Happy Thursday! Tap-and-pay card usage is on the rise in India despite UPI's dominance. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.Also in the letter:■ Acko CEO on commission curbs■ Meta-Reliance AI hub■ GCC expansion vs new entrantsContactless card payments on the rise as Indian shoppers swipe less, tap more Contactless (tap-and-pay) card payments are surging in India. Industry estimates say they now make up as much as a third of card transactions at some merchants.Tell me more: Industry executives told us that tap-and-pay transactions have grown about 40% annually over the past two years.The boom comes even as UPI continues to eat into both card and cash usage for everyday payments. By the numbers:Debit cards: Offline store transactions dropped to 72 million in April from 87 million a year earlier.Credit cards: Transactions jumped to 275 million from 228 million.Contactless share: Up to about 16% in 2021 from roughly 2.5% in 2018.Driving the rise: Consumers increasingly want faster checkouts, especially in high-frequency retail formats. Wider rollout of contactless-enabled terminals is also fuelling growth.The RBI currently allows pin-free tap-and-pay card transactions up to Rs 5,000. Executives believe even a modest hike in this amount could turbocharge adoption, thanks to better payment security and fraud monitoring.ADIA to sell 2.3% Lenskart stake in Rs 1,944 crore block deal Lenskart CEO Peyush BansalAbu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) is offloading a 2.3% stake in Lenskart via a Rs 1,944-crore block deal, barely a week after SoftBank trimmed its holding in the eyewear retailer. By the numbers: ADIA will sell 40 million shares but still hold a 9.8% stake worth around Rs 8,500 crore, implying paper gains of roughly 2.5x on its original investment. Catch up, quick: ADIA invested a total of Rs 4,113 crore in Lenskart in March 2023 through a mix of primary and secondary transactions that valued the company at around Rs 37,000 crore.Yes, and: Lenskart listed in November 2025 at a valuation of Rs 70,000 crore. ADIA did not sell any shares during the company's initial public offering and currently owns a 12.1% stake.Also Read: SoftBank snags Rs 2,873 crore from Lenskart stake sale, clocking 7x returnProposed commission caps may drive consolidation in insurance distribution: Acko CEO Acko founder and CEO Varun Dua said proposed limits on distributor commissions could trigger consolidation among insurance intermediaries.Why this matters: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is considering caps on commissions insurers can pay distributors.Earlier this month, PB Fintech chairman Yashish Dahiya warned that such caps could pose an existential threat to insurance distributors and significantly upend the sector’s economics.Dua, however, argued that the changes could push distributors to expand into new markets and reach a broader set of customers.Quote, unquote: “What’s happening at the larger level is that insurance companies and distributors are competing in the same market, which is concentrated in the top 20-30 cities. Commissions there continue to rise because everyone is trying to acquire the same customer,” Dua said.He added that while the industry could see some short-term disruption, distributors still have ample room to build sustainable businesses.Also Read: Acko plans confidential IPO filing to raise $250 million; targets $2.5 billion valuationMeta partners with Reliance to set up its first data centre in India Meta Platforms has tied up with Reliance Industries to build its first large‑scale, AI‑ready data centre campus in India. The Facebook parent will lease 168 megawatts of capacity at Reliance’s hyperscale campus in Jamnagar, Gujarat, with an option to scale up further.Zoom in: The facility will run on renewable energy and use desalinated seawater for cooling, with Meta footing the bill for these sustainability measures.The social media and AI giant will also plug Jamnagar into Project Waterworth, its ambitious subsea cable network billed as the world’s longest.Past ties: Meta and Reliance have partnered since 2020, when Meta invested $5.7 billion for a 9.98% stake in Jio Platforms. Since then, they have launched multiple joint initiatives, including their latest AI venture, Reliance Enterprise Intelligence Limited (REIL), where both firms have committed Rs 855 crore.Other Top Stories By Our Reporters Expanding GCCs bring in more value than new entrants: India’s global capability centre ecosystem is seeing a shift in how new centres are set up and existing ones expand, with greenfield and brownfield activity moving at similar levels but increasingly converging around capability-led work, industry experts and GCC enablers told ET.Ethereal Machines raises $28.5 million: Precision manufacturing startup Ethereal Machines has raised $28.5 million in a round led by Avataar Ventures, with participation from Peak XV Partners and others.Delhi data centre fire sees Google Cloud reroute traffic network capacity: A fire at a third-party data centre facility in Delhi triggered network disruptions affecting Google Cloud customers across multiple Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, according to the company's service status page late on Tuesday night.Global Picks We Are Reading■ Soccer fans, you’re being watched (Wired)■ Big Tech, big cons: Scammers are hiding in the apps that make your life easy (Rest of World)■ Why everyone’s an energy company now (TechCrunch)