Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Jasper+Infotech&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Jasper Infotech</a> -owned digital payments platform <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">FreeCharge</a>’s chief executive, <keyword id="259717" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Govind-Rajan">Govind Rajan</keyword>, has resigned from the company. However, the reasons behind his resignation are still unclear. 
 "Govind has brought incredible energy and focus in growing <keyword id="6377963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Freecharge">FreeCharge</keyword>. The pace of progress will continue with the strong team he has built . I am sure he will bring the same level of passion and resolve to whatever he chooses next. I wish him the very best,” <keyword id="219793" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kunal-Bahl">Kunal Bahl</keyword>, chief executive, <keyword id="6481662" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jasper-Infotech">Jasper Infotech</keyword> told ET. 
 
Rajan said that he has enjoyed his time in FreeCharge and wished the company for success. 
 
"It has been a unique privilege to helm FreeCharge in these exciting times of rapid growth and user focused innovation. I am confident that FreeCharge will achieve still greater heights under its incredibly talented team, and I look forward to facilitating the transition over the next few weeks,” 
 
Rajan had joined Jasper Infotech in July 2015 and initially held the role of chief strategy officer at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Snapdeal&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Snapdeal</a>. 
 The last few months have seen the departure of Abhishek Kumar, Jasper's head of corporate development and mergers and acquisitions, <keyword id="1164852" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sandeep-Komaravelly">Sandeep Komaravelly</keyword>, who headed Shopo, the consumer-to-consumer online platform for small sellers and Tony Navin, who led <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>'s partnerships and strategic initiatives, among others.

FreeCharge CEO Govind Rajan resigns; reason still not known

India’s leading digital payments platform <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Exclusive-FreeCharge-Co-founder-Kunal-Shah-on-the-Biggest-Takeover-in-Indian-e-Commerce-History/articleshow/50901391.cms">FreeCharge</a> has entered into partnerships with two of India’s leading fashion and lifestyle portals, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Exclusive-Yepme-to-soon-launch-a-Zara-like-brand-in-India/articleshow/49374059.cms">YepMe </a>and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Fitting-it-just-right-Indias-online-lingerie-market-inside-out/articleshow/49167076.cms">Zivame</a>. This partnership will enable consumers to use <keyword id="6377963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Freecharge">Freecharge</keyword>’s fast and secure payment service to pay for shopping on these portals and that too within less than 10 seconds. 
 
FreeCharge, the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Its-FreeCharge-Vs-Paytm-in-e-payments-space-now/articleshow/50120653.cms">fastest growing wallet in the country</a>, has over millions of users and a rapidly growing offline and online merchant base. After entering into various sectors like food and beverage, technology, entertainment and travel, these new partnerships will also mark its entry into the fashion and lifestyle space. 
 
On the other hand, users of all three portals will benefit from a seamless payments experience. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Freecharge-partners-with-NGO-to-enable-digital-payment-for-E-rickshaw-drivers/articleshow/51701608.cms">FreeCharge’s growing wallet </a>user base will also enable <keyword id="1153436" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Yepme">YepMe</keyword> and <keyword id="972687" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Zivame">Zivame</keyword> to expand their user base so that they can tap customers who enjoy the convenience and ease of the FreeCharge wallet. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Fareed-Jawad-Freecharge/articleshow/52011228.cms">Fareed Jawad is the new VP for Payments &amp; Principal Product Architect at Freecharge</a> 
 
Speaking on the partnership, Mr. Govind Rajan, Chief Operating Officer, FreeCharge said, “Rapid digital payments growth is changing the way consumer’s shop. At FreeCharge, it is our continuous endeavour to build a digital ecosystem in the country, and move consumers away from the hassle of cash. Partnering with popular youth brands like Yepme and Zivame is a massive opportunity to build the habit of digital payments in the country. Today’s consumers demand convenience and FreeCharge makes that possible by enabling them to shop for popular fashion and lifestyle products in the swiftest and safest way.” 
 
