MAM
PayUmoney launches industry’s first-of-its-kind POS business terminal
MUMBAI: An innovative POS terminal which promises to connect even the smallest corner shop to the world of paperless payment has been launched by PayUmoney. With no monthly rental, no minimum balance, and the option to link any bank account, costing a mere Rs 7,000 (as opposed to Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 charged by traditional channels), and accepting all credit/debit cards, the new terminal seeks to convert the retail experience across millions of small merchant outlets across India.
The POS terminal is easy to set up, can be operated using a pre- or post-paid SIM, and does away with the use of paper receipts—making it cost and battery effective, and environment friendly. With a simple and hassle-free documentation policy, a merchant can start using a PayUmoney POS terminal within 48 hours of signing up for the service. Interested users may sign up at the website or by calling 9069143747.
To explain the approach behind developing the POS terminal, PayUmoney CEO and co founder Nitin Gupta said, “If we look at the Reserve Bank of India’s December 2015 data, there are 644 million debit card holders in India. The number is 22.75 million for credit cards. Against these, there are only 1.2 million POS terminals, which shows the huge opportunity that exists in the POS payments services sector. Our objective is to bring the smaller merchants into the ambit of payment processing services—the class that has so far been ignored by the traditional players.”
“When we developed our product, we kept in mind the unique demands of the Indian merchants—whether in cities, or in the country’s vibrant villages. We decided to do away with paper transaction slips: and a transaction acknowledgement will be sent to the buyer’s mobile with a link that opens up a soft copy of an e-slip. The merchant gets an email copy of the same every time a transaction takes place,” he added.
This helps merchants to save on unnecessary costs and makes the POS terminal extremely energy efficient, durable, and ideal for locations with frequent power outages.
With flexibility as the key development buzzword, PayUmoney’s POS terminal does not come with bundled SIMs. Giving merchants the liberty to choose the operator and connection type (pre- or post-paid), the POS terminal of PayU is unlike traditional players that force merchants to subscribe to costly bundled connections.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
