Isn’t Bharat App Store An Answer To Google Dependent Bharat?

Several Founders, Co-Founders, CXO Bankers, CXO Fintech professional & people who participated in the ePanel discussions:

• Mr. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder & CEO, Paytm
• Mr. Vishwas Patel, Director Infibeam Avenues Limited, Founder CCAvenue Payment Gateway
• Mr. Manish Khera, Founder & MD, HAPPY – Financial Services
• Mr. Sandeep Todi, Co-Founder & CBO, Remitr
• Mr. Kamonasish Aayush Mazumdar, Founder & CEO at Foodieverse
• Mr. Ajay B Panicker, CEO & Founder, NetPay Limited
• Ms. Shweta Aprameya, Co-founder, HAPPY- Financial Services
• Mr. Hrishikesh Panditrao, Gen Z  Studying Bachelors in Investment Management
• Mr. Shirsha Ghosh, Co-Founder Torit Innovations
• Mr. Riaz Maniyar, Founder & CEO at easy2lend.com
• Mr. Taron Mohan, CEO & Promoter, NextGen Telesolutions Pvt Ltd
• Mr. Maneesh Mittal, Customer Care Associate, Chief Omnichannel and Digital, Shoppers Stop
• Mr. Ketan Pradhan, former SVP- Customer Value Management, Vodafone Idea Limited
• Mr. Shailesh Varudkar, VP – Global Business Operations, Vserv
• Mr. Anuj Khosla, Chief Operating Officer, SBI Payments
• Mr. Neeraj Chandra, Head of Operations and Technology, India, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank
• Mr. Hemal Shah, former Technical Product Manager, Mastercard
• Mr. Ishan Vaish, India Partnership Manager- Worldwide Developer Relations, Apple
• Mr. Harveer Singh, former Head- Digital Solutions for India & South Asia, Mastercard
• Mr. Aishwarya Jaishankar, former SVP – Digital Products & Platforms, HSBC
• Mr. P B Prakash, Head-Financial Institutions Group, IndusInd Bank
• Mr. Abhishek Arun, Chief Operating Officer, Paytm Payments Bank
• Mr. Piush Kothari, Head of Business Operation, Walt Disney Direct to Consumer & International
• Mr. Anupam Varghese, Chief Tinkerer, Tinkerbee Innovations
• Mr. Amit Jadhav, former Senior Vice President, DBS Bank
• Mr. Muthu Krishnan, Associate VP – Merchant Acquisition, India Transact Services Ltd
• Mr. Abhishek Mody, former Associate Director-Payment & Digital Initiatives, IDFC FIRST Bank
• Mr. Hitesh Thakkar, Fintech Consultant, Self-Service Automation
• Mr. Amarto Chakrabarty, former Principal Consultant- Global Consulting Group, Wipro Limited
• Mr. Fareed Jawad, VP-Product Development, Spreedly
• Mr. Vikas R Panditrao, Co-Founder, Forum of Industry and Academic Knowledge Sharing (FIAKS)
• Many other CEO/CXO Bankers & Fintech professionals on FIAKS Forum requested to remain anonymous

So here goes a quite hot and breaking headline that sparked off discussions among the FIAKS community; “Paytm pulled down from Google store for policy violation”

Giving cash back to UPI linked account is their claim of gambling; 

• Is scratch card based cashback called gambling? Is paying someone or a shopkeeper called gambling?
• Well, would they remove Google Pay if similar things have been observed? Doesn’t Google Pay itself have scratch card based rewards?
• One can even argue that what if a bank like say SBI or ICICI was to give a scratch card cash reward within their app. Would Google ban the bank’s app?
• Google pay offers similar gamification driven cashback on payments.
• Rummy/Paytm Games is a separate issue. Paytm games are not in Google store similar to dream 11 and multiple other apps
• The issue is the Internet ecosystem is subject to Google and Apple play store and not something which is governed by Indian laws and there is no way to address any issues. Since this happened with big brands like Paytm, hence this could get this sorted but that also took a day and no prior intimation. Will an ordinary start-up get a resolution so fast or wouldn’t the they be made to go out of business with such an approach from the app store provider.

Watch this interview by Vijay Shekar Sharma:

https://twitter.com/cnbctv18news/status/1306916196160139265?s=21

Its high time that India has its own App Store working across all platforms/ devices;

• India has an Aadhaar identity platform, UPI platform then why can’t India develop its own App Store working across all platforms/ devices.
• In India, 99% of the apps are running on Google App Store. It’s a unilateral decision. Many start-ups are getting bullied by this company. Google can do this to Jio too!
• Does the government, RBI, and Indian Bankers understand the risk Google can pose to all the banking apps? They can take a unilateral decision and bring down the banking app by citing some clauses.
• Well, we actually need NUE for Google-type service and not for NPCI. The risk of blacklisting all Indian companies is very big.
• A member suggests, “Bharat OS (a variant of Open source Android) and Bharat App store is a good strategy for NUE if some taker is there. I have seen European banks as part of digital transformation and open banking was putting up an enterprise web store for employees to use apps developed by the bank.”
• A member says, “What Paytm did and has achieved; is years ahead of Google pays of the world! Now, these are unfair tricks of companies like Google to slow down a competition they cannot match. Clearly what Google has done to Paytm is unfair, unwarranted, and motivated. Paytm is our own product and bigger and better than Google Pay. We should get Gpay de-linked from UPI. They are finally riding on our ingenious UPI only. Be vocal about local!”

We have been falsely thinking data is the king;

• The world faced this problem first with SWIFT when Iranian banks were plugged out of the system that is the lifeline of interbank communication.
• India responded by launching SFMS so that at least within India we are not dependent on swift. The same is the case with the Master and Visa card and we came with Rupay.
• The dominance of Microsoft in OS also made people look for alternatives. So is the case with Android now. We have been falsely thinking data is the king. Actually medium (that controls data collection and transmission) is the king.  Those who control the medium will control the world.
• So the problem goes beyond Google. We have to develop self-sufficiency in all sorts of mediums (processors, telecom equipment, operating systems, etc). Until then having strong anti-trust/anti-monopoly laws is the only way.

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