You can now pay for your Uber rides by using the BHIM App. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and BHIM App integration with Uber has gone live as of today (Wednesday).
Speaking at the event to mark the integration, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union IT Minister, said he sees this initiative as part of digital inclusion.
HDFC Bank and Axis Bank have partnered Uber for the UPI integration.
David Richter, Senior Vice President--Global Business & Member, Executive Leadership Team, Uber outlined three commitments.
The first one is that Uber is committed to India. "Outside of the US, Uber has three significant markets that we are focused on--India, Brazil and Mexico", Richter said.
He also said that Uber is committed to technology innovation as is India. " We will continue to innovate (with our partners) with technology to make things better", he said.
The third commitment is to work closely in a cooperative manner with partners such as banks on the banking side and also Governments, according to Richter.
Meanwhile, Ravi Shankar Prasad urged bankers to ensure that 'digital payments' become a success in India by proper coordination with low cost technology providers.
He said this latest UPI and BHIM App integration with Uber would lead to about 4 lakh Uber partner drivers downloading the BHIM App. So far about 16 million downloads of BHIM App has happened in the country and this is only going to increase in the coming days.
Prasad said that India's digital economy is poised for big growth. The aim of the Modi Government is to double the value of India's digital economy to $ 1 trillion in the next 5 years from the current level of $ 500 billion.
India's digital Payments economy itself is expected to touch $ 500 billion by 2020, Prasad said citing a Boston Consulting Group study.