“Now you can send money to your friends and family through WhatsApp as easily as sending a message. There’s no fee, and it’s supported by more than 140 banks. And because it’s WhatsApp, it’s secure and private too,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg .

“WhatsApp can expand its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) user base in a graded manner starting with a maximum registered user base of 20 million,” the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said in a statement.

Online transactions, lending and e-wallet services have been growing rapidly in India, led by a government push to make the country’s cash-loving merchants and consumers adopt digital payments.

“We need to think of data as a public good… data should be thought of as infrastructure that must be invested upon, much like highways, airports etc,” he said.

“Large scale data has to be extracted without violating any privacy laws. Data must provide a 360 degree view of an individual,” he added.