Adani from India explores the e-commerce and payments business

Indian conglomerate Adani it is apparently in discussions to participate eCommerce and payments space.

The company is considering submitting an application for license take part in India Unified payment interface (UPI), as reported by the Financial Times (FT) on Tuesday (May 28), citing anonymous sources.

Adani is also in talks with banks to finalize plans for a co-branded credit card and is negotiating to offer online shopping through a state-backed Indian eCommerce platform. An open network for digital commerceaccording to the report.

“Only three business conglomerates rule the country – the Tatas, Ambanis and Adanis,” Jayanth Kolla, a Bengaluru-based technology analyst, said in a report. “Adani is one of three groups that does not have significant consumer-facing businesses.”

New services will be offered By Adani Onethe company’s consumer app, which debuted in late 2022 and already provides travel services such as flight and hotel bookingsstated in the report.

Adani did not respond to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

These moves will allow the company to compete Google and Indian An industry that relies on trust. Last month, Google announced that it did investing IN FlipkartAND Walmartbacked Indian digital commerce company. A few weeks earlier, the tech giant opened its doors digital wallet users in India.

These companies are fighting for the attention of consumers in a country that is in the “digital payments journey” over the past 15 years, as PYMNTS wrote in late 2023.

PYMNTS Intelligence found that digital wallets are now the preferred payment method for 55%. retail sales shopping in India, with 80% of wallet users choosing UPI.

Meanwhile, India is expanding its real-time payments functionality by ensuring interoperability of digital payment systems for online banking. Activation is expected later this year, and the goal is to make it easier for merchants to settle funds faster.

“Currently, online transactions processed through payment aggregators (PAs) are not interoperable because banks must separately integrate with each PA for different trading partners,” PYMNTS wrote in April. “This requirement has proven difficult for bank employees to meet, especially given the vast number of trading partners each bank uses.”

Furthermore, the lack of standardized payment systems and rules for each paying agency has led to payment delays and increased security risks, problems that the interoperability initiative aims to address.