Chapter 7A: Scam of a lifetime. Became a global success story. One that took DPI leadership of India across the finish line.
When India’s century started – a divine hand was in play. All odds were against India.
A conspiracy was set.
The bad actors had taken place. Conniving officers had been put in the right places. From RBI, to LIC to SBI to SEBI to a CJ. The start date had been set. For the takeover of INDIA.
This wasn’t business.
It was sedition.
And then a higher force intervened
Financial Meltdown of 2008.
But let me first step back to how and why NPCI was created.
The story started with the two Havala Banks. They were facing a new opponent. These were IT cos. And not banks. MASTER and VISA. They say at a layer above the banks and they did something called inter bank settlement.
The Havala Banks did not want to give up their early mover advantage. In the old days, Amex and Diners had their own card machines. The banks didnt have any POS machines. They took an imprint of the card. Made you sign the paper as if it was a cheque. It was antiquated.
Master and Visa had one simple proposition. No matter which bank issued the card, it would work on the same machine. And it would work instantly. No papers to sign or phone numbers to call for authorisation.
The world had changed. The havala banks were obsolete. There were bigger fears. What if people started moving money across countries using these cards. What if they started buying real estate with these cards. Their well honed havala business would be shut. And havala was the only real business. All else was a front.
These were banks which didn’t lend – they only collected. No risk. Only reward.
The havala banks owned a platform called Discover. They had IT teams which knew inter bank settlement. And that is what PRIME computers did. Now it was about the communication layer of the stack. And this had landed up with an Indian company. The war room at Parliament Street had highlighted the risk. The problem was that the company didn’t want an investor. They wanted technology to build chips.
The war room got INTEL on board as a partner. Andy Grove and Craig Barrett met the promoters. Company chairman Prof Nag had just died. He was against anything foreign or commercial. He had met Torvald to license a software CPU called Transmeta Crusoe. Torvald had invented Linux.
For Intel, It was critical for Crusoe to be stopped. It was also critical to make sure the PrimeOS stack was not available to competitors. A competitor for Visa and Master was critical.
But what wrapper would we use.
Rupay was that wrapper.
Competitors in crime are partners against the law. Citibank, HDFC and HSBC came together to create a payment body which would use the Discover stack with the PrimeOS stack to build a platform to beat Visa & Master.
And that is the real story of NPCi.
To get SBI on board, S Venkatachalam was sent to become a board member of SBI. He was already a board member of Prime.
