Fintech Brief — July 23, 2026

NPCI Developing Offline “Tap & Pay” UPI for ₹2,000 Transactions

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is building an NFC-based offline “Tap & Pay” feature for UPI, allowing contactless payments of up to ₹2,000 without an internet connection. According to a Business Standard report, the system would use near-field communication between NFC-enabled smartphones and certified offline PoS terminals. The merchant terminal would locally record the authorisation and submit the transaction for verification once connectivity is restored.

This is a significant expansion beyond the current UPI Lite framework, which supports ₹1,000 per transaction with a ₹5,000 wallet cap. The proposed ₹2,000 offline limit would also exceed the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion 2025–30’s prescribed ₹500 per-transaction limit for UPI Lite X. If implemented, this could be a game-changer for payments in rural and low-connectivity areas — exactly the kind of infrastructure push that extends UPI’s reach beyond urban India’s reliable broadband.

Separately, Indian Express reported that UPI processed a record 24,161.69 crore transactions worth ₹314.23 lakh crore in FY 2025-26, with 55.49 crore users onboarded. UPI is now operational across 12 countries including France, Singapore, and the UAE.

RBI Proposes Sweeping Simplification of FDI Rules

The Reserve Bank of India has released draft Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Investment) Rules, 2026, proposing a principle-based regulatory framework that rationalises provisions, harmonises definitions, and simplifies the overall FDI compliance architecture. Business Standard reported that the central bank is seeking public comments on the draft.

The move signals RBI’s intent to reduce the compliance burden on foreign investors while maintaining regulatory oversight. For fintech companies — particularly those with cross-border cap tables or looking at international capital — this could mean fewer procedural hurdles. The draft also proposes allowing overseas rupee accounts to lend money to persons resident outside India, potentially opening new corridors for external commercial borrowing and NRI investment flows.

AI Startup Ema Nears $80M Round at $800M Valuation

Enterprise generative AI startup Ema is in advanced talks to raise approximately $80 million from Creaegis, pushing its valuation to around $800 million. Founded in 2023 by Surojit Chatterjee (former CPO at Coinbase), Souvik Sen, and Swati Trehan, Ema builds universal AI employees that automate enterprise workflows. This represents a steep valuation jump from its earlier rounds — the company previously raised $25 million in an initial round backed by Sheryl Sandberg, Jerry Yang, and Sridhar Ramaswamy.

The round reflects continued investor appetite for India-based AI companies that can demonstrate enterprise traction. Creaegis, which recently led a $130 million round for another AI entity Emergent, is positioning itself as a key player in India’s AI funding wave.

SEBI PaRRVA: Replacing Screenshot Records with Verifiable Digital Evidence

NISM published an analysis of SEBI’s PaRRVA (Permanent Record of Rental and Value Addition) framework, highlighting its potential to curb mis-selling in mutual funds and investment products. The system replaces the industry’s reliance on screenshot-based records — notoriously easy to manipulate — with verifiable digital evidence of advisory interactions.

For consumers, this is a meaningful protection upgrade. Mis-selling remains one of the most persistent complaints in India’s securities markets, with distributors often pushing high-commission products over suitable ones. PaRRVA creates an auditable trail that makes it harder for bad actors to deny what was recommended versus what was sold. The framework aligns with SEBI’s broader push toward digitisation of investor protection mechanisms.