Are We Spending More Money Because of UPI? (ft. Ateesh Tankha)

In this episode of The Big Story, our hosts Anjali and Prateek talk about money. Now, we don't have a lot of money, but we do have a lot of questions about money. About UPI, precisely. Are we spending more money because of UPI? How does UPI make money? And is UPI just another startup that'll eventually flop? Because it used to give us so many freebies at one point, but now there's a conversation about charging for payments.

To answer these questions, we have Ateesh Tankha, founder and CEO of ALSOWISE Content Solutions, India’s first comprehensive English proficiency and communications training app. He has extensive experience in payments and banking, and was, till 2016, the Head of Citi Merchant Services, North America.

0:00 - Intro
10:19 - What is UPI? How does it even work?
15:50 - Creation myths around UPI
17:37 - Costs attached to UPI payments
21:55 - Why are Indian banks not interested in UPI?
24:35 - The massive growth of UPI in India
26:09 - How did UPI grow so much, but PayTM couldn't
29:52 - The business model of Google Pay, PhonePe, etc.
32:00 - How does NPCI make money?
34:45 - Are we spending more money because of UPI?
41:55 - Who should be paying for UPI transactions?
48:24 - How involved is the government in regulating UPI?
52:00 - CBDC and how UPI can be used to reduce our dollar dependence
54:45 - E-Rupee and how money works
55:54 - UPI and its privacy concerns
1:04:50 - Is UPI just a failing startup?
1:15:26 - Outro