The National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) is soon going to set up an innovation centre in Hyderabad.
The NPCI is an umbrella organisation which was developed in 2009. It manages the retail payment and settlement systems in India.
According to sources, within 3 to 6 months, the NPCI will set up the centre in Hyderabad. Apart from Hyderabad, Mumbai is also expected to have an innovation centre, with a minimum of 20 employees.
The innovation centres will work on various online technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and payment apps.
Dilip Asbe, the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NPCI, said, “NPCI was set up to manage and develop the retail electronic payment systems and we have been gaining traction in various fields as digitisation has taken over the space. We are constantly trying to innovate and bring advanced features in the digital payment space. With this idea in mind, we will be looking at setting up two innovation centres in Hyderabad and Mumbai and they will work on technologies like Blockchain and others.”
Speaking about the construction work, M. Balachandram, the Chairman of the NPCI, said, the work on the infrastructure of the centre is in progress and they need the best architects as the NPCI is a national institution.
He further said, as of now, the Company is looking to hire 500 people, but later, with the growth of the Company, the number may increase to 3,000.
The NPCI is also looking forward to launch Sandbox, a software, for startups working in the field of financial technology (fintech.) Sandbox is used for the monitoring and evaluation of servers. It can be used by fintech startups to develop applications (apps) using the platforms of the NPCI.
Speaking about a new version of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI,) Mr. Asbe said, UPI 2.0 will be up and running by the end of 2019. The new version is said to have features like overdraft and digital credit. UPI 2.0 will also have a feature to help individuals block money which can later be used for e commerce transactions. The Company is also planning to include a QR code facility in UPI 2.0 to ensure information exchange is made entirely virtual.
The innovation centers are still in the planning stages and the NPCI authorities will soon come up with the other details about the Hyderabad centre.
Stay tuned for further updates
