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Correspondent

21 August 2024 at 10:20:16 am

Fee Signal

The government’s decision to create a legal framework for levying charges on UPI transactions has understandably triggered concern, even though it insists that ordinary users and small merchants will continue to enjoy free payments. The proposed amendment does not impose a fee on UPI today. But it removes the statutory barrier to one being imposed in the future, making the government’s reassurance less than the final word. The government argues that this is a measure for UPI’s long-term...

Fee Signal

The government’s decision to create a legal framework for levying charges on UPI transactions has understandably triggered concern, even though it insists that ordinary users and small merchants will continue to enjoy free payments. The proposed amendment does not impose a fee on UPI today. But it removes the statutory barrier to one being imposed in the future, making the government’s reassurance less than the final word. The government argues that this is a measure for UPI’s long-term sustainability. The world’s largest real-time payments system, which processed 2,366 crore transactions worth Rs. 29.9 lakh crore in July alone, cannot indefinitely depend on subsidies as transaction volumes, cybersecurity requirements and infrastructure costs rise. A nominal Merchant Discount Rate on larger merchant transactions, it says, would help create a more sustainable ecosystem without burdening ordinary users. That argument has merit. But so does the concern that a payment system which became a national habit precisely because it was cheap and frictionless should not slowly acquire a price tag. Once the legal machinery for charging exists, there is no guarantee that the boundary between large merchants and small ones, or between merchants and consumers, will remain permanently fixed. The Finance Minister has clarified that any Merchant Discount Rate will apply only to a limited set of merchant transactions above a threshold and will be nominal, well below card-payment rates. The details will eventually be decided by the UPI and Services Steering Committee headed by the National Payments Corporation of India. In other words, there is no charge on the table for the ordinary UPI user today. But there is now a legal mechanism for charges to be introduced tomorrow. That is precisely why any alarm, though exaggerated, cannot simply be dismissed. The government, through its clarification, has reassured that UPI’s free-to-consumer model remains intact. The important issue is whether its financing model can evolve without undermining the habits that made it revolutionary. UPI succeeded partly because it made digital payments cheaper and simpler than alternatives. There is also a larger principle at stake. UPI is not merely another commercial payments platform. It is the product of public investment, regulatory architecture and private innovation. The state should therefore be wary of treating its sustainability as an ordinary market problem. The sensible answer lies between free-for-all subsidies and indiscriminate fees: transparent thresholds, genuinely low MDRs, strong protection for small merchants and an absolute firewall around ordinary consumers. The government should publish the economic case for any future charge, including its effect on merchants and consumers. UPI was built on trust as much as technology. The government is right to protect its remarkable achievement. It should remember that keeping UPI free is not merely a political promise. It is part of the product.

Queens Ascendant

Indian cricket has lived with an odd imbalance for decades. It has always been the men’s team that has commanded the money, the headlines and the expectations while women cricketers were expected merely to improve. Now, with their phenomenal Test win over England at Lord’s, it is the women who have reminded India what Test cricket looks like when played with ambition, discipline and nerve.


The Indian women overwhelmed the English side by inflicting a crushing 270-run victory, dismissing England for just 186 in their second innings and securing India’s first-ever women’s Test triumph. It was a victory rich in symbolism and richer still in substance.


Yastika Bhatia produced an innings for the ages, scoring a majestic 113 to become the first woman ever to register a Test century at Lord’s. Her innings, composed with uncommon patience and authority, earned a deserved place on the Lord’s Honours Board. Debutant Kranti Gaud announced herself with a five-wicket haul that also secured immortality on the same board, while Richa Ghosh’s enterprising half-century accelerated India’s declaration and placed the match irretrievably beyond England's reach.


But numbers alone tell only part of the story. Setting England an improbable target of 457, the Indian side attacked with conviction as the pace bowlers ripped through England’s top order, while the spinners maintained relentless pressure. Even England’s brief resistance through Amy Jones and Mady Villiers merely delayed the inevitable.


The contrast with the Indian men’s team could scarcely be sharper. In recent months, the men’s side has looked increasingly uncertain in the format that once defined Indian cricket’s rise. Consecutive Test defeats against New Zealand and South Africa in 2024 and 2025 respectively exposed the rot at the edifice of Indian men’s cricket. The latest humiliation, a T20 defeat to Ireland, only reinforced the uncomfortable impression that Indian men’s cricket is suffering from the complacency that often accompanies abundance. Lucrative franchise contracts and cricket’s vast commercial ecosystem have insulated players from the consequences of failure.


Unlike their male counterparts, India’s women have built their success with a fraction of the financial rewards, public attention and playing opportunities. Test matches remain rare and sponsorships remain comparatively modest. Yet scarcity has bred something that abundance sometimes cannot: hunger. Harmanpreet Kaur’s side arrived at Lord’s without the burden of celebrity but with an abundance of purpose. Their historic victory was built not on flashes of brilliance alone but on qualities that have always defined great Test sides, namely discipline and collective purpose.


Genuine respect in cricket still depends upon performances in the longest format. The Indian women’s team has claimed not merely a famous win but a place in cricket’s enduring narrative. At Lord’s, India’s women reminded the world how champions are made. The men would be wise to take notes.

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