UPI Payments

There's a USSD based service that lets you make payments and do other basic things by dialing `*99#`. However it's more cumbersome and the service is not well maintained, meaning it frequently goes down.

Makers of UPI apps are usually supposed to register with the NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) and use their proprietary SDK. I think there's also a requirement to be affiliated to some bank, but not sure of the details. The SDK is presumably for Android and iOS, but Jio has somehow got UPI working on KaiOS devices (unfortunately only the ones branded by them) so we know other platforms are possible.

The "good" news is that UPI apps tend tro be very strict and don't work on LineageOS devices either. So we are not alone in wanting a solution 🙃️

As an interim solution, perhaps a USSD-based client could be written that streamlines some of the process. For example, many UPI payments are made by scanning a (often static) QR code. With the current USSD-based setup, this involves scanning the QR code as text, then manually copying the relevant part (the UPI ID), navigating through USSD to the payments section, and pasting the copied information (the UPI ID) into the appropriate place.

I think even a "scan QR code and copy the extracted UPI ID to the clipboard" script would help streamline the process. If we have an app that can navigate the USSD menus too (along with "try again" as it often fails requiring several retries to get it right) that'd be even better.

The social problem with using the USSD-based approach is that it takes more time than people expect, so this helps to quicken that. Of course, slow UPI sometimes incentivises people to open up and accept more cash payments instead!

I'm running a Poco F1 which doesn't even have complete camera drivers yet so I'm a bit far from the UPI stage 🫠️ but I'd be happy to help draft any solutions to help with this.

I realised I forgot to answer the social side. Others feel free to correct/detail, but I think some cities expect UPI payments all the time, to the extent of not giving change for cash (in my personal experience, Bangalore is one of the worst in this regard). On the other hand, many other cities are as open to cash as they always were. So it depends a lot on where you are (or if you travel around a lot)

Card payments are also an option, but not everywhere.

Another thing to consider is that cash payments are anonymous, whereas UPI (and cards) open you up to surveillance by the government and other agencies. I don't think the general population is very concerned about this, but many in Free Software circles tend to be, which means they may not be interested in using UPI even if they could 🙃️

I'm not sure of the actual stats though (how many actually don't have UPI at all vs. those who keep it around as a backup, etc.)