The Adani Group is contemplating applying for a license to participate in India's public digital payments network and is in talks with banks to finalise arrangements for a co-branded credit card, according to a report from The Financial Times (FT).
Led by billionaire Gautam Adani, the conglomerate aims to broaden its digital presence by joining India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) network. Moreover, the company is engaged in negotiations to provide online shopping through the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), a government-supported platform aimed at facilitating e-commerce.
This move implies a significant advance in the firm's endeavours to expand into the rapidly growing consumer sectors of digital payments and e-commerce.
These initiatives are part of a larger strategy to establish a digital enterprise capable of competing with established players such as Google and Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, as highlighted by the FT report.
The group offers travel services like flight and hotel bookings through its consumer app, Adani One, which was launched in late 2022.
Furthermore, the company aims to create a seamless ecosystem by focusing on its current customer base, which includes individuals who use a range of services, such as gas, electricity, and airport amenities.
Based on this strategy, users may have the opportunity to accrue loyalty points from activities like bill settlements or duty-free transactions, which they could subsequently redeem for online purchases.
This tactic is perceived as a means for Adani to capitalise on its substantial customer network to establish a presence in the fiercely competitive realms of digital payments and e-commerce. Yet, the conglomerate has not issued any formal declarations regarding its venture into digital payments.
Adani's expansion into consumer-oriented sectors coincides with the company's efforts to bounce back from recent controversies. In the past year, allegations of market manipulation and fraud by the US-based firm, Hindenburg Research, sparked a substantial decline in the group's stock value, prompting scrutiny from political adversaries.
Despite these obstacles, Adani Enterprises' shares have rebounded, recouping a significant portion of their losses, as reported by the press.