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Payments giant Visa said Wednesday that it has embedded its payment network inside of ChatGPT, empowering the chatbot to independently shop and complete transactions on behalf of its user. It means AI agents can not only recommend products but complete the purchase on the user's behalf, at potentially any merchant that accepts Visa. The payment network's previous attempts at this technological leap were confined to a single retailer or a small set of enrolled merchants. It is not OpenAI's first attempt at e-commerce. The company late last year announced Instant Checkout, which allowed ChatGPT to scour the internet for a specific item like a digital personal shopper. But the process was prone to errors and was not widely adopted by merchants due to the fee that OpenAI was charging merchants. The company retired Instant Checkout in March. Visa's collaboration is different from OpenAI's previous attempts, as it will allow users to link their Visa cards to ChatGPT to shop and make it ..
Indian nationals will no longer need a transit visa when travelling to another country with a layover at a German airport, the country's embassy said here on Tuesday. The decision will come into effect on June 3, 2026. Every year, a large number of Indians, including students, professionals and tourists, travel through German airports, on way to other destinations. "Indian nationals will no longer need a transit visa when travelling to another country with a layover at a German airport. The lifting of the so-called airport transit visa requirement for Indian citizens was announced in the Federal Law Gazette on June 2, 2026, and takes effect on June 3, 2026," the German embassy said in a statement. "It underlines the Federal Government's commitment to deepening German-Indian relations, facilitating the movement of people, and further strengthening economic ties," it said. This comes as a result of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's visit to India in January, the embassy said. In
Visa, a payment gateway provider, on Monday announced that Suresh Sethi has been appointed Group Country Manager for India and South Asia. In this role, Sethi will lead Visa's strategy and operations across India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan, the company said in a statement. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who is leaving Visa for other opportunities. Based in Mumbai, Sethi will report to Stephen Karpin, Regional President, Asia Pacific, Visa, it said. Most recently, Sethi served as MD and CEO of Protean e-Gov Technologies Ltd, where he led its transformation into an agile, product-led Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) institution, it added.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the extension for five years of the Immigration, Visa, Foreigners Registration & Tracking (IVFRT) Scheme, which aims to interlink and optimise functions related to immigration, visa issuance, and registration of foreigners in India. The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the continuation of the scheme from April 1, 2026, to March 31, 2031, with a budget outlay of Rs 1,800 crore, a government statement said. The continuation of the scheme is not just a "technical upgrade, but a strategic transformation" aligned with the vision of the government to promote international mobility through a world-class immigration and visa issuance system, it said. "After the recent enactment of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 and its subsequent Rules and Order, it has become imperative to strengthen and modernize the Immigration, Visa, Foreigners Registration & Tracking (IVFRT) system to effectively meet emerging ...