 Morning Dispatch |
Amazon Now’s sales surge; govt’s stance on UPI charges
Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox?
I agree to receive newsletters and marketing communications via e-mail
Thank you for subscribing to Morning Dispatch
We'll soon meet in your inbox.
Happy Tuesday! Amazon's quick commerce arm is scaling fast, India head Samir Kumar told us. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.
Also in the letter:
■ Fintechs try agentic path
■ Explained: Growing AI safety debate
■ Info Edge’s new appointments
Amazon India’s quick commerce unit, Amazon Now, has crossed a $1 billion (around Rs 9,000 crore) annualised sales run rate, just over a year after entering India’s 10-minute delivery market, the company's India head Samir Kumar told ET.
Driving the news: “It has come on the back of increasing our coverage — we are now in over 60 cities. In the last 10 weeks, we have quadrupled the number of cities we operate in,” Kumar said.
The figure is based on orders placed between June and August, net of discounts and cancellations, and is comparable to the net order value (NOV) metric used by listed rivals Blinkit and Instamart.
Rapid expansion: Amazon Now is currently present in over 60 cities and aims to reach 100 cities ahead of the festive season. CEO Andy Jassy has previously said the service is expected to eventually cover 300 cities.
Kumar said Amazon Now will have 1,000 dark stores before the end of this year. It currently has 750, of which 100 are run by third-party operators.
Also Read: Amazon adds 20 fulfillment centres, expands logistics network ahead of festive season
The Centre clarified on Monday that banks and payment system providers cannot levy any charges on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions of up to Rs 2,000 or on debit card payments made using RuPay cards.
What’s the news: In a notification issued on Monday under Section 10A of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, the Finance Ministry specified these two modes, i.e. RuPay-powered debit cards and UPI transactions up to Rs 2,000, as “electronic modes of payment” on which no direct or indirect charge can be imposed on users making or receiving payments.
Why the clarification: This announcement comes a month after Parliament passed amendments to the act that gave the Centre the power to allow banks and payment service providers to levy charges on UPI and other notified digital payment modes.
The amendments also removed the linkage between the Payment and Settlement Systems Act and the Income Tax Act and provided legal backing to modify the zero-MDR (merchant discount rate) framework for UPI and RuPay.
Scale of UPI:
Read ETtech’s coverage on the return of MDR on UPI:
Indian fintechs use artificial intelligence (AI) for fraud checks, customer service and coding, but software that can spend customers’ money remains in pilots, executives told ET at Global Fintech Fest. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processed 24.51 billion transactions worth Rs 29.82 lakh crore in August.
Inside the companies:
Dario Amodei, CEO, Anthropic
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s suggestion that companies should slow the development of advanced AI systems has sparked a wider debate over whether leading AI labs are moving too fast.
What is a ‘slowdown’? The calls are not for halting AI development. Instead, proponents argue for:
Growing debate: Other tech leaders, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and xAI’s Elon Musk, joined the discussion, which sits at the intersection of AI safety, economics, open source and the US-China technology race.
Info Edge appoints former Adobe India MD to its board: Info Edge, the parent company of the job portal Naukri.com, has appointed former managing director of Adobe Systems India, Naresh Chand Gupta, as a non-executive independent director and Himanshu Agarwal as its chief financial officer amid a leadership reshuffle, according to a stock exchange filing.
Kissht parent to consider raising fresh funding: Bengaluru: OnEMI Technology Solutions, which operates digital lending platform Kissht, is looking to raise fresh capital, about four months after its initial public offering (IPO) through which it raised Rs 850 crore in primary capital.
■ Hostile forces using AI for ‘cognitive warfare’ against China, spy agency warns (FT)
■ The real AI economy is being built by ordinary people (Rest of World)
■ Why are there concerns AI could threaten humanity, and how real are they? (BBC)
Also in the letter:
■ Fintechs try agentic path
■ Explained: Growing AI safety debate
■ Info Edge’s new appointments
Amazon crosses $1 billion in annualised quick commerce sales: India chief Samir Kumar
Amazon India’s quick commerce unit, Amazon Now, has crossed a $1 billion (around Rs 9,000 crore) annualised sales run rate, just over a year after entering India’s 10-minute delivery market, the company's India head Samir Kumar told ET.
Driving the news: “It has come on the back of increasing our coverage — we are now in over 60 cities. In the last 10 weeks, we have quadrupled the number of cities we operate in,” Kumar said.
The figure is based on orders placed between June and August, net of discounts and cancellations, and is comparable to the net order value (NOV) metric used by listed rivals Blinkit and Instamart.
- Blinkit’s annualised NOV: around Rs 68,000 crore.
