WhatsApp has said they are indeed setting up a team in India and have already starting looking for people to hire
The Indian government has asked WhatsApp to set up an office in India and hire employees to get permission to start payments service in the country.
“Our point to them was that you want to start payments service for 220 million people, but you cannot do it by remote control,” a senior official from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said.
The government communicated this message in a meeting called earlier this month in the wake of lynchings due to rumours spread via the app, according to an Economic Times report.
In the same meeting, IT Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney had told the company’s delegation to prioritise curb of fake news over the payment service.
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There is also an indication that RBI’s advice will be sought by the government regarding payments services operating remotely.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp has said they are indeed setting up a team in India and they have already starting looking for people to hire.
The Facebook-owned company was allowed to start testing the payment service in February by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The beta app has almost 1 million users, and is supported by the State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank.