Vickey quit his plum job as CTO of Healthspings (a leading healthcare chain funded by Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures) to join MissCallPay. He brings a rich experience of over 20 years of leading tech and solutions teams in organizations like Vodafone, Samsung, Dell, Microsoft, Wipro, and Sprint RPG.

Vickey’s significant achievement has been his stint with Vodafone India, where he built the specs for USSD based Interoperable Mobile Payments standard for India. As the Head Technology of Vodafone M-Pesa India, he grew M-Pesa from zero to 100+ million wallets. 

In the words of Mitesh Thakker, Founder – MissCallPay, “We are delighted to have an experienced eye like Vickey on the team as this will help us build our business as we are starting the commercial operations in a few months. We are looking at bringing a tighter focus on the Technology while reaching out and increasing our subscribers in the next few months.” 

On the occasion of his appointment, Vickey Rodrigues said, “Post my experience with M-Pesa, I always had a dream to enter the feature phone payment space. No better time than now to join MissCallPay and build robust digital payment solutions for the next billion.” 

About MissCallPay

Established on 28th September 2017, MissCallPay (BRAND) is a fintech start-up based in Mumbai that aims to focus on financial inclusion and Digital payments among masses which is the primary priority of the government. This start-up aims to partner with multiple banks to bring convenient solutions to the Bharat population and boost digital payments on feature phones which has not disrupted the industry. MissCallPay was sowed amidst the demonetization crisis that saw a huge leap in digital payment but left behind the rural & non-tech savvy population.   The concept of MissCallPay is the brain-child of Mitesh Thakker who is a serial entrepreneur & Design Thinker. He has 21 years of experience in selling, marketing and building IT products and has 6 patents to his credit.

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BPCL SBI Card OCTANE offer, which translates to a whopping 7.25% value back (including 1% surcharge waiver) on fuel and lubricant spends at BPCL fuel stations and an unbeatable 6.25% value back on Bharatgas spends (Website and app only) also bundles in accelerated savings on other regular spends categories, including, Departmental Store & Grocery, Dining and Movies. BPCL SBI Card OCTANE customers will benefit from BPCL`s extensive network, enjoying savings on fuel and lubricants at 17000+ Bharat Petroleum fuel stations, across the country. Additionally, there will be no minimum transaction threshold for fuel spends, enabling customers to save with every transaction. An altogether Pure for Sure experience at BPCL fuel stations!

Sharing his perspective, Mr. Dinesh Khara, Chairman, SBI said, “Launch of this BPCL SBI Card OCTANE bolsters partnership of SBI Card with BPCL. The card will bring consumers the highest savings proposition on fuel in the industry, thus making it a preferred choice in the segment. This launch will surely aid and bolster digital payments growth in India.”

The BPCL SBI Card OCTANE combines best in class rewards points on fuel spends with value back on various regular spends categories, thus addressing overall spending needs of cardholders. BPCL SBI Card OCTANE will provide 10X RP on Dining, Movies, Grocery & Departmental Store Spends. BPCL SBI Card OCTANE cardholders can enjoy exclusive benefits such as complimentary domestic airport lounge access. The card offers milestone benefits worth INR 2000 on annual spends of INR 300,000, in the form of e-gift vouchers. The card also comes with a complimentary fraud liability cover of INR 100,000.

Talking about the launch of the new co-brand card, Mr. Ashwini Kumar Tewari, MD & CEO, SBI Card said, “BPCL SBI Card OCTANE further strengthens our robust co-branded card portfolio and will propel our partnership with BPCL.  This launch is in line with our continued endeavor to offer our customers the best-in-class products with superior value. In addition to the savings on fuel and lubricants across Bharat Petroleum`s vast network across India, the card will also offer accelerated reward points on major spend categories, such as, Departmental Store & Grocery, Movies and Dining and Bharat Gas spends (Website and App only), making it a holistic, primary card for our customers.”

