top of page

By:

Sumit Ranjan Das

21 August 2024 at 4:08:59 pm

UPI Must Stay Free

AI Generated Image Yesterday, I went to my neighbourhood shop to buy aloo chop and vegetable chop to eat with muri. I reached for my phone to pay by UPI, as I do for almost everything. The shopkeeper stopped me. “This is the last time we’ll accept UPI. From tomorrow, CASH ONLY.” I didn’t argue or explain that payments up to Rs. 2,000 remain free. It would have been a waste of breath. So I let it go, but I kept thinking about it on the walk home because I think I know what he was afraid of....

UPI Must Stay Free

AI Generated Image Yesterday, I went to my neighbourhood shop to buy aloo chop and vegetable chop to eat with muri. I reached for my phone to pay by UPI, as I do for almost everything. The shopkeeper stopped me. “This is the last time we’ll accept UPI. From tomorrow, CASH ONLY.” I didn’t argue or explain that payments up to Rs. 2,000 remain free. It would have been a waste of breath. So I let it go, but I kept thinking about it on the walk home because I think I know what he was afraid of. Picture a vegetable vendor with a pushcart at the corner of your lane. Call him Ramesh. He studied up to Class 8. Two years ago, he put a QR code on his cart because someone told him one thing: “Bhaiya, UPI is free. The money comes straight to your bank.” That one sentence did more for Digital India than any seminar. No card machine, no fee, no paperwork. Now tell Ramesh that a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) may apply to specified transactions above Rs. 2,000, subject to exemptions. He won’t argue. He will put up a board: CASH ONLY. MDR is the fee a merchant pays to accept a digital payment, and UPI has been free for merchants since 2020. The new framework proposes a fee of 0.4 per cent on specified merchant transactions above Rs. 2,000, with a cap of Rs. 300 on transactions above Rs. 75,000. Payments up to Rs. 2,000 remain free. Person-to-person transfers are not covered, and under the announced plan, customers are not charged directly. On a Rs. 10,000 merchant payment, the merchant would pay Rs. 40. Small merchants receiving less than Rs. 1,00,000 a month through UPI were proposed to be exempt. One report adds that the committee was reportedly considering exempting businesses with annual turnover of up to Rs. 40 lakh. On October 13, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said the fee, due to be implemented on October 15, would be introduced immediately after Diwali, on a date to be notified separately. The decision merley postpones the fee. Consider Ramesh again. Suppose he sells Rs. 5,000 worth of vegetables a day, mostly through payments of Rs. 30 to Rs. 300. That amounts to around Rs. 1,50,000 a month, or roughly Rs. 18 lakh a year. Every one of his payments is below Rs. 2,000, so under the proposal, they remain free. But his monthly receipts exceed Rs. 1 lakh, which means he cannot simply assume that the small-merchant exemption covers him. Who will tell him? Who will explain it in Bengali, Hindi or Maithili, at his cart, in two minutes? A vendor who cannot understand the rules will choose the option that feels safest: cash. Cash is not the enemy. But for a small merchant, it also means hunting for change and losing customers who do not have it, facing the risk of theft, loss and counterfeit notes, spending time counting, storing and depositing money, and having fewer digital records to show a bank when seeking credit. “Free” does not mean UPI costs nothing to run. Security, fraud control, banking systems and customer support all require money. In March 2025, the Union Cabinet approved an incentive of Rs. 1,500 crore for low-value BHIM UPI merchant transactions for the financial year 2024–25. Genuine welfare must never be treated as a piggy bank. Every rupee, whether spent on welfare or infrastructure, should deliver greater value. Five measures would help keep UPI simple. First, person-to-person UPI transfers must remain free. Sending money to family should never come with an unexpected charge. Second, protection for small merchants must be straightforward. Thela-walas, tea stalls and kirana shops need one clear exemption, not five clever ones. Third, UPI must be funded transparently. The government and relevant institutions should publish what it costs to run the system, how much public money supports it, how much any proposed fee collects and what results follow. Fourth, the rules must be explained in local languages. A one-page notice or a short voice message through a payment app would reach Ramesh faster than a 20-page circular. Finally, the impact must be measured before any fee is extended. Changes in small-merchant acceptance and transaction volumes should guide the next step. India did not build UPI by making it clever. It built it by making it simple and free. (The writer is a Cost and Management Accountant and founder of TaxoDas. Views personal.)

AI in Sperm Sorting: An Unbiased Decision for A Better Outcome

Writer: Dr. Ramnath Babu T J
Dr. Ramnath Babu T J
Nov 7, 2024
3 min read

Artificial Intelligence or AI is revolutionising fertility treatments of the future. The inclusion of AI enhances the accuracy, efficiency, and objectivity of sperm selection, hence potentially improving fertility outcomes by leaps and bounds. Traditionally, sperm sorting through manual methods is subjective to judgments. Processes like centrifugation and swim-up methods are used to separate sperm based on motility and morphology. Although they are effective, they have their limitations, leading to human errors that affect the success rates of fertility treatment. For instance, studies have shown that traditional sperm sorting techniques can have variability in success rates, with reported live birth rates ranging between 15 per cent to 25 per cent per cycle depending on the method and quality of sperm. Hence the introduction of AI helps in maintaining consistency in evaluations of sperm, using the same data set for every sample which leads to better judgments.


Automation and Standardisation- Automation of sperm selection and also introduction of AI in the process have improved the results in ART. AI-assisted sperm selection improves the accuracy in choosing high-quality sperm for fertilisation purposes, and also, pregnancy and live birth rates might be improved. Technologies like Intracytoplasmic Morphologically Selected Sperm Injection along with AI ensure the chances of pregnancies increase by about 10-20 per cent compared to the standard procedures. AI and Automation will decrease time taken to analyze sperm and increase opportunities to select better sperm with DNA integrity for better development and higher success rates in embryo selection. These processes ensure that the sperm selection process follows consistent criteria, reducing variability in outcomes caused by human error.


Analysing Complex Data for Better Outcomes- AI plays a crucial in improving IVF outcomes by analysing complex data and providing tailored recommendations. AI-driven tools and models such as those on SpOvum.ai point towards an opportunity to optimise ovarian stimulation decisions by assessing patient characteristics and follicle growth patterns. A study revealed that the use of AI in IVF improved egg yield and reduced medication costs. AI enables fertility specialists to make data-driven choices, improving overall IVF success rates and streamlining treatment processes.


Reducing Human Error- AI models can continuously learn and refine their performance by being trained on newer data. This adaptability ensures the technology remains unbiased and up-to-date with the latest scientific insights into sperm quality and fertility success rates. Studies have shown that AI-driven sperm sorting can decrease human-related errors by up to 25 per cent, improving sperm selection quality in terms of morphology and motility.


Reduction of Sperm Damage- The new AI-driven sperm sorting techniques also include microfluidic systems that are known to exhibit several advantages over the most commonly used conventional method, which is centrifugation. Traditional centrifugation methods, such as density gradient centrifugation, also cause severe oxidative stress and DNA fragmentation of the sperm because of the very high mechanical forces involved. The AI-infused microfluidic sorting minimises this damage significantly by involving gentler processes that mimic the natural pathway of sperm selection. The studies show that the process of microfluidic sorting decreases DNA fragmentation in sperm, which gives improved opportunities for success for IVF. For example, DNA fragmentation is 20 percent lower in sperm sorted using microfluidic processes than in traditional processing methods.


AI is bound to play an increasingly definitive role in fertility treatments, which will improve the outcomes for couples experiencing infertility.


(The author is a Co-Founder & CEO at SpOvum® Technologies. Views personal.)

Comments

bottom of page