Shaleen Sinha, Chief Operating Officer, Zivame.com said, “At Zivame, we strive to make the entire shopping experience extremely convenient for our customers. With a large number of customers increasingly opting for mobile wallets, we want to ensure that we offer them their preferred payment option on our website and app. This partnership will enable millions of Freecharge users to use their favourite mobile wallet to make payments on Zivame.” 
 
On sidelines of the partnership, Sandeep Sharma - Founder, COO &amp; CTO, Yepme said, “With fast pace online shopping trend, we are glad to have FreeCharge on board as a payment partner which will only enhance the experience for customers.”

Zivame and YepMe buyers can pay via Freecharge in less than 10 seconds

India's leading digital payments platform <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Snapdeal-owned-FreeCharge-sets-Rs-20000-crore-business-target-by-March-2017/articleshow/50667008.cms">Freecharge </a>has appointed <keyword id="3339827" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Fareed-Jawad">Fareed Jawad</keyword> as the Vice President for its Principal Product Architect as well as Payments. For this role, Fareed would be required to to build payments technologies at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/FreeCharge-wants-to-joinRBIs-bill-payment-system/articleshow/50296635.cms">Freecharge</a>, and lead the efforts on building technologies for solving the unique payments problems that India faces. 
 
Before this, Fareed was serving as Principal Product Architect at Amazon India, building the core payment processing infrastructure as a part of his role. Prior to that, he has worked with Flipkart as Director - Product Management and was also a part of the core team that launched PayZippy. 
 
"Fareed's appointment reaffirms Freecharge's commitment to hiring the industry's best talent. We are on a cusp of a revolution to accelerate the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Fintech-sector-attracting-talent/articleshow/51991900.cms">FinTech </a>capabilities in India. We look forward to Fareed's contribution in strengthening our technical expertise and payments capabilities with his in-depth understanding of payments sector. Fareed will be responsible for developing products for customers and merchants both online and offline, in line with our vision to be the digital OS for the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Attention-please-PayTM-FreeCharge-files-patent-for-OTP-alternative/articleshow/50120232.cms">payments business</a> in India." said Govind Rajan, COO, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Freecharge-gets-fund-booster-as-Snapdeal-readies-to-raise-300-million/articleshow/49565011.cms">Freecharge</a>. 
 
Fareed has had a long stint in the payments industry, being associated with it right from the earliest payment gateways with VeriFone in the US. His career path also included stints with large payment processors like Moneris Solutions in Canada and eFunds/FIS.

Fareed Jawad is the new VP for Payments & Principal Product Architect at Freecharge

This could be the first time that new age online companies in India realise the potential that patents carry with them. 
 The digital payments firm <keyword id="6377963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Freecharge">FreeCharge</keyword>, which is owned by <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>, has internally developed an alternative to the <keyword id="510437" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="OTP">OTP</keyword> authentication process, and has already filed for patenting the technology. 
 
The authentication solution is called as 'On The Go Pin', and is aimed at making both online as well as offline transactions faster. This technology replaces the OTP received through text message with a pin that is within the phone and keeps changing every few seconds. From the backend, the servers of the bank and the merchants would be verifying the pin so that the transaction can be processed. 
 <keyword id="259717" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Govind-Rajan">Govind Rajan</keyword>, COO of FreeCharge, told ET that this technology would eliminate the wait time, caused by connectivity issues, for both the retailers as well as customers. 
 
"This system fulfils the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) mandate for two factor authentication and does not require even a single paisa of additional investment by retailers or customers," said Rajan, who also heads the strategy office of Snapdeal. 
 
A deal with Shopper's Stop has already been stuck, and it would soon begin transactions using the new technology. 
 Filing of this patent can be the welcome sign of the modern-day Indian online industry, which has big players like <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword>, Snapdeal and <keyword id="6357120" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="PayTM">Paytm</keyword>. All these companies are investing huge bucks in R&amp;D to develop various breakthrough technologies, but this is the first time that someone has patented a technology. 
 