Mr. K Padmakar, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd said, “We are extremely happy to introduce the BPCL SBI Card Octane which offers best in the category benefits to our customers on purchase of fuel and lubricants across our 17000+ Retail Outlets and on online Bharatgas LPG payments. Our partnership with SBI Card ensures that we continuously endeavor to provide value to our customers through innovative products and offerings. The BPCL SBI Card OCTANE is one of our contributions towards digitally empowering society.”

Speaking about the launch of the new co-brand card, Mr. Arun Kr. Singh, Director (Marketing) Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd said, “BPCL has been at the forefront of the digital revolution in the country and the BPCL SBI Card OCTANE symbolizes BPCL’s steadfast commitment to offer vastly differentiated and best in class value through its digital offerings to all segments of the fueling consumers in the country. BPCL SBI Card OCTANE is packed with an empowering value proposition across its retail fuels, Bharatgas and Lubricants portfolio giving our valued customers a hugely rewarding cashless fueling experience.”

The card brings value from the point of enrolment itself, offering 6000 bonus points worth INR 1500 on payment of joining fee. BPCL SBI Card OCTANE also offers annual membership fee reversal on annual spends of INR 200,000 or more on in the previous year. The card launched on Visa Signature platform comes at an annual membership fee of INR 1499/-.

Highlights of BPCL SBI Credit Card OCTANE:

The BPCL SBI Card OCTANE offers many distinct benefits and rewards to cardholders, including:

• Welcome Benefit: 6,000 Reward Points worth INR 1,500 upon payment of joining fees.
• Reward Points:
  • 25X Reward Points on every INR 100 spent at BPCL Fuel, Lubricants, and Bharat Gas (Website & App only) (Limited to Max 2500 Reward Points per billing cycle).
  • 10X Reward Points on every INR 100 spent at Dining, Movies, Grocery and Departmental Stores.
  • 1 Reward Point on remaining spends (except Non BPCL fuel and Mobile wallet upload).
• Milestone Benefit: E-Gift Voucher worth INR 2,000 on annual spends of INR 300,000.
• 4 Complimentary Domestic Airport Lounge Access in India (Max 1 visit per quarter).
• Annual fee reversal on annual spends of INR 200,000.
• 1% Fuel Surcharge waiver at BPCL petrol pumps.
• Complimentary Fraud Liability cover of INR 100,000.

About SBI Card

SBI Cards and Payment Services Limited (formerly known as SBI Cards and Payment Services Private Limited) (“SBI Card”) is a non-banking financial company that offers extensive credit card portfolio to individual cardholders and corporate clients which includes lifestyle, rewards, travel & fuel and banking partnerships cards along with corporate cards covering all major cardholders’ segments in terms of income profile and lifestyle. Presently, the brand has a wide customer base of over 10 million. It has diversified customer acquisition network that enables to engage prospective customers across multiple channels. SBI Card is a technology driven company.

P.S. The brand name of the company is ‘SBI Card’ and it is registered in the name of ‘SBI Cards and Payment Services Limited’. The company is trading under the entity name ‘SBICARD’ on stock exchanges.

About BPCL

Bharat Petroleum is India’s second largest retailer with a nationwide robust marketing and distribution network comprising of more than 17,000 Retail Outlets, 6,600 LPG distributorships, 733 Lubes distributorships, 123 POL storage locations, 52 LPG Bottling Plants, 58 Aviation Service Stations, 3 Lube blending plants and 4 cross-country pipelines.

During the year 2019-20, BPCL’s Gross Revenue from Operations stood at Rs.3,27,581 Crores, Net Profit at Rs. 2,683 Crores, Market Sales were 43.10 MMT and Market Share amongst Public Sector Oil Companies was the second highest at 24.5%. The products have a wide range of applications in industrial, transport, power and agriculture sectors. Bharat Petroleum has also formed 24 joint venture companies covering refining, city gas distribution, renewable energy, pipelines, gas, into-plane servicing, airports, payment banks etc. to cater to the diverse requirements of its customers.

