Apple is reportedly in talks with Indian authorities and officials as it plans to introduce its payments service, Apple Pay, in the South Asian market. The company aims to enter the crowded space dominated by Walmart’s PhonePe, Google’s GPay, and Paytm. According to sources familiar with the matter, Apple has engaged with various Indian stakeholders and is now planning to hold discussions with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for the launch of Apple Pay.
Apple is said to be working on a localized version of Apple Pay that will integrate with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a popular payments system in India. The NPCI, a division of the Reserve Bank of India, oversees the UPI platform. The company wants iPhone users in India to be able to scan QR codes and initiate UPI transactions without relying on any third-party payment service provider app.
While Apple has not officially commented on these reports, sources indicate that the company has been in discussions about launching Apple Pay in India for several years. In recent conversations with Indian authorities, Apple has even suggested the possibility of using Face ID for UPI authentication on iPhones.
It should be noted that India is a relatively small market for Apple, and the potential launch of Apple Pay is unlikely to disrupt the existing players in the ecosystem. The UPI platform in India processes over 8 billion transactions per month, and more than 90% of smartphones in the country run on the Android operating system.
While a final decision on partners and the launch date is yet to be made, sources suggest that the actual launch of Apple Pay in India is still a few quarters away.
