Daily Tech Briefing: WhatsApp Payments May Launch Soon, Reliance Goes Debt Free & More

After almost two years, WhatsApp’s digital payments platform is finally compliant with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) data localisation policies. The company informed the Supreme Court that it has now put in place measures for the five key data elements identified by the RBI. It also specified that it has spent a “significant engineering time and effort” over the last seven months to comply with the guidelines. 

WhatsApp has also claimed that an independent third-party auditor, certified by central government’s cybersecurity firm CERT-in, has confirmed that WhatsApp Payments satisfies the data localisation requirements under the RBI circular.

Though WhatsApp Payments has been planning its India launch since 2018, it has been stuck due to data localisation compliance causing delays. Even though India is WhatsApp’s largest market with more than 400 Mn users, it started off its digital payments platform’s complete roll-out in Brazil with 120 Mn users.

Reliance Shakes Off Debt With Jio Investments

India’s most valuable company Reliance Industries Limited has managed to become net debt-free almost nine months ahead of its set target, thanks to the INR 168,818 Cr fundraising in Jio Platforms in the last eight weeks.

The Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Platforms has raised INR 1.15 Lakh Cr from global tech investors like Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, L Catterton and Public Investment Fund with nearly 25% stake sold.

Reliance Industries’ chairman and managing director Ambani said, “Over the past few weeks, we have been overwhelmed by the phenomenal interest of the global financial investor community in partnering with Jio. As our fund-raising milestone from financial investors is achieved, we sincerely thank the marquee group of financial partners and warmly welcome them into Jio Platforms.”

SaaS Startups Opt For WFH Till Year-End

With India’s Covid-19 infection tally crossing 3.8 Lakh, coupled with the reopening of the economy, only a handful of entrepreneurs have got back to the office. SaaS companies like Freshworks and ChargeBee have asked employees to work from home till the end of 2020. Another SaaS giant Zoho has asked employees to work from home till the pandemic subsides, without fixing a date of return to the office. 

Armed with performance-monitoring tools and data security drills, tech companies have been able to effectively WFH. Despite employees logging in more hours, the companies have reportedly found that the deliverables have not been impacted and thus, have enabled the companies to extend the WFH option.

New Ecommerce Rules For Product Origin

With an eye on promoting local products, the government may make it compulsory for ecommerce entities to display the origin of the productThe government i. s likely to add this clause in the ecommerce policy being drafted by the industry and commerce ministry. An official close to the matter told the publication that this will help cut import of Chinese goods and will act as an impetus to for customers to buy Indian goods.

Notably, China has a trade surplus of about $47 Bn with India in the first 11 months of the financial year 2020, ending March.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has launched a nationwide movement to boycott the sale of Chinese products in India. In order to make the transition smoother, CAIT has made a list of 3K Chinese items, from toys to cosmetics, which can be easily replaceable by Indian manufactured goods. This list mostly comprises finished goods imported from China.