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While there are multiple ways to purchase gold, one that has become increasingly popular in urban India is e-Gold or Digital Gold. However, in the rural market, the demand for e-Gold remains sluggish due to low digital literacy and awareness.

In light of these gaps, PayPoint has launched an e-Gold facility on its platform – a network of more than 48,000 last-mile physical stores – to make the investment process simpler and safer for rural families. The initiative is for tech-unsavvy customers to conveniently buy and sell e-gold with guided assistance from PayPoint store staff. Individuals can invest in 22-Carat gold for as low as Rs. 500.

E-gold enables the purchase of non-physical or digital gold in small quantities, that too, without opening a Demat account. Hence, customers can avoid the downsides of buying physical gold – such as identifying physical gold’s legitimacy & purity, high-ticket size, safekeeping, storage problems and others.

On the other hand, once an individual buys e-Gold from nearby retail or Kirana stores associated with PayPoint, an equivalent amount of physical gold is purchased and stored in government-approved secured vaults on behalf of the customer. Additionally, Axis bank is the trustee of these vaults. These are the measures put in place to safeguard the interests of the customers.

Commenting on the development, Ketan Doshi, Managing Director of PayPoint India, said, “The cost of owning physical gold in the form of bars, coins or jewelry is high, as gold is trading at around 5,100 per gram currently. Thus, we aim to take the concept of e-Gold to the last-mile with small denomination investment, thereby encourage lower-income households to opt for regular micro-savings.

“In today’s unprecedented times, when COVID-19 is ravaging the world, the need for security has come to the fore. With e-Gold SIPs, individuals can gradually build their assets even with limited income and achieve a degree of financial security in the challenging times”, he added.

During a pilot run with some retailers, PayPoint witnessed strong adoption from the customers opting for daily, weekly and monthly investments. Such a response has reinforced PayPoint’s commitment to take financial products to the last mile.

PayPoint facilitates transparent pricing by allocating or redeeming investments at real-time bullion rates.  With outstanding features of flexibility in buying, high liquidity, long-term horizon and safety, investment in e-Gold is indeed one of the best investment avenues for the customers at the bottom of the pyramid.

About PayPoint India Network Pvt. Ltd.

PayPoint is a technology-enabled Distribution network of Financial Services. The company’s digitally connected network of 48000+ offline stores offers various Financial services like Banking (PMJDY accounts), micro ATM services, Wallets (Paypointz), Remittances, Bill payments, insurance, Merchant QR, and many more. Apart from Financial services, PayPoint also offers consumer services to the underserved like Travel booking, Recharges, Amazon assisted shopping, Gift Cards, etc. through its strong network of retail stores spread across the country. The company’s retailer-driven assisted model helps customers make an informed decision for availing services from their trained partners and its digital platform.

PayPoint offers a bouquet of services through its plug-and-play platform. More than 100 Services providers are plugged into the company’s system and interact with them on a real-time basis catering to more than 4 million customers month on month. The primary objective is to bridge the financial inclusion gap between developed urban India and under-served rural India.

For more information, please visit: paypointindia.com

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Mumbai-based point-of-sale terminal solutions provider Mswipe has announced the launch of “Bank Box”, a digital acceptance and payment solution designed to meet the cost-centric needs of MSMEs and merchants, as well as provide a seamlessly integrated experience.

With the increasing demand in digital payment modes Mswipe, through this launch, aims to pave the way for a futuristic payment solution platform and address key challenges that merchants and MSMEs face, with recurring costs on POS terminals like PoS rentals and Merchant Discount Rate (MDR).

Mswipe with a network of 6.75 lakh POS and 1.1 million QR merchants, aims to build a cutting edge product that combines their acquiring and issuing platforms into a one-stop-shop, “Bank Box”, which enables easy signup, instant activation of the terminal and lifetime zero rental and zero effective MDR for merchants.