Rahul Dev, patent and trademark attorney at Tech Corp Legal, told ET that this trend of patenting new technology is slowly catching up, not only to protect it against theft, but also because a patented technology, even with pending registration, becomes a highly valuable intangible asset for the company during fund raising. 
 
It means that these patents serve as a business tool rather than a legal tool, especially for firms that are global in nature because patents command a high premium in international markets like the US and UK. 
 
As per Sharad Sharma, former CEO of Yahoo's India R&amp;D arm and former chairman of Nasscom's product council, 97% of patents filed in India are done by multinationals, which makes these efforts by new age companies a good sign. 
 
<a href="http://www.windowscentral.com/sites/wpcentral.com/files/styles/larger_wm_brw/public/field/image/2014/08/freecharge_lede.jpg?itok=KQKCPIaB">Image source</a>

Attention please PayTM! FreeCharge files patent for OTP alternative

It’s been a long standing war between <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Paytm&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Paytm</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">FreeCharge</a> in the payments space. Both backed by industry veterans and serious money, while <keyword id="6357120" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="PayTM">Paytm</keyword> is the current market leader, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">FreeCharge</a> isn’t taking things lying down. 
 With India’s merchants waking up to the prospect of accepting new payment methods and the upcoming <keyword id="6358921" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="UPI">UPI</keyword> (United Payments Interface) and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=payment+bank&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">payment bank</a> rollouts, payment players now have a new battlefield to fight on. 
 In an <keyword id="6370284" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Exclusive">exclusive</keyword> interview with Business Insider, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">FreeCharge</a> CEO <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Govind+Rajan&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Govind Rajan</a> said promotions aren’t the way forward anyway.”Our retention is not driven by discounts. The whole objective of our promotions is to draw more consumers to our experience. That’s the best way to spend our money. I don’t think you can promote your way to building a habit. If you’re solving a real consumer need, they’ll stick with you. You can’t always be incentivizing”, he said. When asked how much (promotions) is enough, Rajan said they keep re-calibrating as the landscape changes every 6-10 months. 
 
Rajan believes UPI will offer an added phillip to their business, “We’ll do whatever it takes to drive adoption faster. It’ll be a journey of 6-12 months to drive adoption. The target market segment for UPI is over 65%”, he said. 
 While Paytm has expanded its foothold through its partnership with Uber, <keyword id="6377963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Freecharge">FreeCharge</keyword> has so far been targeting the unorganized sector. 
 
When asked why it hasn’t considered a FreeCharge-Ola or FreeCharge-Uber partnership yet, especially when cab business is one of the biggest source of transactions for Paytm, Rajan says, “It’s only a matter of time. For a payment mechanism, it’s never the case of A or B, but A and B. We are moving in wherever we see faster traction.” 
 
According to industry experts, the most popular <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=mobile+payment&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">mobile payment</a> apps are the ones that look beyond pure payment. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">FreeCharge</a> chooses to disagree. Its motto is to ensure you spend as little time on the app as possible. With a tagline that says ‘Lo Do Khatam Karo’ (get it done with, and quick), the company wears its ‘10-second payment time’ as a badge of honor. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">FreeCharge</a> has not applied for a payments bank license but has partnered with FINO, which has one, for last-mile reach and access to new consumers. In the next 6-12 months, the company will tie-up with merchants and retailers to build its network further. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">FreeCharge</a> claims they are doing close to a million transactions a day and growing 10-15% month-on-month. In the first few months of launch, the company crossed $1 billion in annualized GMV. It’s targeting 7 million daily transactions by the end of the year.

