NPCI launches Lite X, Hello for voice-enabled UPI payments

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 in Mumbai.The latest offerings -- Credit Line on UPI, UPI LITE X, and Tap & Pay, Hello! UPI and Conversational Bill Payments -- are aimed at creating an inclusive, resilient, and sustainable digital payments ecosystem and will help UPI achieve the target of 100 billion transactions per month, NPCI said.

Network nahi milega, toh bhi #UPIChalega with UPI Tap and Pay. Launched today at GFF’23. #NPCIGFF2023 #GFF2023 @IAMAIForum @pciupdates @fccupdates @gff_2023 @upichalega pic.twitter.com/O4BYDrYibH

— NPCI (@NPCI_NPCI) September 6, 2023

NPCI also introduced new Conversational Payments on UPI. One of ways, NPCI aims to make this possible is using Hello UPI service. This service will enable users to make UPI payments using voice commands. While at the moment this service is available only in Hindi and in English, NPCI plans to add support for more regional language soon. “Users can simply give voice commands to transfer funds and input UPI PIN to complete the transaction. NPCI has partnered with the Bhashini program – AI4Bharat at IIT Madras, to co-develop Hindi and English payment language models,” NPCI wrote in a release.

Hello, India indeed! #HelloUPI launched only at the #GFF23#NPCIGFF2023 #GFF2023 @IAMAIForum @pciupdates @fccupdates @gff_2023@upichalega pic.twitter.com/I1bb0vXN4k

— NPCI (@NPCI_NPCI) September 6, 2023

Das said that UPI is a great example of how a unique public-private initiative has resulted in development of a key public infrastructure, which in turn has lead to more inclusivity in the country.