Adani Group is reportedly planning to enter the e-commerce and payments sector, as it looks to establish a digital business that can compete with giants like Google and Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries in India.
The company is considering applying for a license to operate on India's widely used public digital payments platform, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
As per a report by the Financial Times, the Gautam-Adani-led group is currently in discussions with banks to finalise its previously mentioned plans for a co-branded Adani credit card.
The company is also in talks to provide online shopping services on India's rapidly expanding e-commerce platform ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce).
Both ONDC and UPI are key components of India's digital public infrastructure, drawing in millions of users monthly and attracting various groups aiming to establish consumer technology firms.
If confirmed, the services will be available via Adani's consumer app, Adani One, which currently provides travel offerings like flight and hotel reservations.
PhonePe and domestic entities like Paytm and Tata have long been offering the popular UPI-based payment service and grocery/fashion shopping via ONDC.
The "interoperable" nature of these networks implies that companies are not obligated to develop their own exclusive payment or e-commerce platforms, instead, they can simply conduct transactions through existing providers.
Sources cited in the report stated that the company's e-commerce and payment services would first target its current customer base, which they claimed includes hundreds of millions of people, factoring in gas and electricity users as well as travelers at its airports.
For instance, customers could earn loyalty points by paying bills or making duty-free purchases and then redeem them for online shopping. By focusing on its existing user base, Adani would have "a platform to move into much larger areas," one of the sources cited in the report said.
