An SOS for Paytm POS

For Paytm, putting resources behind point-of-sale terminals is a waste of money and precious management bandwidth.

He says it just shy of thirteen minutes into the call. 

But it doesn’t come out straight or sudden. First he apologizes for being a bit harsh, maybe, he isn’t sure, and then after an awkward moment, he asks the question: “How much are they selling the machine for?”

We’ve been chatting for that long, jumping from one question to another about the point-of-sale machine, or POS, business in India. And the person at the other end of the phone, a POS veteran of sorts who has been in the business enough number of years to distinguish the bad days …

Author

Ashish K. Mishra

Ashish is the editor-in-chief of The Morning Context. One of the best-known business feature writers in India, he was selected for Germany’s Robert Bosch Stiftung Fellowship in 2012 and received the Mumbai Press Club RedInk certificate of recognition in 2015 for his story “Inside the Network 18 takeover”. Before joining The Morning Context, Ashish co-founded The Ken, where he was managing editor. His previous writing stints include Mint, Forbes India and The Economic Times.

Editor-in-chief

ashish@mailtmc.com

London