FreeCharge has plans to speed ahead of Paytm. CEO says ‘our
retention is not driven by discounts’

In case you don't know, in line with the craze of everything going social, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge">FreeCharge</a> today launched '<keyword id="3286959" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Chat-and-Pay">Chat and Pay</keyword>', a <keyword id="1399736" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Digital-Payment">digital payment</keyword> solution geared towards Person-to-Person (P2P) and Person-to-Merchant (P2M) payments. The free service will be available as an update on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Android">Android</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=iOS">iOS</a> and Windows as an update over the next few weeks. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge">FreeCharge</a> aims to bring 5 million merchants onto the platform over the next 18 months. COO <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Govind+Rajan">Govind Rajan</a> told me <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Kunal+Bahl">Kunal (Bahl)</a> might even find the target to be too small. Ummm…I just see a big problem. In terms of reach that is. 
 
Now, with the default limit for Person-to-Person transfers being Rs. 10k, while you can extend it with KYC, no merchant with significant volume will find this useful. Also, no one chats when it comes to money. It’s always ‘paise de, katt le’ (pay and leave). So to put it in layman terms, the service maybe geared towards a newspaper-wallah, a kirana store, or towards paying a friend after a night out. Fair enough. 
 
Be with me as I explore the situations I might find this useful. I’ll tell you why very soon. 
 
Me to Mini Boutique/Cafe: 
Imagine walking down a street without your wallet, whiffing out your <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=smartphone">smartphone</a> at the counter and paying for your coffee. Awesome? 
 
What’s Hot: 
· No monthly transaction limit. 
· No joining fees for Café. 
· They can choose if money goes into their Wallet or Bank account. 
 
What’s Not: 
· Who’ll convince the Café to use social pay? 
· How do you know which Café where accepts social pay? 
· Why should a Café use this over POS? There aren’t many people asking for it! 
 
I remember seeing an ad where a guy has no change to pay for his auto ride. The auto-wallah smiles and says he accepts wallet payments too. Has that ever happened with you? Never happpened in my case. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Govind+Rajan">Govind</a> says: “If you register as a merchant, there is no upper limit as the money goes into the bank acc. If the money goes to the bank, RBI laws apply. If you want the wallet limit to be expanded to Rs. 1 lakh, you can pay the requisite fees and we’ll get it done.” 
 
Me to Paper-wallah/Kirana Store: 
I live alone, i.e. I’m the man of the house. I hate bill payments. Imagine if I could automate my monthly broadband (local connection), newspaper and bread-milk bills. Great idea? 
 
What’s Hot: 
· I get notifications before and on due date. 
· Payment at the touch of a button. 
· I can use the money I might have saved in a wallet. 
 
What’s Not: 
· Language Support. My newspaper vendor might not understand English. 
· Which Kirana’s cool enough to accept wallet payments? They want ‘cash in hand’, and not their money ‘tied in some wallet’. 
· Does it make sense to transfer Rs. 39(Milk+Bread per day) via digital wallets? Not all Kiranas operate via monthly credit. Also, consider that there will be a 1-2% service charge in the near future. You can always fund this model via VC money though. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Govind+Rajan">Govind</a> says: “Now that we’ve brought Indic languages to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Snapdeal">Snapdeal</a>, it’s only a matter of time that we bring it to our other products. India’s a very numerically literate. Everybody understands numbers and can quickly calculate.” 
 
Me to Friend: 
Me and a college buddy go to a bar. He gets sloshed, I’m sober (I don’t drink, and I live in Delhi. Don’t judge me). I pay the bills, and drop him home. Cut to end of month. I’m broke, and want that money back. I ask him on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge">FreeCharge</a> for my money, and he reluctantly parts. 
 
What’s Hot: 
· ‘Remind’ button, kind of like Poke on Facebook 
· Money can be transferred directly to my bank acc 
· Instant transfer (and I withdraw instantly). 
 
What’s Not: 
· Who chats on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Flipkart">Flipkart</a>/<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge">FreeCharge</a>? 
· What if he uses Vijay’s <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Paytm">Paytm</a>? That guy offers cashback. How do I get my money back then? 
· My friends don’t want to pay money back anyway. Will digital extortion work? 
 
