eNews
India continues to be the largest market for BBC global audiences
Mumbai: The latest figures released by the BBC Global Audience Measurement (GAM) 2024 show that India continues to be the BBC’s largest market with over 80 million people consuming the BBC’s content in India every week.
BBC News Hindi remains the biggest language service among the 42 languages that BBC World Service operates in with 39 million people coming to the service on average every week.
Across the BBC’s six Indian language services, a total of more than 50 million people came to the services during the election result week with BBC News Hindi reaching nearly 30 million people in that week alone.
BBC News Marathi, BBC News Tamil, BBC News Gujarati, BBC News Telugu, and BBC News Punjabi all saw increases in reach figures as audiences came to the BBC for trusted, accurate and impartial news on the election.
During elections in June 2024, the scores for the BBC in India increased on trust, impartiality, and Independence, as per the BBC Brand Tracker.
The overall international audience reach of the BBC stands at 450 million people on average every week.
The annual reach figure, which includes the total reach for BBC News, BBC World Service and BBC Studios, remains resilient in the face of increased investment and fierce competition from other news providers, including state-funded news companies. The weekly average global reach was recorded at 447m in 2023.
The BBC retains the pole position for trust and is also ranked first for reliability and independence among international news providers.
Collective Newsroom CEO Rupa Jha said: “These figures demonstrate our reach in India remains resilient following a year of big news events and audiences coming to the BBC for trusted news. I am immensely proud of what our Indian teams have delivered over the past year, and the outstanding journalism they have produced for audiences in India and around the world.”
eNews
PNB partners Kiwi to launch credit-enabled UPI for users
Targets 180 million customers; RuPay card offers 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent cashback
MUMBAI: Swipe, tap, or scan credit is quietly slipping into the rhythm of everyday payments, and Punjab National Bank wants in on the action. The state-run lender has partnered with Kiwi to roll out credit-enabled UPI payments for its 180 million customers, marking a significant push to blend traditional banking with India’s fast-evolving digital payments ecosystem.
At the centre of the collaboration is the launch of the PNB Kiwi Credit Card on the RuPay network. The card is designed with a digital-first approach, offering fully online onboarding and seamless integration with UPI, allowing users to transact via scan-and-pay while accessing credit.
The offering also brings in a rewards layer, with cashback ranging from 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent on online transactions, positioning the product as both a convenience play and a spending incentive.
The move comes as UPI continues to dominate India’s digital payments landscape, increasingly blurring the lines between debit-led transactions and credit access. For PNB, which operates over 10,000 branches around 60 per cent in semi-urban and rural areas, the partnership signals a targeted effort to extend formal credit to segments that have traditionally remained underserved.
The collaboration also reflects a broader industry shift, where banks and fintech platforms are converging to embed credit directly into payment flows, reducing friction while expanding access.
With RuPay credit cards gaining traction and UPI evolving beyond peer-to-peer transfers, the PNB–Kiwi tie-up positions both players at the intersection of scale, accessibility, and the next phase of digital finance in India.
