NPCI strengthens its leadership ranks, hires new COO and CDO

Indian retail payments organisation, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), today announced the appointments Praveena Rai as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Arif Khan as Chief Digital Officer (CDO).

As COO, Praveena will be in-charge of formulating and deploying the marketing, business development, product management and operations strategy in line with NPCI’s overall strategic objectives to further the cause of rapid digitalisation of India. She is also expected to drive product penetration, reach and visibility of NPCI’s offerings through suitable partnerships at her new role.

Prior to joining NPCI, Praveena was leading the cash management portfolio at Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited, before which she was managing the payments business for Asia at HSBC. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication and has a post-graduate degree from IIM Ahmedabad.   

The position of CDO at NPCI has been taken over by Arif Khan, who will be leading strategic planning for digital transformation. The role is aimed at growing NPCI’s new products portfolio based on customer needs and industry trends. Arif, in his new role, will be responsible for driving innovation, analytics and technology.

A post graduate in Business Management from XLRI–Jamshedpur, he was earlier associated with Razorpay (one of the fastest growing payment gateways) as the Chief Innovation Officer.

Prior to Razorpay, Arif was a senior business leader at Mastercard.  

Arif has also had a 15-year-long stint with HDFC Bank, where he was instrumental in driving strategic initiatives in payments, digital banking and financial inclusion.

With an overall experience of over 18 years in the product management, business development and delivering innovative business and technology solutions, Arif has been instrumental in influencing diverse groups to deliver innovative business and new age disruptive solutions.

Started in 2009, NPCI acts as the central infrastructure for various retail payment systems in India and was envisaged by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as the payment utility in the country. 

Today, the company houses various payments infrastructure -- Cheque Truncation System, National Automated Clearing House (NACH), Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS), USSD based *99#, RuPay card, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), BHIM Aadhaar, National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) and Bharat Bill Pay.