The point of the Hot or Not exercise is to point that while the service may be free for a while, a paltry 3% of India’s payments are digital. That means not many people might already be onboard to drive the ecosystem at a micro transaction level. This ain’t no WhatsApp, son. 
 Till that happens, try convincing the hairy Kirana uncle, or the grumpy auto driver to accept you ‘<keyword id="418872" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="digital-wallet">digital wallet</keyword>’ payment. In Govind’s words, “get the habit going”. However, if you live in a locality where the uber vegetable vendor sends a list of vegetable prices on WhatsApp every morning, the laundry boy accepts wallet payments, and the local kirana lets you buy that chocolate bar with the cashback you earned, I envy you. 
 
Wait, property prices are going up too, right? DAMN! #ForeverBroke 
 
Image credit: Indiatimes

FreeCharge’s Chat n Pay is great…but
for whom? #JustSaying

<keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>, India’s third leading e-commerce player, has appointed <keyword id="6504504" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jason-Kothari">Jason Kothari</keyword> as the new <keyword id="4313866" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="CEO-of-FreeCharge">CEO of FreeCharge</keyword>, the digital payments platform owned by parent company <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/softbanks-latest-investment-in-jasper-infotech-might-bring-its-valuation-down-to-half/articleshow/57531896.cms">Jasper Infotech</a>. 
 
Kothari will be taking over from Govind Rajan, who had <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/freecharge-ceo-govind-rajan-resigns-reason-still-not-known/articleshow/57287766.cms">quit from his role</a> last month. 
 
Snapdeal also announced their plan to invest an additional $20 million in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/freecharge-integrates-with-indus-os-to-increase-30-user-base-in-the-next-6-months/articleshow/56499858.cms">FreeCharge</a>, to be used to advance accelerate innovations and growth. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/indian-govt-wants-to-go-cashless-but-it-is-attainable-within-deadline-find-out/articleshow/57079042.cms">Indian Govt wants to go cashless but it is attainable within deadline? Find out</a> 
 "As India moves towards a cashless and digital economy, we are certain that <keyword id="6377963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Freecharge">FreeCharge</keyword> will play a pivotal role in the transition. We remain committed to the success and vision of FreeCharge. Jason is a strong, strategic and versatile business leader &amp; entrepreneur who has already been the CEO of two successful companies. We are delighted to announce his leadership role at FreeCharge," said Snapdeal CEO Kunal Bahl. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/small-business/companies/how-much-money-did-paytm-mobikwik-and-freecharge-make-from-demonetization/slideshow/55561878.cms">How much money did Paytm, Mobikwik, and Freecharge make from demonetization?</a> 
 
Kothari, who also serves as the chief strategy and investment officer at Snapdeal will continue with his earlier roles, along with being added to the board of directors of FreeCharge. 
 
"The digital payments space in India is forecasted to be over $ 1 trillion by 2025. I'm excited to join the talented team at FreeCharge at such a high-growth and dynamic time in the industry and expect FreeCharge to continue to play a key role in this digital payments revolution," Kothari said. 
 
In the past, Kothari served as the CEO of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Meet-the-personal-investor-who-just-invested-undisclosed-amount-in-Housing-com/articleshow/51680352.cms">Housing.com</a>, prior to which he was the CEO and VC of Valiant Entertainment, a character entertainment company. 
 
(Image source: 9AMstories)

Jason Kothari is the new CEO of FreeCharge

Snapdeal-owned <keyword id="6377963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Freecharge">FreeCharge</keyword> has a target in mind and is tying up with more and more merchants for the same. 
 
FreeCharge wants to increase its business multi-fold by March 2017 to Rs 20,000 crore. Presently, it sells services up to Rs 6,600 crore on its platform. 
 The competition in <keyword id="6368227" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mobile-wallets">mobile wallets</keyword> and recharges has intensified, leading big players to launch multiple services. 
 
"The target for us is, that we should end the year March 2017 with Rs 20,000 crore (about $3 billion) worth of transactions processed," Govind Rajan, chief operating officer of FreeCharge told ET. 
 
