News Broadcasting
PhonePe goes live across over 1 million offline stores in Delhi-NCR
MUMBAI: PhonePe, India’s fastest growing payments platform today announced that it is now live as a payment option across 1 million offline merchant outlets in Delhi-NCR. This milestone reflects PhonePe’s phenomenal acceptance across large organised retail stores as well as small and mid-size retail stores in the region.
Speaking on reaching this milestone, Yuvraj Singh Shekhawat, Head – Offline Business Growth, PhonePe, said, “Our offline business has seen phenomenal traction in the last one year in Delhi-NCR and customers can now transact seamlessly using PhonePe at both small Kirana stores and larger retail outlets. The entire payments process on PhonePe is extremely fast and seamless ensuring consumers have a convenient experience. We are now live at most organised retail outlets across grocery, fuel, medicines and account for 6 -10% of all non-cash transactions.”
Vivek Lohcheb, Head – Offline Business Development added, “We are excited to reach this important milestone in Delhi-NCR. PhonePe has always adopted a partnership model with all its merchants and gone beyond being just a payments service provider. PhonePe's QR allows merchants to accept consumer payments from any UPI app and not just PhonePe alone. For the merchants, this makes the digital payment acceptance process simple and reconciliations seamless. All a merchant needs is a feature phone to get started. We also provide them with visibility on our app where over 150 million users can discover merchants in the vicinity that accept PhonePe, effectively increasing footfalls to their business.”
PhonePe has been rapidly expanding its reach across India and today it has a presence in 150+ cities in India. PhonePe continues to expand into newer geographies enabling even local kiranas to accept payments from consumers through digital payment mediums like UPI, Credit Cards, Debit Cards and Wallets.
PhonePe recently introduced a ‘Stores' tab on the app enabling hyper-local discovery of partner merchants for users. Keeping in mind the daily working capital requirements of merchants PhonePe offers instant settlements along with zero processing fee on UPI transactions. PhonePe has a merchant app as well that facilitates end-to-end control on the payment process for merchants including transaction confirmation and reconciliation.
Some of the key offline merchants across Delhi – NCR that today accept payments using diverse PhonePe solutions are:
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Groceries |
Spencers, Raj Mandir, Honey Money Top Retail, MunafaMart, Modern Bazaar |
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F&B |
CCD, KFC, Pizza Hut, Nazeer Foods, Biryani Blues, Emoi, Kebab Xpress, The Beer Café |
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Healthcare & Wellness |
ApolloPharmacy,, Cut & Style, Hair Masters, Healthskool Pharmacy, Guardian Pharmacy, House of diagnostics |
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Retail |
Woodland, Bata, Pantaloons, Clear Dekho, Vega, Indya By Faballey, Vega |
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Others |
Croma |
News Broadcasting
Kamlesh Singh receives Haldi Ghati Award from MMCF
India Today Group editor honoured for three decades of journalism at Udaipur ceremony.
MUMBAI- Kamlesh Singh just turned a lifetime of sharp words into a shiny shield because when journalism wakes up a society, even the Maharana of Mewar wants to pin a medal on it.
The Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation (MMCF) conferred its prestigious Haldi Ghati Award on Kamlesh Singh, a senior editor at the India Today Group, during a ceremony in Udaipur on 15 March 2026. The national award, instituted in 1981-82, recognises “work of permanent value that initiates an awakening in society through the medium of journalism.”
Singh, who leads several editorial initiatives including Aaj Tak Radio, the Teen Taal community and The Lallantop, was presented the honour by Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar, Managing Trustee of MMCF. The citation highlighted his three decades of contributions to Indian media, innovations in digital journalism, mentoring young reporters, and his popular podcast persona “Tau” on Teen Taal, which fosters thoughtful public discourse.
The Haldi Ghati Award, named after the historic Battle of Haldighati symbolising valour and resilience, is one of four national awards given annually by MMCF. Past recipients include Tavleen Singh, Piyush Pandey and Raj Chengappa.
Other honourees this year included Padma Vibhushan Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Vedamurti Devvrat Rekhe, Treeman of India Marimuthu Yoganathan, Vir Chakra Capt Rizwan Malik, and US-based researcher Molly Emma Aitken, who received the Colonel James Tod Award for contributions to understanding Mewar’s spirit and values.
In an era where headlines often shout louder than substance, the MMCF quietly reminded everyone that real journalism isn’t about noise, it’s about the quiet, persistent work that stirs society awake, one thoughtful story at a time.
