Business
JSW MG Motor Sees 90% Surge In Navratri Bookings: Sales Director
 "JSW MG Motor Sees 90% Surge In Navratri Bookings: Sales Director")
New Delhi: Lakshmi Subbaraj, Director of Sales at JSW MG Motor India, welcomed the New GST Reform 2025, noting that the company has witnessed a significant 90 per cent surge in bookings and retail sales during this year’s Navratri compared to the same festival period in the past two years.
“Many customers were waiting in anticipation ahead of September 21. The first day of Navratri saw a 90 per cent jump in both retail and bookings compared to two years ago,” Subbaraj said without sharing the numbers.
Shailesh Chandra, President, SIAM and MD, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Ltd, said, “The start to this festive season has been extremely encouraging. The recent GST reduction and special festive offers have sparked an extraordinary wave of consumer interest and enthusiasm. In just the first two days, auto dealerships nationwide are witnessing unprecedented walk-ins, a surge in enquiries, and record deliveries across most segments.”
“This remarkable momentum echoes the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s recent call to celebrate the festive season as ‘Bachat Utsav’ by purchasing products manufactured in India and emphasising that India’s prosperity will gain its strength from the Swadeshi mantra,” Chandra added.
Chandra further added that it is heartening to see families choosing this auspicious period to bring home new vehicles.
“Given the exceptional demand, customers considering a new vehicle should book early to ensure timely delivery. We are hopeful that this celebratory momentum will continue, making this festive season one of the most memorable for the industry and consumers alike,” he added.
The festive season began on a record-breaking note for the Indian automobile sector as Tata Motors and pre-owned car company CARS24 reported exceptional sales and customer activity on the first day of Navratri. The strong numbers came on the back of the recent GST 2.0 rate cuts, which have boosted consumer sentiment and reduced automobile ownership costs.
Tata Motors announced that it recorded 10,000 deliveries on Day 1 of Navratri, marking a historic achievement for the company. Along with the deliveries, Tata Motors also received 25,000+ enquiries on the same day, underscoring the strong demand and enthusiasm from buyers.
CARS24, India’s leading autotech platform, reported a 400 per cent jump in car deliveries by 2:00 pm on Day 1 of Navratri compared to daily averages. The company also recorded over 5,000 inspections in a single day, the highest in the last four years.
Meanwhile, Mahindra & Mahindra is expected to release its sales numbers on October 1, adding to the festive season performance picture for the automobile sector.
Business
UPI transactions hit record Rs 29.53 lakh crore in March; volumes cross 22.6 billion – The Times of India
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions touched a record high in March, with both value and volume hitting new peaks, driven by festive spending and financial year-end activity, according to PTI.Data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) showed that UPI transactions totalled Rs 29.53 lakh crore in value during March, up 19 per cent from Rs 24.77 lakh crore in the same month last year.On a month-on-month basis, transaction value rose 10 per cent from Rs 26.84 lakh crore recorded in February.In volume terms, UPI registered 22.64 billion transactions during the month, marking a 24 per cent increase from 18.3 billion transactions a year ago. The volume was 20.39 billion in February.Average daily transactions stood at 730 million, with an average daily value of Rs 95,243 crore, as spending picked up during festivals such as Holi and Eid.“The sustained growth in the digital payment ecosystem in India is an affirmation of the penetration of real-time payment systems in the day-to-day life of the people. UPI processed 22.64 billion transactions worth 29.53 lakh crore in March 2026, marking its emergence as one of the trusted payment systems in the country,” said Anand Kumar Bajaj, MD & CEO of PayNearby.UPI now accounts for around 85 per cent of all digital transactions in India and contributes nearly 50 per cent of global real-time digital payments.The platform is operational in seven countries, including the UAE, Singapore, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, France and Mauritius, with its entry into France marking its first expansion into Europe.NPCI, an initiative of the Reserve Bank of India and the Indian Banks’ Association, operates UPI, enabling real-time peer-to-peer and merchant payments across the country.
But Spencer says his business is being squeezed from every angle – as well as minimum wage, he has had increases in business rates, national insurance, and statutory sick pay. He also expects energy bills to go up because of the war in the Middle East.
Visa Inc. signage on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Visa is launching six new tools using artificial intelligence to modernize the process of disputing credit card charges, the company told CNBC exclusively.
The digital payments company said the tools are designed to reduce the costs and frustration of “outdated” dispute processes for multiple entities involved in the payments process: merchants, issuers and acquirers.
“Some of the challenges are these back-office systems are still largely manual,” Andrew Torre, Visa’s president of value-added services, told CNBC. “We really had to think differently about how we approach this at scale.”
In 2025, Torre said, Visa processed more than 103 million charge disputes globally, marking a 35% increase since 2019.
“Our goal is to streamline this as much as possible,” Torre said. “We’d love to be able to see that growth rate come down.”
Visa’s new tools are part of a larger push by major banks and financial institutions to incorporate AI into their businesses — both internally and in consumer-facing applications. JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs have both said they’re already using AI to hire fewer people. BNY spent $3.8 billion on technology in 2025, or about 19% of its revenue.
Visa said three of its six new tools focus on merchants, allowing them to address potential disputes before they escalate, managing disputes with generative AI responses and providing a deeper level of detail on order insights to manage confusion over unfamiliar charges.
For example, Torre said, many disputes are borne out of cardholders not recognizing a specific charge on their statements. With the new tool, Visa will be able to provide further details to financial institutions to show cardholders that data at a deeper level, according to the company.
The other three tools are built for issuers and acquirers, using predictive AI models to aid in case-by-case analysis, analyzing documents for summaries and auto fill and establishing an AI-powered dispute platform to manage the entire process in one location, Visa said.
“We’ll be able to get them insights and data so they can move from being reactive to proactive,” Torre said.
Torre said Visa’s new AI tools are part of a broader host of solutions for consumers, including a subscription manager announced last week that allows cardholders to cancel unnecessary subscriptions directly on the manager.
The automation will save time, money and unnecessary confusion for both parties, he added. Most of the tools will be generally available later this year, the company said.
“We really believe that disputes in this solution makes it much easier to manage and resolve,” Torre said. “We think it has better outcomes for everyone.”
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UPI transactions hit record Rs 29.53 lakh crore in March; volumes cross 22.6 billion – The Times of India
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