FreeCharge has partnered exclusively with Shoppers Stop and Westlife Development. 
 
"Our focus is actually on going after merchants who have a high velocity and high transactions values," Rajan told ET, adding “we are working on UIs which highly intuitive for both, the merchants and the consumer.” 
 Jasper Infotech, which owns <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> and FreeCharge both, wants to raise about $300 million (Rs 2,000 crore) for the digital payments platform to give tough competition to Paytm. 
 
FreeCharge has nearly one million transactions per day and Paytm's count is at 95 million transactions per month. 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

Snapdeal-owned FreeCharge sets Rs 20,000 crore business target by March 2017

<keyword id="6377963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Freecharge">FreeCharge</keyword>, India’s leading digital payments platform, today announced its partnership with Bhartiya Micro Credit (BMC), an NGO focused on financial aid for <keyword id="6403560" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="e-rickshaws">E-Rickshaws</keyword>. 
 This partnership will be announced at the launch of Stand up India scheme in Noida which will be graced by the Honourable Prime Minister Shri <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword>, UP Governor, Union Finance Minister, Union Minister for Culture and Tourism and Union Minister of State for Finance. At the event, Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will distribute the E-Rickshaws and also support digital payment by using FreeCharge’s <keyword id="3311934" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Chat-n-Pay">Chat-n-Pay</keyword> service to pay for his ride on one of the new E-Rickshaws. 
 
FreeCharge’s recently launched Chat-n-Pay service enables customers to connect and pay via chat with E-Rickshaw drivers in less than 5 seconds. The drivers can register themselves as a merchant at zero investment, on the Chat-n-Pay platform by simply adding their banking details. For consumers and drivers, Chat-n-Pay will help eliminate the hassle of managing and arranging change and will further offer convenience to pay on-the-go in a seamless and secure manner. 
 
Talking about the partnership, Govind Rajan, Chief Operating Officer, FreeCharge said “We are excited to be part of this initiative and enable E-Rickshaw drivers to be part of the digital payments ecosystem. It is great to witness Honourable Prime Minister himself educating people on the importance of digital payment and will act as a testimony for a company like us. This partnership will strengthen our goal of creating a less cash society and further give a boost to our endeavour to make digital payments accessible to all in the swiftest and secure manner. Our Chat-n-Pay service has opened opportunities for small merchants from unorganised sectors to accept payments digitally with no investment.” 
 
“Bhartiya Micro Credit (BMC) aims to spread awareness of this 13 financial inclusion and social security schemes and proposes to take the benefits to poor and destitute people in the country. The idea is to facilitate the up gradation of pedal rickshaw pullers into E Rickshaw owners and help create threefold increment in their income. Credit for all these facilities is being provided under Mudra Scheme. The progression to E Rickshaw from pedal rickshaw will also help contribute towards achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Sach hua Sapna, Rickshaw hua apna!” shared Vijay Pandey, Managing Director, Bhartiya Micro Credit. 
 
“In addition, the customers will also be able to book E Rickshaw through Ola mobile apps and make digital payment via FreeCharge, which will be integrated under PM Modi's Digital India initiative”, said Shantanu Gupta, Advisor to BMC. 
 
As part of their on-going initiative BMC will distribute 5,100 E-Rickshaws at the event. FreeCharge will be setting up training for all these drivers via BMC to help them understand how to use FreeCharge app and accept payments. FreeCharge will also create an exclusive incentive plan for all the E-Rickshaw drivers to encourage them to use digital payments to pay for services like mobile recharges, electricity bill payments etc.