- Instamart’s annualised NOV: around Rs 23,000 crore.
Rapid expansion: Amazon Now is currently present in over 60 cities and aims to reach 100 cities ahead of the festive season. CEO Andy Jassy has previously said the service is expected to eventually cover 300 cities.
Kumar said Amazon Now will have 1,000 dark stores before the end of this year. It currently has 750, of which 100 are run by third-party operators.
Also Read: Amazon adds 20 fulfillment centres, expands logistics network ahead of festive season
Banks cannot impose charges on UPI payments of up to Rs 2,000, govt says
The Centre clarified on Monday that banks and payment system providers cannot levy any charges on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions of up to Rs 2,000 or on debit card payments made using RuPay cards.
What’s the news: In a notification issued on Monday under Section 10A of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, the Finance Ministry specified these two modes, i.e. RuPay-powered debit cards and UPI transactions up to Rs 2,000, as “electronic modes of payment” on which no direct or indirect charge can be imposed on users making or receiving payments.
Why the clarification: This announcement comes a month after Parliament passed amendments to the act that gave the Centre the power to allow banks and payment service providers to levy charges on UPI and other notified digital payment modes.
The amendments also removed the linkage between the Payment and Settlement Systems Act and the Income Tax Act and provided legal backing to modify the zero-MDR (merchant discount rate) framework for UPI and RuPay.
Scale of UPI:
- Number of banks on UPI: from 44 in FY2016-17 to 741 as of July 2026.
- Monthly transaction volume: crossed 2,300 crore in May 2026 (2,320 crore) and reached a record 2,366 crore in July 2026.
- Annual transaction volume: grew 30% in FY2025-26; transaction value grew 21%.
Read ETtech’s coverage on the return of MDR on UPI:
- Exclusive: Govt may bring back UPI merchant fee for big businesses
- Exclusive: UPI merchant fee likely to be set at 5-7 basis points: sources
- UPI MDR notification likely to be out for businesses soon; banks may pocket bulk of 40 bps fee
- UPI apps could chase big-ticket transactions as MDR return looms
- Jefferies sees Paytm, Pine Labs gaining from proposal to levy MDR on UPI transactions
- UPI fees explained: Why the government plans to revive MDR and who will pay
Fintechs high on AI, but yet to let it handle your money
Indian fintechs use artificial intelligence (AI) for fraud checks, customer service and coding, but software that can spend customers’ money remains in pilots, executives told ET at Global Fintech Fest. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processed 24.51 billion transactions worth Rs 29.82 lakh crore in August.
Inside the companies:
- PhonePe uses AI for 80% of trust and safety investigations and has automated 95% of customer service.
- Super.money says agents generate 60-70% of its code, while shopping and gold-investment ideas remain pilots.
- Razorpay says Vulkan, trained on nearly four billion transactions, lifted payment success rates by 8-10% and checkout personalisation by up to 40%.
- National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is building a unified agentic protocol and registry to authenticate agents on UPI.
- Cashfree’s redBus flow requires payment approval; its Yatra agent operates only within preauthorised conditions.
- Companies have not disclosed standardised usage data. Executives said wider adoption requires mandates, spending limits, audit trails, dispute resolution and liability.
ETtech Explainer: AI companies’ calls to slow down AI development
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s suggestion that companies should slow the development of advanced AI systems has sparked a wider debate over whether leading AI labs are moving too fast.
What is a ‘slowdown’? The calls are not for halting AI development. Instead, proponents argue for:
- More time for safety testing and oversight as models become more capable.
- Independent evaluations of frontier systems.
- Common safety standards across labs.
- Greater coordination between companies and governments.
Growing debate: Other tech leaders, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and xAI’s Elon Musk, joined the discussion, which sits at the intersection of AI safety, economics, open source and the US-China technology race.
Other Top Stories By Our Reporters
Info Edge appoints former Adobe India MD to its board: Info Edge, the parent company of the job portal Naukri.com, has appointed former managing director of Adobe Systems India, Naresh Chand Gupta, as a non-executive independent director and Himanshu Agarwal as its chief financial officer amid a leadership reshuffle, according to a stock exchange filing.
Kissht parent to consider raising fresh funding: Bengaluru: OnEMI Technology Solutions, which operates digital lending platform Kissht, is looking to raise fresh capital, about four months after its initial public offering (IPO) through which it raised Rs 850 crore in primary capital.
Global Picks We Are Reading
■ Hostile forces using AI for ‘cognitive warfare’ against China, spy agency warns (FT)
■ The real AI economy is being built by ordinary people (Rest of World)
■ Why are there concerns AI could threaten humanity, and how real are they? (BBC)
Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox?
I agree to receive newsletters and marketing communications via e-mail