NPCI To Integrate AI-Powered Bhashini To Offer Conversational Payments In 22 Languages

The National Payments Corporation of India is looking to integrate BHASHa INterface for India (Bhashini), a government-backed artificial intelligence (AI)-powered translation platform, with itself to allow users to make conversational payments in Indian languages.

Users will be able to check bank balance, make business-to-business money transfer, book LPG cylinders, recharge FASTag, renew insurance, among others, once the integration is completed. 

Bhashini chief executive Amitabh Nag told the Economic Times, “In some way we are looking to bridge the digital and literacy divide to a large extent, and for that, it is important for us to get into transactions. NPCI is one such case and the farmer bot (for PM-Kisan) is another case.”

According to Nag, voice processes make it easier to interact with machines for those who may not be well versed with technology. This reduces the dependence of people on literacy for tech usage. 

He added that the new services by Bhashini under the NPCI will be rolled out in 22 official languages but timeline for the same will be decided by the respective partner organisations. Every use case under the NPCI will be covered by Bhashini. 

It must be noted that the NPCI launched conversational payments facility Hello! UPI in partnership with Bhashini last month.

Hello! UPI allows users to give voice commands to transfer funds and input UPI PIN through the UPI app, telecom calls, and IoT devices in Hindi and English. At the launch, the NPCI said the service would soon be made available in other Indian languages as well.

Bhashini was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July this year. Prior to that, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar conducted a brainstorming session with startups to shape the strategy for the AI-led translation platform.

Bhashini is part of the larger National Language Translation Mission, announced in the Budget this year. It aims to create the next-generation of government websites that will enable users to access them in their language of choice.

The integration of Bhashini is part of the efforts of the NPCI, which facilitates services like UPI Payment, Bharat Bill Pay, RuPay Card, FASTag, to further increase digital payments in the country, especially by making them accessible to feature phone users.