Freecharge partners with NGO to enable digital payment for E-rickshaw drivers

The <keyword id="6383340" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="National-Payments-Corporation-of-India">National Payments Corporation of India</keyword> has launched a new electronic fund transfer protocol, and all <keyword id="3318574" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="indian-online-wallet-companies">Indian online wallet companies</keyword>, including <keyword id="6357120" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="PayTM">Paytm</keyword>, <keyword id="143842" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mobikwik">Mobikwik</keyword> and <keyword id="6377963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Freecharge">FreeCharge</keyword>, are aiming to integrate their services with this protocol, so that their business is not rendered redundant with the changes. 
 The new protocol is called <keyword id="2736678" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Unified-payments-interface">Unified Payments Interface</keyword> (UPI), and will come into effect from today. UPI is a single interface across all NPCI systems, which would allow customers to instantaneously transfer funds across different banks using a single identification and password. 
 
The protocol would enable multiple bank accounts linked to a single mobile banking app, and money can be both received and requested through the same interface. This could, of course, mean that consumers won’t have to store money in multiple electronic wallets. 
 
The digital wallet companies are of the opinion that with UPI, it will be easier for consumers to load cash onto the wallet and at the same time, it will not impact their business, especially in the short term. 
 
"UPI will bring easier and cost effective methods to load money in Paytm," said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO, Paytm. 
 
Since the technology is easy to use, it is expected to transform the way Indians make digital payments. Sensing this, India's top online retailer Flipkart recently acquired UPI-based payments company PhonePe. 
 
"UPI has the potential of transforming the entire payments ecosystem in the country," said Flipkart CEO Binny Bansal. 
 
With UPI, customers would also not need to exchange sensitive information such as bank account numbers and card details, while also avoiding multi-level intervention. "As UPI comes into being we are confident that on the rails of UPI, we will be able to enable a faster and more secure transaction across merchants," said Govind Rajan, COO of FreeCharge. 
 
<a href="http://www.imena.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/payonline-header.jpg">Image source</a>

The government just made it easier for you to make online payments

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Snapdeal">Snapdeal</a>’s recharge and bill payments arm <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge">FreeCharge</a> is pulling out all it’s stocks to trump segment leader <keyword id="6357120" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="PayTM">Paytm</keyword>. The company recently announced its ‘<keyword id="6377963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Freecharge">FreeCharge</keyword> Wallet’ has crossed 10 million registered active users within 60 days of its rollout. 
 
“We’re the fastest to reach this milestone not just in the digital payments space but also in case of any internet-based products. At this rate we’ll easily get 35 million wallet signups by March 2016”, Govind Rajan, COO, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge">FreeCharge</a> told BI India. 
 
What more, you can pay from your FreeCharge wallet across 50 merchants including Shoppers Stop by this December. 
 
 When asked about the average token size on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge">FreeCharge</a>, Rajan reminds the recharge business is very different from regular e-commerce. “In recharge it’s the number of transactions that matter more than the token size. The average token size for recharge is Rs. 150. For bill payments it's Rs. 500. That's almost 15 times higher in case of e-commerce”, he says. 
 
When asked about their biggest competitor in the race Paytm, Rajan is non-chalant. “I’ll say our biggest competition is Cash. The challenge here is to build user growth via awareness and user experience.” Rajan says. 
 
...But boy are they pouring in cash!<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge">FreeCharge</a> has expended over Rs 2,000 Crores as coupons on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Snapdeal">Snapdeal</a> to get itself known. 
 
When asked why India needs wallets, Rajan says, “India has four-times the cash in comparison to the rest of the BRIC countries. We’ll add 100 million smartphone users in the next 12-18 months. We need a product that is swifter and safer than cash, and this is it.”

It’s FreeCharge Vs. Paytm in e-payments space now

If there’s anybody who is having a ball right now, it’s a couple of <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword> operating in the digital payment space in India. 
 
It’s because the government is discouraging cash payments. It has recently removed the surcharge on card/ electronic payments, which means it should not cost more when you are paying digitally. Also, it will soon become a must for people to make online payments in transactions above a certain threshold. 
 
India is amongst the most cash intensive cash economies, and the government realizes there needs to be policy changes which can encourage people to make electronic payments. 
 
