Google's payment app for India 'Tez' becomes Google Pay
New Delhi, Aug 28 : Readying its digital payment service for India, Tez, for a global roll out, Google on Tuesday renamed the app as Google Pay and introduced new features that could soon help its Indian users get instant "pre-approved" loans from some banks.
"Building for India has often meant Google building for everyone all around the world," Caesar Sengupta, Vice-President, Next Billion Users initiative and Payments, Google, said at its annual Google for India event here.
"At the moment, nothing is changing about the experience in India other than the name," he said, adding that Google is working with a few of India's top banks -- HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Federal Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank -- to offer pre-approved, instant loans to their customers, right from within Google Pay.
This feature will roll out to eligible users within the next few weeks, Google said. With the roll out of this feature, eligible users will see a notification telling that that they are pre-approved.
Next, the users would have to decide how much they want to borrow, and how quickly they would like to repay.
Finally, after reviewing the terms of the loan, the bank will deposit the money in their bank account instantly -- without the need of any additional paperwork, Google said.
"In coming weeks and months, Google is making Pay even more useful through expanding the places users can pay in-store and online, expanding services for merchants, and working with the banks to provide instant loans to Google Pay users," Sengupta said.
Google launched the Tez app in India last year and since then over 55 million people have downloaded the app and more than 22 million people and businesses actively use the app for digital transactions every month.
Google Pay works with all major banks in India on BHIM UPI (Unified Payments Interface).
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Karnataka: Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre unveils plan for scientific disposal of plastic bottles
Bengaluru: In a bid to address the mounting plastic waste problem, Eshwar B. Khandre, Minister for Forests, Ecology, and Environment, has directed the additional chief secretary of the department to formulate regulations that will require packaged water bottle manufacturers to take responsibility for the scientific disposal of plastic bottles.
As part of the proposed plan, Khandre has suggested introducing a minimum price for each water bottle, which would be refunded when the bottle is returned to any establishment selling packaged water, as reported by Deccan Herald on Monday.
Under this initiative, when a person buys a new water bottle, the minimum price for each returned bottle would be discounted from the bill for the new one.
The goal is to ensure that empty bottles are returned to the shops where they were purchased, preventing them from being discarded in public spaces or ending up in the environment. Under the plan, these establishments would then return the empty bottles to manufacturers, who would be responsible for the scientific disposal of the plastic.
Khandre emphasised that the proposed regulations are aimed at tackling plastic pollution more effectively. Although the central government has already banned the manufacture, storage, sale, and use of certain single-use plastics, and the state government has enacted similar regulations, plastic waste continues to be a significant environmental challenge.
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