Delhi Entrepreneur Launches Udhar: A Game-Changing App to Fix India’s Broken Informal Credit Culture
]: In a country where phrases like “Bhai kal pakka dunga” and “Google Pay isn’t working” have become everyday excuses, a young Delhi entrepreneur is stepping in with a bold, tech-driven solution to one of India’s most universal frustrations: recovering money that has already been lent.
Mr. Hitesh Lohani first spotted the problem during 2023. Whether it was shopkeepers giving monthly udhar, freelancers waiting endlessly for payments, service providers chasing dues, or friends casually lending money, the pattern was the same — no one had a proper system to track informal credit, and recovering it often became awkward, delayed, or entirely forgotten.
“I kept hearing the same excuses whenever it was time for people to return money — Bhai kuch shortage chal rahi hai kal de dunga and so many more. Conversations got awkward, records got lost, and borrowers got away with delays,” says Mr. Hitesh Lohani. “I wanted to build something that takes the discomfort away and brings transparency into daily transactions.”
This insight led to the creation of Udhar, a first-of-its-kind Indian mobile application that brings structure, accountability, and technology to India’s enormous informal lending ecosystem — a space that affects more than 30 crore Indians every single day.
What Udhar Does: Bringing Order to Everyday Borrowing
Launched officially in August, 2025, Udhar is designed as a simple, intuitive, and transparent tool for anyone who lends money informally. At its core, the app allows users to:
- Track who owes them money and how much
- Send automatic, polite repayment reminders
- Maintain a shared, mutually visible ledger
- Create a Borrower Reputation Score — known as the Udhar Score
Hitesh calls the platform “the power of a credit bureau in your pocket.”
The goal is to eliminate misunderstandings, excuses, and memory-based tracking, replacing them with a system that is clear, fair, and trust-based.
Introducing the Udhar Score: India’s First Reputation System for Everyday Borrowing
One of Udhar’s most groundbreaking features is the Udhar Score — a digital reputation metric that reflects how timely a person repays borrowed money.
- Pay on time → Score increases
- Delay repayment → Score decreases
This score is visible to both parties, making everyday transactions more credible.
“If people ensure they pay their EMIs on time to maintain a strong credit score, then informal credit should carry similar accountability,” Mr. Hitesh Lohani explains. “The Udhar Score promotes fairness and encourages responsible repayment behaviour in daily life.”
Why India Needs Udhar Now
India’s informal credit economy is vast, undocumented, and almost entirely dependent on verbal promises. From neighbourhood shopkeepers offering monthly udhar to small businesses extending credit to customers, to freelancers waiting weeks for payments — informal lending powers daily transactions but remains deeply unstructured.
The lack of written records leads to:
- Misunderstandings
- Delayed repayments
- Lost trust between people
- Awkward follow-ups
- Fragmented relationships
Udhar solves this by making every step of the process transparent, trackable, and friction-free. Udhar is available for download on the Google Play Store, with an iOS version scheduled for release soon.
