
PM Modi and Cuban President discuss ties in Pharma and, UPI on sidelines of BRICS
According to an official statement by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), both leaders also exchanged views on enhancing cooperation in areas including Ayurveda, Unified Payment Interface (UPI), disaster management, and capacity building.
The two leaders agreed to work on issues of concern to the global South, including in the areas of health, pandemics and climate change. They appreciated the cooperation between the two countries in the multilateral arena, the statement added.
"PM Narendra Modi met with President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez of Cuba on the sidelines of the 17th BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on X.
He posted, "Both leaders exchanged views on various facets of India-Cuba relationship including in the areas of economic cooperation, biotechnology, pharma, Ayurveda and traditional medicine, Digital Public Infrastructure and UPI, disaster management, and capacity building."
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Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
UPI AutoPay set to drive incoming wave of consumer AI companies in India
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'Anywhere that people need to make regular payments, whether it's towards entertainment or financial services, AutoPay is boosting that,' said Munish Vaid, vice president at global consulting firm Primus Partners. In 2025, India will have over 900 million internet users, according to a 2024 report from market research firm Kantar and the Internet and Mobile Association of India. As a result, UPI AutoPay's adoption is also set to increase. But it isn't new to us. Indians have always paid for television channels and newspaper subscriptions, and even milk. 'AutoPay has opened people up to subscriptions online. It isn't a new market, this is the offline market that is coming online,' said Anant Vidur Puri, partner at global investment firm Bessemer Venture Partners. Indians spend an average of nearly seven hours a day accessing various services and products on the Internet, according to social media intelligence firm Meltwater. Mobile devices account for 58% of this time. Launched in 2021, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) introduced UPI AutoPay, a functionality for recurring payments that allows users to set up e-mandates for things ranging from electricity bills to mutual fund systematic investment plans to even OTT subscriptions. As a result, startups have pivoted their business models: subscription-first platforms priced for the Indian consumer. 'What UPI AutoPay has done is that it has enabled people to recurringly pay for something they want to pay for,' said Puri. The transaction volume of UPI AutoPay from the top 10 remitter banks nearly doubled to 29.29 million in May 2025 from 16.73 million in May 2024, according to data from the National Payments Corporation of India, which runs UPI. In contrast, the volume of UPI transactions in May this year alone stood at 18,677 million, valued at ₹ 25 trillion. Harsha Kumar, partner at Lightspeed India, said, 'UPI was the first large tailwind because of which transaction platforms such as ecommerce, transportation and utility all grew. Now, UPI AutoPay is the next big tailwind on the back of which we will see a bunch of fintech and content solutions come up. It's because these are two models where AutoPay or subscription works best." The volume of UPI transactions has gone to 13,116 crore in FY24 from 92 crore in FY18, a compound annual growth rate of 129%. For example, prior to UPI AutoPay, consumers would make mutual fund investments through systematic investment plans (SIPs), doing it through accounts on MF websites. Essentially, AutoPay makes it easier for people to set up their SIPs on brokerage apps like Groww, Zerodha and AngelOne. AutoPay reduces friction for both users and businesses. Traditional subscription systems use credit cards, a financial product with little penetration in India. 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As a result of the switch, the company was also able to increase its pricing, starting at ₹ 99 per month before raising it to ₹ 199 a month. That's what Seekho used to charge users yearly before. The pivot was led primarily because the company realised they could acquire more users and keep them engaged for less money spent. 'We saw recurring subscribers increase 3 to 4 months after we shifted to a monthly plan. After that, however, we had returning users coming back, which is where we saw hockey stick growth,' said Choudhary. Seekho claims that it currently has four million users and retains between 30 to 35% of its users over a 12-month period. Their market is spread across India. In terms of revenue, the company said they make ₹ 40 crore every month and that 85% of their user base are paying customers. Choudhary narrates a user interview who said that, considering they require ₹ 400 to recharge their phone every month, paying ₹ 200 to learn isn't a bad deal. 'This is how people compare their spends with Seekho. They don't really compare it with OTT platforms, but to a newspaper or a coaching class where they're paying to learn something.' But there's still a long road ahead. Often, the AutoPay mandate cancellations are hard to find, and users complain that they're losing money on something that they didn't want to continue to pay for. A letter had been sent to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from 'an aggrieved user' earlier this year, alleging unfair auto-debit practices from some of these startups. The letter said that some of these apps didn't provide users a simple way to cancel auto debits and were instead being forced to rely on UPI apps to make those cancellations. 'Eventually, builders will learn how to build for AutoPay, and consumers will learn how to manage AutoPay,' said Lightspeed India's Kumar. 'But we're headed in the right direction.'


NDTV
an hour ago
- NDTV
PM Modi Arrives In Brasilia For State Visit After Attending BRICS Summit
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Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
VMC panel to relocate street vendors after closure of night market
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