RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das announced three new features during the Monetary Policy Committee meeting on Thursday, August 10.
Conversational Payments with AI
With the goal of harnessing cutting-edge technology to enhance digital payments, NPCI plans to introduce ‘Conversational Payments’ on UPI, enabling users to engage in conversation with AI-powered systems to make payments in a safe and secure environment.
This feature will work on both smartphones and feature phones, helping to increase digital penetration in the country, Das said. It will be available in Hindi and English at first, and then in more Indian languages later. NPCI will receive instructions from RBI soon.
While exact details on how conversational payments will work were not shared, it’s likely that NPCI will likely push for the inclusion of an AI chatbot like ChatGPT to help users with payments.
Increased transaction limit for UPI Lite
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed to increase the UPI Lite offline mode payment limit to Rs. 500 to make small transactions faster. Currently, users do not need their PIN for making payments in offline mode of up to Rs. 200 per transaction using National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) and UPI Lite, and the on-device wallet limit is up to Rs. 2,000. The on-device wallet limit will remain at Rs. 2000.
“With the objective of harnessing the new technologies for enhancing digital payments experience for users, it is proposed to enhance the transaction limit of small value digital payments in offline mode to Rs 500 from Rs 200 within the overall limit of Rs 2,000 per payment instrument. These initiatives will further deepen the reach of digital payments in the country,” said RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das.
Offline UPI payments using NFC technology
Moreover, RBI is considering implementing UPI Lite offline mode payments using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. NFC allows short-range wireless communication between devices. This feature will facilitate digital transactions even in areas with poor or no internet connectivity.
“To promote the use of UPI-Lite, it is proposed to facilitate offline transactions using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. This feature will not only enable retail digital payments in situations where internet/telecom connectivity is weak or not available, it will also ensure speed, with minimal transaction declines. Instructions to NPCI will be issued shortly,” said Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in a statement.
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