The Industry is brimming with happiness after the good news. “This is a masterstroke by the government following last year’s RBI decision to roll put payment banks,” says digital payment portal Paytm’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma. 
 
“The current regime in which companies levied charges on digital payments was lopsided – and in favour of cash,” he adds. 
 Govind Rajan, the COO of <keyword id="6377963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Freecharge">Freecharge</keyword>, seems equally excited. He says, “this decision to bring digital payments at par with cash is a watershed moment in the creation of a truly digital India.” 
 “In combination with <keyword id="144117" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="AADHAAR">Aadhaar</keyword> and Jan Dhan Yojana, this move constitutes the most wide ranging and ambitious program for the digital transformation of the country,” he says. 
 Presently, India's cash to <keyword id="35050" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="gdp">GDP</keyword> ratio is 12%, which is 3-4 times that of comparable economies like Brazil and South Africa. The cost of managing this high cash dependence is over Rs 20,000 crore in the formal banking system and even more in the entire economy. 
 
“With this strong signal, we are on our way to wean the country off its expensive and inefficient addiction to cash. Going digital will not only save the country crores of rupees, it will also provide consumers and merchants a more secure and frictionless way of transacting,” says Rajan. 
 
“We are confident that the government’s continued support for the digitization of payments will further fuel growth and innovation in the sector, with significant long term socio-economic benefits to the Indian economy,” he adds.

PayTM
and Freecharge are rejoicing 2 days ahead of the budget. Here’s why

Having ruled like a king in the Internet wallet segment , Paytm has some serious competition from Snapdeal-owned Freecharge. Snapdeal-owned online recharge and utility payments platform Freecharge has launched a digital wallet. The combination of Freecharge and Snapdeal will create one of the largest mobile commerce ecosystems," Freecharge Cofounder Kunal Shah told The Economic Times. 
 
The company is planning to provide for nearly Rs 1,000 crore of cashbacks through the wallet as festive shopping picks up during October-December. 
 
The new wallet, which will allow consumers to make payments for transactions on both Freecharge and Snapdeal, is expected to strengthen the ecommerce company's position as it battles two of India's largest ecommerce companies, Paytm and Flipkart. 
 
Freecharge has tied up with YES Bank to launch the wallet. During the launch, new Freecharge Chief Operating Officer Govind Rajan took a jab at Paytm, comparing the two apps on features such as app size and transfer charges to the bank. Freecharge has also partnered with the payment bank licensee FINO to build scale and to reach out the underserved population, it said in a statement. 
 
Alibaba-backed Paytm recently received a payment bank licence from the Reserve Bank of India. Paytm, which owns a prepaid wallet licence already, claims to have more than 100 million wallet users in the country.

You Searched For "Govind Rajan Freecharge" and got 13 results

FreeCharge CEO Govind Rajan resigns; reason still not known

BI India Bureau

Zivame and YepMe buyers can pay via Freecharge in less than 10 seconds

BI India Bureau

Fareed Jawad is the new VP for Payments & Principal Product Architect at Freecharge

BI India Bureau

Attention please PayTM! FreeCharge files patent for OTP alternative

BI India Bureau

FreeCharge has plans to speed ahead of Paytm. CEO says ‘our retention is not driven by discounts’

Saikat Pyne

FreeCharge’s Chat n Pay is great…but for whom? #JustSaying

Saikat Pyne

Jason Kothari is the new CEO of FreeCharge

BI India Bureau

Snapdeal-owned FreeCharge sets Rs 20,000 crore business target by March 2017

BI India Bureau

Freecharge partners with NGO to enable digital payment for E-rickshaw drivers

BI India Bureau

The government just made it easier for you to make online payments

BI India Bureau

It’s FreeCharge Vs. Paytm in e-payments space now

Saikat Pyne

PayTM and Freecharge are rejoicing 2 days ahead of the budget. Here’s why

Anushree Singh

See who’s here to take on Paytm and Flipkart

BI India Bureau

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides