments system is making life easy for rural folks, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
At the stroke of midnight, live dashboards lit up simultaneously across Amazon India's World Trade Centre headquarters and Flipkart's Outer Ring Road office in Bengaluru. In sprawling "war rooms" at both the companies, executives monitored real-time data streams tracking payment speeds, inventory levels, and delivery logistics as millions of shoppers flooded online platforms.
'India needs at least 70,000 to 80,000 eyewear stores; our 2,000 stores are just a drop in the ocean.'
'Our vision is to innovate as many products as we can and solve as many problems as possible.'
Lacking basic safeguards and regulations, India is fast emerging as a hub for illegal online betting and gambling market, with the top 15 such unauthorised platforms logging an alarming over 5.4 billion visits in FY25, according to a report by public policy think-tank on consumer sovereignty.
The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) has received "positive" feedback from industry regarding the 45-day payments cycle for MSMEs, according to a senior official familiar with the matter. The comment assumes significance amid concerns raised by some MSMEs that big companies may stop buying from small and medium suppliers and instead choose to make purchases from unregistered enterprises.
IOC resumes funding to IOA after "corrective measures" to resolve disputes and governance issues
'The larger and more opaque this shadow economy becomes, especially online, the greater the risk to India's national security.'
