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Post offices across India will start accepting digital payments at counters from August after completing the rollout of a new application in their IT system, official sources said. Post offices have not been able to accept digital payments as they don't have their accounts synced with UPI (unique payment interface) system. "The Department of Posts is implementing its IT infrastructure which will have new applications that are enabled to perform transactions with Dynamic QR Code. Rollout will be completed at all post offices by August 2025," an official source told PTI. Pilot rollout of the new system under IT 2.0 has been started in the Karnataka circle. QR-based booking of mail products was successfully carried out at the Mysore head office (HO), Bagalkot HO and its subordinate offices. Initially, the Department of Post had introduced static QR code at the point of sale counters at the post offices to enable digital transactions. However, due to recurring technical difficulties
PhonePe on Friday said it has acquired the IP of GSPay -- a proprietary technology stack from conversational engagement platform Gupshup -- to enable UPI-based payments on new feature phones. The company in a statement said it plans to customise the stack and launch its own UPI payment app for new feature phones in India in the next few quarters. The new app will offer essential UPI features such as peer-to-peer transfers, offline QR payments, and receiving money via mobile numbers or self-QR codes. Industry research indicates that there were over 24 crore feature phone users in India in 2024, and in the next five years, another 15 crore feature phone shipments are anticipated. PhonePe CEO Sameer Nigam said the acquisition will help bring millions of feature phone users into the digital payments ecosystem, a segment largely underserved so far.
Pension is a basic entitlement and retired employees cannot be deprived of this payment, which is a very source of livelihood for them, the Bombay High Court has said, rapping the Maharashtra government for withholding the dues of a man for more than two years after his retirement. A division bench of Justices G S Kulkarni and Jitendra Jain on November 21 said such a state of affairs was totally unconscionable. The HC was hearing a petition filed by one Jayram More, who used to work as a 'hamal' (coolie) with the Savitribai Phule Pune University since 1983, seeking a direction to the Maharashtra government to release his pension amount. The high court noted that More had rendered a meritorious and unblemished service but still on untenable and technical grounds for a period of two years from his retirement (May 2021), he was not paid pension. More in his plea claimed that the pension was not being paid despite submission of all necessary documents by the University to the concerned
Aiming at strengthening economic ties with India, Russia's envoy to India on Monday said payment problems hinder trade and there is a need for "extra efforts" from banks and exporters to overcome this hurdle. Denis Alipov, Russian Ambassador to India, said that the Vostro trade settlement mechanism (Rupee payment) did not work well. "Some extra efforts are needed by companies and banks to explore the conditions," he said. He, however, did not elaborate on what he meant by "extra efforts". In response to a question on the sidelines of an MCCI-organised interactive session, he emphasised the necessity for additional efforts from Indian banks and exporters to resolve this issue. Though he admitted that resolving the payment method would require much fine-tuning, Alipov said banks are willing to cooperate. On the defence deal for the advanced long-range surface-to-air missile defence system S-400, Alipov acknowledged delays but said supplies are on but in a new schedule. Sanctions l
Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has directed mandatory geo-tagging of all civil work-related projects of Delhi government departments to curb corruption, cost escalation and delay in execution, according to a note of the Raj Niwas. It will also be mandatory for contractors to upload pictures of project sites before and after completion on the IT department's portal for evaluation. Payments will be made to them following verification by authorities, it said. "The LG (lieutenant governor) has made it mandatory to geo-tag each and every project on the IT department portal to curb corruption, cost escalation and inordinate delays in execution of civil works by various Delhi government departments," the note issued on Monday said. The directions were issued by the LG while approving a proposal of the Directorate of Vigilance, it said. Besides geo-tagging, he also directed heads of the departments to ensure uploading of progress report with photographs of projects and works, mandatorily on
The NPCI on Wednesday launched a slew of new payment options on popular payments platform UPI, including conversational transactions. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das announced the launch of the products by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) at the ongoing Global Fintech Festival here. One of the products is Hello! UPI that will enable users to make voice-enabled UPI payments via apps, telecom calls, and IoT devices in Hindi and English. It will soon be available in several other regional languages also. NPCI said the credit line on UPI facility will enable customers access pre-sanctioned credit from banks via UPI. Separately, users will be able to send and receive money offline using the other product, LITE X product. Further, the UPI Tap & Pay facility, in addition to the conventional scan-and-pay method, will allow customers to simply tap Near Field Communication- (NFC-) enabled QR codes at merchant locations to complete their payments. The .
A functionality enabling public procurement portal GeM to impose penal interest for making delayed payments to vendors by government ministries and departments will be operational in July, a senior official said on Tuesday. In 2020, the government decided to levy a 1 per cent penalty on government departments and agencies for delayed payments to vendors selling goods on the GeM platform. The provision would be effective from July, a senior official said on Tuesday. Government e-Market (GeM) CEO P K Singh said that there are issues pertaining to getting timely payments from buyers, particularly state governments. In case of the central government, the payments by enlarge happen in 10-15 days, he said, adding there are problems in case of state governments. "We are working on that and let me tell you that by the end of July, this functionality for imposing the penal interest will be up and running...Interests will be charged from October," Singh said here at CII MSME Growth Summit.