Google India on Thursday announced sachet loans on the Google Pay application to help small businesses in the country. Google India said that merchants in India often need smaller loans, hence, the tech giant launched sachet loans on the Gpay application. The company will provide loans to small businesses at just ₹15,000 that can be repaid in simpler repayment amounts as low as ₹111, Google India added. Tech giant has partnered with DMI Finance to provide the loan services.

Google Pay also enabled a credit line for merchants in partnership with ePayLater helping solve the working capital requirements of merchants. Merchants can use it across all online and offline distributors to buy their stock and supplies.

Google India launched credit lines on UPI in collaboration with ICICI Bank. Google India also expanded the portfolio of personal loans on Google Pay by partnering with Axis Bank.

Also read: Google to manufacture Pixel phones in India

Further, Ambarish Kenghe, vice-president at Google Pay informed that ₹167 lakh crore value was processed through UPI in the last 12 months.

According to Kenghe, “…with half of the loans disbursed through Google Pay to borrowers with less than ₹30,000 of monthly income, a vast majority of which belong to tier 2 towns and beyond”.

During the 9th edition of Google for India, Sanjay Gupta, Vice President and country Head of the company said they plan to improve efforts in safety of the Artificial Intelligence.

Also read: Google for India 2023 event: Search Generative AI enhances shopping and empowers small businesses

Making a slew of announcements at the ninth edition of the Google for India event, the company also announced its intention to start manufacturing its Pixel smartphones locally, starting with Pixel 8.

Google India also announced other measures for small businesses in India. The search engine giant said that with the help of AI, “Google Merchant Center Next will automatically populate a merchant’s product feed with information detected from their website”. Besides, the Google Merchant Center Next will allow merchants full control over what gets added to their feed.

With DigiKavach, Google India said it has increased efforts to protect people against ever-evolving financial scams and fraud. Google Pay prevented scams worth ₹12,000 crore on GPay and took steps to block 3,500 predatory loan apps.

Also, the company said it will soon help its billions of users in India to access critical information about over 100 government schemes.