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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.

The Meteoric Rise and Spectacular Free-Fall of Prithvi Shaw

Remember Prithvi Shaw? Of course you do. The boy wonder. The U-19 World Cup-winning captain. The youngest Indian to smash a Test century on debut, a tidy 134 against West Indies at the tender age of 18 years and 319 days. Back in 2018, the cricket world collectively clutched its pearls and declared the next big thing had arrived. Fast forward to 2026, and that next big thing is currently the next big afterthought. How delightful.


Let us start with the international CV, because nothing says “demise” quite like numbers that have gathered more dust than a museum exhibit. Five Tests. Three hundred and thirty-nine runs at an average of 42.37. One century, two fifties. Last appearance: December 2020 against Australia. That is more than five years of radio silence from the national selectors. Apparently the boys in blue decided that one century and a couple of half-centuries were quite enough, thank you. Why dilute the magic by asking him to play again?


Then come the ODIs. A grand total of six matches. One hundred and eighty-nine runs at 31.50. Highest score: a majestic 49. Zero fifties. Last outing: July 2021 against Sri Lanka. Six games, no half-century, and the selectors looked at that body of work and said, “Yep, we’re good.” One T20I. Zero runs off one ball. Debut, farewell, and career summary all wrapped into a single delivery. Efficiency at its finest. Three formats, twelve international matches in total after that dazzling start, and the demand for his services has been roughly equivalent to the demand for a rotary phone in 2026.


Real Money

Now to the IPL, where the real money and the real judgments are made. Seventy-nine matches for Delhi Capitals. 1,892 runs at an average of 23.95 and a strike rate of 147.47. Fourteen fifties. Highest score: 99. Almost a hundred. Almost. The 2021 season remains the highlight reel they keep replaying in boardrooms: 479 runs at nearly 32 and a strike rate north of 159. That was the peak. Everything since has been a controlled descent into “maybe next year.” In 2023 he managed 106 runs in eight innings at 13.25. In 2024, 198 in eight at 24.75. Released. Unsold in the 2025 mega auction. Then, in a touching display of residual loyalty (or residual desperation), Delhi Capitals picked him up again in the 2026 accelerated auction for a princely ₹75 lakh. Base price. The market had spoken, and it had spoken in the universal language of silence until the very last possible moment.


Domestic cricket has been no kinder in the narrative sense. Dropped by Mumbai over fitness concerns (body-fat percentages that would make a club cricketer blush, according to the whispers), he took the scenic route to Maharashtra. There have been runs — a double hundred here, some half-centuries there — but the broader market remains unmoved. Franchises and national selectors appear to have reached a bipartisan consensus: the talent is still there in flashes, the discipline and consistency are not. Fitness issues, distractions, “wrong friends,” lost focus — Shaw has been admirably open about the off-field drift. The problem is that openness does not score runs in the middle, and selectors have long memories when the numbers refuse to improve.


Road Ahead

So where does the road ahead lead for a 26-year-old who once looked destined for a decade of Indian caps? Realistically, it leads through more domestic grind, the occasional IPL contract at bargain rates if a franchise feels nostalgic, and the faint hope that one blistering Ranji or SMAT season forces a reluctant recall. International cricket in all three formats currently has zero demand for him. The opening slots are occupied by players who show up, stay fit, and convert starts. Shaw’s Test average looks respectable until you notice the sample size and the five-year gap. His ODI and T20I records are punchlines. His IPL average of under 24 across nearly 80 games is the sort of number that makes auction tables go quiet.


The sarcasm writes itself because the trajectory is almost too perfect. From prodigy to peripheral in the time it takes most players to establish themselves. The same aggressive intent that produced that debut hundred and those powerplay fireworks now collides with the modern game’s demand for reliability, conditioning, and mental longevity. Shaw still hits the ball hard when the mood takes him. The trouble is that moods are not contracts, and contracts are not national call-ups.


(The writer is a senior journalist based in Mumbai. Views personal.)

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