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Telangana eyes tech to boost farmers’ earnings
Hyderabad: When farms meet future tech, the harvest gets smarter. That was the mood at the Earth Summit 2025–26 in Hyderabad, where Telangana special chief secretary Jayesh Ranjan said technology could help farmers growing rice, maize and cotton sharply increase their earnings.
Speaking in a fireside chat with IAMAI president Subho Ray, Ranjan said the state had already mapped more than 80 promising technologies that could support farmers at different stages of cultivation. Many of these tools are now being tested on university farms to assess how they perform in real field conditions.
Ranjan spotlighted Hyderabad’s thriving AgriTech scene, noting that the city hosts more than two dozen innovation centres focused on agriculture. He said Telangana had demonstrated how government backing can energise startups by investing heavily in institutions and talent. Nabard, he added, had been a strong partner in nurturing the state’s innovation ecosystem.
He also spoke about his flagship project, Telangana Rising Vision 2047, a 120 page roadmap set for release on December 9 to mark two years of the current state government. The document outlines initiatives designed to support farmers, women and young people while also helping attract private investment.
The Earth Summit, a three city series organised by Nabard and the Internet and Mobile Association of India, concluded its Hyderabad edition at Hitex on November 21. The two day conference attracted more than two thousand delegates, including policymakers, climate tech innovators, digital platforms, financial institutions and energy enterprises from across South, East and North East India.
Supported by several national ministries and the office of the principal scientific adviser, the summit focused on the theme empowering rural innovation for global change. It featured more than eighty speakers, fifty exhibitors, twenty five sessions and a flagship hackathon. The next editions are scheduled to take place in Gandhinagar and Delhi.
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.
