Agentic payments: Why India needs a rupee stablecoin

India can retain its leadership in payments by moving quickly to enable digital money that's programmable

- PRIYA KARNIK

As the founder of a global payment solutions company, I have a sense of pride when I speak about India's payment systems to our global customers. India has offered 24/7 settlements for all types of payments for years and many nations are only now catching up with it. Our Unified Payments Interface (UPI) stands as a world-class example. In order to retain this leadership position, India needs to be nimble about a new paradigm that is emerging in the global payments landscape: programmable payments.

These refer to a type of financial transaction where the execution and conditions of the payment are directly embedded in the software code associated with it. This means pre-set rules that dictate when, how and to whom a payment should be made without requiring manual intervention for each such programmed transaction.

This shift towards programmable payments, driven by advancements in blockchain technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and smart contracts, allows for automated transactions triggered by predefined conditions, auditable payments and much else that we cannot fully fathom today. While India has been a trailblazer in real-time payments, we must embrace the opportunity presented by the rise of programmable money to retain our hard-won leadership.