India's digital payments infrastructure has earned global recognition, thanks to the government's push for Digital Public Infrastructure initiatives, such as the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile), Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and banking innovations. These efforts have created a solid base for financial technologies to flourish in the country.
At the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, Mastercard's Chief Product Officer, Jorn Lambert shared insights on the company's plans for India and the global market. In an exclusive chat with NDTV, Lambert said, “It is a very exciting time for payments in India and the world. India is the fintech capital of the world. That's why Mastercard is deeply invested in India; we have nearly 9,000 employees across our offices in the country.”
Mr Lambert acknowledged the growing level of risks associated with digital payments. Talking about Mastercard's plans to tackle the security challenges, he said, “We really need to stay ahead and the way we're thinking about this is to re-architect payments from the ground up. This is how tokenization was born. What tokenization essentially does is to make sure that the payment credentials of a person are never shared with the third party. Instead, what gets shared is a proxy, a token with some very clever cryptography. So that whenever fraudsters get their hands on it, it's rendered useless.”
He also talked about adding an enhanced security level and altering the present model of one-time passwords.
“In India, you use your one-time password (OTP) when you make a payment. People are lured into sharing their OTP and a scammer with social engineering and Generative AI gets to access it. That's where payment passkeys come into play. The passkeys solution uses your biometrics and tokenizes it. So, your face or fingerprint is used to authenticate the payments,” Mr Lambert added.
In a conversation with NDTV, Mastercard's Gautam Aggarwal and Sandeep Malhotra shared insights into the company's efforts to drive financial inclusion and innovation in digital payments and beyond.
Gautam Aggarwal, Mastercard's Division President for South Asia, stressed on the need for technology to be scalable to include everyone. “The vision of a ‘Viksit Bharat' will only come to life if we build technology that is scalable and inclusive,” he explained. Mr Aggarwal spoke about Mastercard's efforts to power payments innovation with tokenization, and its focus beyond traditional cards with QR code payments and even soundboxes for more payment flexibility.
Mastercard's initiatives in India focus on empowering small businesses, women entrepreneurs, farmers, and MSMEs. Mr Aggarwal highlighted the Strive India program, which brings together an existing body of philanthropic work and takes it forward, aiming to enable 500,000 small businesses to succeed in the digital economy.
Mastercard has already reached over 20,000 women entrepreneurs in Maharashtra through partnerships with social organizations, such as the Man Deshi Foundation. These women have benefited from loans, with attractive repayment rates. “We have seen 90 to 100% return rates on these loans,” Mr Aggarwal said.
Another key program of the company is Farm Pass, which connects over 2.5 million smallholder farmers in India with potential buyers and other key stakeholders, allowing them to sell produce and purchase inputs digitally. “We are creating a sort of marketplace where farmers can actually go and sell their produce, and also buy agri inputs,” explained Mr Aggarwal, adding that the platform is operating in 25 districts across eight Indian states.
Meanwhile, Sandeep Malhotra, Executive Vice President, Products and Innovation for Asia Pacific at Mastercard, talked about innovation. He emphasized the role of the soundbox, a low-cost acceptance device that has gained traction across India. “What we are saying is we want to give consumers a choice... whether they want to scan, tap, or dip their payment instrument,” Mr Malhotra said, underlining the inclusion-focused approach of the technology.
These devices have been particularly valuable for overcoming language barriers and improving accessibility in digital transactions.
As for the impact of UPI, Malhotra acknowledged its role in educating people about the benefits of digital payments, saying, “What UPI has done is basically got people who were using only cash into the digital payment ecosystem.” He also noted that while UPI is dominant, there is space and scope for other payment methods, be it cards or real-time gross settlement (RTGS).
Mastercard's wearable payment solutions also fit into its broader vision of every device becoming a commerce device. “Whether it's your phone, watch, ring, or even your earring,” Mr Malhotra said, explaining how tokenized payments will allow transactions with any device.
The company has also announced a collaboration with boAt, a leading Indian wearables brand. “We're very proud of this partnership,” Sandeep Malhotra added. “This collaboration will allow cardholders to tokenize their Mastercard debit and credit cards for use on their smartwatches, enabling tap and pay functionality.”
Meanwhile, Gautam Aggarwal highlighted Mastercard's global commitment of bringing 1 billion people and 50 million small businesses into the digital economy by 2025. “We are focusing on women entrepreneurs, farmers, and small businesses through partnerships and our own tech platforms like Farm Pass and Community Pass.”
Gautam Aggarwal praised India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). He said, “The DPI store in India is second to none worldwide. The government's efforts with JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile), UPI, and other initiatives have created a solid foundation for innovation.”