Uber to Expand Engineering Team in India, Plans UPI Integration

US-based cab aggregator Uber is hiring more techies for its engineering centres in the country as it looks to roll out more innovations from India in areas like payments, bookings and rider and driver experience.

The company is also in discussion with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to enable customers pay for rides using UPI.

"We are hiring rapidly. We are looking for product managers, data scientists, designers etc," Uber India Head of Engineering Apurva Dalal told reporters in New Delhi.

Uber has two engineering centres in India - in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The teams work on areas like safety, payments, driver growth, maps, vehicle telematics and rider experience, among others.

It currently has about 100 people in these two centres. Dalal, however, did not comment on how many people Uber is hiring.

Uber is locked in an intense battle for market leadership in India with homegrown firm Ola. It has been working on introducing features designed for Indian markets, including introduction of cash payments for rides.

"There are many challenges that are specific to the Indian market. Things like patchy Internet connectivity and poor mapping coverage are some challenges that we are trying to solve and solutions are extended to other markets that may face similar challenges," he said.

India is the largest market outside the US for Uber and accounts for about 12 percent of all Uber trips globally, as of last year. In India, the company operates in 29 cities.

Dalal said Uber is also engaged in discussion with NPCI for integrating unified payment interface (UPI) on its platform. Using UPI, customers can link their account of any bank (participating in UPI) to create a UPI ID and instantly make payments in a safe and secure manner.

Bengaluru-based Ola already allows users to pay for rides using UPI.