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Those (before airport security) don’t perform UPI onboarding for foreign tourists. The usually-solitary shop/desk that does this is present in select airports f

Those (before airport security) don’t perform UPI onboarding for foreign tourists. The usually-solitary shop/desk that does this is present in select airports for international arrivals (not departures) and needs to be used before you leave the secure area. And oh, good luck finding it staffed if your flight arrives outside business hours. Your meta-point though is “oh there’s a workaround” or “if you go through hoops it’s doable”. My meta-point is, the whole “do it at specific shops in the airport” is problematic and needlessly limiting. Why an airport? Why’s it special? Could it be more convenient? Asking these questions of digital systems (any digital system) is what HN is about. Not defending needless limitations.

vinay_ys 3y ago
hey, I'm just trying to be helpful for visiting foreigners. I don't have any need to defend UPI on HN and moreover UPI needs no defending, its stats speak for itself.
- signal11 3y ago
  Except the ‘helpful’ steps you mentioned don’t really work. (Another commenter linked to some up and coming apps which are far more promising[1], I’d definitely urge interested folk to look into those.) > moreover UPI needs no defending, its stats speak for itself. The law of large numbers applies to UPI like it does to almost everything in India: you’ll get huge numbers which look good on slides. In reality, UPI is a bit above 10% of India’s cash transaction volume, so yeah, the reality of “UPI is ubiquitous” isn’t quite there yet. And “UPI needs no defending” is the exact uncritical thinking I expect when there’s any forum discussion of UPI. The thread started with people saying UPI doesn’t work for tourists & short term visitors, which I believe is valid criticism. There are many other criticisms of UPI, including and especially the governance around it. (On a more optimistic note, all of this is fixable.) But that’s for you to figure out if you’re interested! [1] https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/JDX-cheq-upi-digital-payments-for-nris-and-foreigners-in-india https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/JDX-cheq-upi-digital-pa...
  - vinay_ys 3y ago
    What's your basis for saying it doesn't work? Have you actually tried to get a prepaid wallet at the airport counter and it didn't work for you? Don't make unnecessary personal attacks by saying there's no critical thinking. If there's a specific factual thing that's incorrect in what I wrote above, feel free to point it out with evidence. Don't make unnecessary tall and broad claims about others who you know nothing about. Btw, I didn't say UPI doesn't need improving. I actually worked on different parts of UPI stack to do exactly that. And if you take the time to look at the number of feature launches that have happened on UPI you will realize how much work to improve it is actually happening every month. Also, if you really leave your biases aside and look at it critically, you might realize that the scale of UPI wasn't a given just because it is India. It takes effort make anything get to that scale and keep growing.
    - signal11 3y ago
      > What's your basis for saying it doesn't work? Have you actually tried to get a prepaid wallet at the airport counter and it didn't work for you? Expecting incoming international passengers to queue up at a solitary shop (and hope that it’s staffed) in an airport arrivals zone, before they exit the airport secure area, isn’t helpful or convenient or “digital”. Because passengers after long flights often just want to exit the airport and get to a comfortable bed. Or even otherwise are prone to making mistakes. Also, I’ve actually seen the kiosks in two airports unmanned and lying empty (to be fair, early morning arrivals). So even a motivated passenger is not guaranteed to receive service if they arrive at an odd time. So when I say your advice is not helpful, yes, it’s with personal experience. The apps (one of them funded by YC) are a great alternative to this “line up at a particular spot” madness, and hopefully they’ll improve and become more streamlined over time. PS. If you say “xx doesn’t need defending its stats speak for itself” you will sound uncritical whether you intend to or not. It’s a classic “shut down debate” line. Perhaps appropriate at the Arnab Goswami school of debate, but out of place elsewhere. If you use it, are called out, and then see it as a personal attack, that’s unfortunate — certainly not my intention to attack you “personally”, but you’ll need to think about your words too.
    - kiratp 3y ago

vinay_ys 3y ago

hey, I'm just trying to be helpful for visiting foreigners. I don't have any need to defend UPI on HN and moreover UPI needs no defending, its stats speak for itself.

signal11 3y ago
Except the ‘helpful’ steps you mentioned don’t really work. (Another commenter linked to some up and coming apps which are far more promising[1], I’d definitely urge interested folk to look into those.) > moreover UPI needs no defending, its stats speak for itself. The law of large numbers applies to UPI like it does to almost everything in India: you’ll get huge numbers which look good on slides. In reality, UPI is a bit above 10% of India’s cash transaction volume, so yeah, the reality of “UPI is ubiquitous” isn’t quite there yet. And “UPI needs no defending” is the exact uncritical thinking I expect when there’s any forum discussion of UPI. The thread started with people saying UPI doesn’t work for tourists & short term visitors, which I believe is valid criticism. There are many other criticisms of UPI, including and especially the governance around it. (On a more optimistic note, all of this is fixable.) But that’s for you to figure out if you’re interested! [1] https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/JDX-cheq-upi-digital-payments-for-nris-and-foreigners-in-india https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/JDX-cheq-upi-digital-pa...
- vinay_ys 3y ago
  What's your basis for saying it doesn't work? Have you actually tried to get a prepaid wallet at the airport counter and it didn't work for you? Don't make unnecessary personal attacks by saying there's no critical thinking. If there's a specific factual thing that's incorrect in what I wrote above, feel free to point it out with evidence. Don't make unnecessary tall and broad claims about others who you know nothing about. Btw, I didn't say UPI doesn't need improving. I actually worked on different parts of UPI stack to do exactly that. And if you take the time to look at the number of feature launches that have happened on UPI you will realize how much work to improve it is actually happening every month. Also, if you really leave your biases aside and look at it critically, you might realize that the scale of UPI wasn't a given just because it is India. It takes effort make anything get to that scale and keep growing.
  - signal11 3y ago
    > What's your basis for saying it doesn't work? Have you actually tried to get a prepaid wallet at the airport counter and it didn't work for you? Expecting incoming international passengers to queue up at a solitary shop (and hope that it’s staffed) in an airport arrivals zone, before they exit the airport secure area, isn’t helpful or convenient or “digital”. Because passengers after long flights often just want to exit the airport and get to a comfortable bed. Or even otherwise are prone to making mistakes. Also, I’ve actually seen the kiosks in two airports unmanned and lying empty (to be fair, early morning arrivals). So even a motivated passenger is not guaranteed to receive service if they arrive at an odd time. So when I say your advice is not helpful, yes, it’s with personal experience. The apps (one of them funded by YC) are a great alternative to this “line up at a particular spot” madness, and hopefully they’ll improve and become more streamlined over time. PS. If you say “xx doesn’t need defending its stats speak for itself” you will sound uncritical whether you intend to or not. It’s a classic “shut down debate” line. Perhaps appropriate at the Arnab Goswami school of debate, but out of place elsewhere. If you use it, are called out, and then see it as a personal attack, that’s unfortunate — certainly not my intention to attack you “personally”, but you’ll need to think about your words too.
  - kiratp 3y ago