NPCI names a CEO for its AI and blockchain subsidiary NTSL
NPCI said on 4 November 2026 that NPCI Tech Solutions, its fourth subsidiary, will build AI, blockchain and public digital infrastructure under Vishal Kanvaty.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has set out the mandate of NPCI Tech Solutions Ltd (NTSL), its wholly owned technology subsidiary, and named Vishal Kanvaty as its managing director and chief executive, according to an Inc42 report of 4 November 2026. NTSL is meant to build artificial intelligence, blockchain and digital public infrastructure capabilities beyond the payments rails NPCI runs today. The report rests on NPCI's statement; the company did not disclose the investment, revenue targets or launch timelines. The news comes as UPI hit a record 25.47 billion transactions in October.
What NPCI announced
Inc42 reported that NTSL will build capabilities beyond NPCI's core payments mandate, including AI, blockchain and digital financial infrastructure. NPCI describes it as the group's "technology and innovation arm". Its remit also covers global capability centre (GCC) services, which means technology work done in India for use elsewhere, and technology services for eKYC Setu, the Unified Ticketing Platform and other digital public infrastructure (DPI) programmes. DPI means shared digital systems, such as identity or payments, that many private and public services build on.
Kanvaty is the managing director and chief executive. He has been with NPCI for nearly a decade, and NPCI says he led the development and commercialisation of several platforms that now fall within NTSL's focus areas. NPCI chief executive Dilip Asbe said advances in AI and other emerging technologies are opening opportunities across digital infrastructure and financial services, and that the subsidiary was set up to pursue them.
What was not disclosed is as informative as what was: the investment outlay, revenue targets, customer pipeline and timelines for rolling out new services were all absent from the report.
The subsidiary is not new. Angel One reported on 8 October 2025 that NPCI had announced a fourth subsidiary, NPCI Tech Solutions Limited, at Global Fintech Fest 2025 in Mumbai. Ajay Kumar Choudhary, NPCI's non-executive chairman and independent director, announced it, saying it would focus on breakthrough work in payments and technology. At that point, the article did not name the unit's management or give its capital.
So what is new on 4 November 2026 is the leadership and the stated scope, not the existence of the company. That distinction matters for readers: the announcement is a statement of intent to build, not a product launch.
How the group fits together
NTSL brings the number of NPCI's wholly owned subsidiaries to four, according to Inc42. The others are NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), which takes UPI and RuPay abroad; NPCI Bharat BillPay Ltd (NBBL), which runs the Bharat BillPay system for bill payments; and NPCI BHIM Services Ltd (NBSL), which manages BHIM UPI services. The descriptions of each are from Angel One's 2025 report.
NPCI itself is the organisation that runs UPI, RuPay and other retail payment systems in India. A subsidiary lets it set up a separate company with its own management and books for work that is different from running the payment rails. Think of it as a research and engineering wing sitting beside the operations team.
The technology push so far
Inc42 listed what NPCI has already shown. At Global Fintech Fest in September 2026 it launched two platforms. AiNxt lets enterprises build, test and deploy custom AI agents; an AI agent is a software program that can plan steps and act, such as placing an order, with limited human input. AtOM handles integration, change management and partner onboarding across UPI, with digitally signed interactions that give an audit trail.
In March 2024 NPCI announced a multi-year research collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science on AI and blockchain, which includes building model and software prototypes and running workshops and training. At Global Fintech Fest 2025, it demonstrated an agentic UPI flow in which a user-authorised AI assistant discovers products, places orders and completes payment in one conversation.
Together these suggest NTSL is meant to take over and scale what was prototyped inside NPCI. That is an inference from the sequence, not something NPCI has said.
UPI in October: the scale NTSL starts from
Inc42 reported that UPI processed a record 25.47 billion transactions in October 2026, up 5.8% from September. Transaction value rose 7.4% to Rs 31.53 lakh crore, and average daily value crossed Rs 1 lakh crore for the first time. Working backwards from those growth rates gives about 24.07 billion transactions and Rs 29.36 lakh crore for September. These are this desk's calculations, rounded, and September's own figures were not opened.
On dividing value by volume, the average UPI payment in October was about Rs 1,238. UPI is dominated by small payments, which is why any fee debate there is sensitive. Inc42 also noted that NPCI deferred the proposed merchant discount rate (MDR) charges on select UPI payments. The rollout had been scheduled for 15 October and is now set for after Diwali, with no revised date announced. MDR is the fee a merchant pays when a customer pays by card or UPI.
What it means for users, banks and fintechs
For everyday UPI users, nothing changes today. NTSL has no announced product, and what NPCI has demonstrated on AI agents is a pilot and demonstration track, not a general feature. If AI-initiated payments do arrive, the audit-trail and consent features NPCI describes would be the part to watch, since an assistant that can pay on your behalf raises obvious questions about who is liable when something goes wrong.
For banks and payment apps, a dedicated technology arm could mean more shared services built on NPCI's rails: onboarding tools, AI agent platforms and identity services, which they could use instead of building their own. It could also mean new competition for private vendors that sell such tools to the same customers, though no such claim is in the report.
For fintech founders, the signal is that the public infrastructure operator is moving into AI and blockchain infrastructure itself. Startups that build on UPI should watch which layers NTSL takes: if it provides an AI agent platform, third-party providers may have to differentiate on service or on vertical depth. The MDR postponement also keeps the question of who pays for UPI open.
The calculator below uses October's reported volume and value. Move the sliders to see how the average payment and daily value change; the defaults are the reported figures.
The report does not say how much NPCI will invest in NTSL, how large the team will be, or when any product will launch. It also does not say how NTSL will be funded or whether it will sell services to outside customers. This desk did not open a second outlet reporting Kanvaty's appointment, which is why the evidence label is single source.
What to watch next
The first thing to watch is any NTSL product or partnership announcement, including whether AiNxt and AtOM move under it. Then watch the revised date for the MDR rollout, which NPCI said would be after Diwali. NPCI's monthly UPI data for November, published early in December, will show whether the October record holds. Finally, regulatory attention to AI-initiated payments is likely to grow as agentic payment pilots move toward production.
Key takeaways
- NPCI said on 4 November 2026 that NPCI Tech Solutions Ltd, its fourth wholly owned subsidiary, will work on AI, blockchain and digital public infrastructure, with Vishal Kanvaty as MD and CEO.
- The subsidiary was announced in October 2025; the new information is its leadership and scope, and no investment or timelines were disclosed.
- UPI processed a record 25.47 billion transactions worth Rs 31.53 lakh crore in October, implying an average payment of about Rs 1,238.
- NPCI has already launched AiNxt for AI agents and AtOM for UPI integration, and has demonstrated agentic UPI payments.
- The proposed MDR on select UPI payments has been deferred to after Diwali, with no new date.
Sources
- [Inc42: NPCI expands beyond payments with AI, blockchain-focused subsidiary](https://inc42.com/buzz/npci-expands-beyond-payments-with-ai-blockchain-focused-subsidiary/)
- [Angel One: NPCI unleashes new tech subsidiary to power the next era of Indian payments](https://www.angelone.in/news/market-updates/npci-unleashes-new-tech-subsidiary-to-power-the-next-era-of-indian-payments)
Tags: NPCI UPI AI agents Digital payments Fintech