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).

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Pune (PTI): A horse was injured and a few vehicles were damaged after a hoarding collapsed due to strong winds in Maharashtra’s Pune city, police said.

The billboard crashed to the ground between 5 pm and 6 pm on Saturday outside a wedding hall near Kavdi Pat toll booth on the Pune-Solapur Highway, an official said.

The incident comes days after a giant illegal billboard in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar area collapsed on a petrol pump due to gusty winds and unseasonal rains, killing 16 persons and injuring 75.

Citing preliminary information about the incident in Pune, the police on Saturday said the hoarding collapsed due to strong winds and it fell on a horse, and a few vehicles, including one brought by a band party, outside the Gulmohar Lawns wedding hall.

The injured horse was rescued and taken for treatment, the official said.