Manish Patel, Founder, and CEO, Mswipe said, “COVID-19 has significantly impacted the earnings of small businesses, which in turn has led to curbed expenditures from their end. As a market innovator, Mswipe is helping MSMEs and merchants control costs incurred while accepting digital payments and further incentivize them to make digital payments. Essentially, Mswipe’s Bank Box facilitates small, medium, and micro businesses to break into the digital ecosystem at the lowest possible TCO and sign up – even if they do not have a bank account.”

With a one-time digital KYC, businesses can choose between Bank Box Go – a POS solution with zero rental and zero MDR or Bank Box Lite – a QR solution with 0 rental and 1% cashback on all transactions and instantly go live. In both offerings a merchant gets a UPI QR and a Moneyback Card. Bank Box Go additionally provides an affordable mPOS capable of accepting chip + pin and contactless card payments. For Bank Box Go merchants have to pay a one-time fee of Rs. 4,000 plus taxes while for Bank Box Lite, they pay only Rs.199 plus taxes.

“With Bank Box, we have democratized the digital acceptance and payments ecosystem for the smallest of businesses by giving them a choice. With Mswipe now both an acquirer and issuer, we have provided end-to-end digital enablement of MSMEs and merchants and empowered them to join the Digital Bharat movement” Sameer Hoda, President, Strategy, and Operations, Mswipe said.

While mPOS allows acceptance of multiple modes of payments including UPI, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, mQR accepts payments from more than 150 UPI and mobile banking apps like PayTM, Axis Bank, and BHIM among others. To spend digitally, merchants can load their Mcard with up to Rs. 1,00,000 per month

Mswipe is targeting merchants with an average daily digital collection of Rs. 2,000 – Rs.2,500 in tier 3-4 markets and Rs. 8,000 – Rs. 10,000 in Metro and semi-urban areas.

About Mswipe:

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Visa, a leading payments technology company, today announced the launch of India’s first proof-of-concept (PoC) to showcase open loop contactless toll payments at National Highway Authority of India’s (NHAI) Manesar toll plaza.

Once commercialised, open loop payment systems (compatible with contactless cards issued by any bank or provisioned in enabled devices) could significantly reduce congestion and waiting times at toll plazas.

The Manesar toll plaza closed user group PoC employs a unique Offline Data Authentication method compared to the conventional method. By significantly reducing waiting times and costs, the technology helps improve the flow of traffic across the toll lanes. The technology would allow consumers to use their existing bank issued contactless cards for payments across India’s toll plazas.

NHAI operates around 400 toll plazas across India’s national highways through which more than 20,000 vehicles pass each day. With vehicles queued up for an average of five to ten minutes to complete a toll payment, congestion and waiting time at toll plazas account for a significant portion of the $21.3 bn (comprises $6.6bn in cost of delay and $14.7 bn in additional fuel spent) that India is estimated to lose each year.

Announcing the launch of the PoC, TR Ramachandran, Visa’s Group Country Manager, India & South Asia said, ”Visa payWave, our contactless payment technology allows, users to simply wave and pay using a card or devices like smartphones and is relevant for all modes of transport –- metros, buses, and the railways as our experience with Transport for London has shown.”

Indian Highways Management Company, a company specifically set up by NHAI to carry out electronic tolling, has commissioned the deployment of the Manesar PoC. A key objective of the PoC is to assess the advantage of contactless payments in increasing the number of vehicles passing through the toll plaza.

This PoC furthers the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Payment Vision 2018 of moving India to a cashless society. According to the RBI, toll collections are largely cash based, and efforts to migrate to electronic payments have been sporadic and isolated. As a result, India has a range of different toll collection systems across the country, not only causing confusion and inconvenience to commuters, but also pushing them further into cash payments.

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Picture Credit: Pixabay

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