UPI as cornerstone of India's digital payment ecosystem contributes to 80% of retail payments across country
By TIOL News Service
NEW DELHI, FEB 28, 2025: PROF. Carlos Montes, who is on a tour to India for attending and speaking at the NXT event at the Bharat Mandapam today, was briefed about the working and achievements of UPI system, yesterday.
Prof. Carlos leads the Innovation Hub for Prosperity at the Cambridge University Business School.
A presentation on UPI was given by the DFS and NPCI Team to Prof. Carlos Montes about the functioning, success and trends of UPI in India. In the briefing, senior officers from the Department of Financial Services (DFS), M/o Finance including Sudhir Shyam (Economic Adviser) and Jignesh Solanki (Director) were present among others.
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) provides an opportunity to other countries to learn from the Indian experience and get ideas on how to adopt it in their own countries, said Professor Carlos Montes, Lead Innovation Hub, University of Cambridge Business School
For the first time, UPI transactions in the month of January, 2025 surpassed 16.99 billion and the value exceeded Rs ?23.48 lakh crore marking the highest number recorded in any month.
After the demonstration, Prof. Montes said that he was glad to see the success of the UPI payment system. The growth of UPI shows that the government is making sure that the technology that they develop is user friendly for citizens, and that there is a regular and constant innovation in the same which explains the high adoption rate of UPI in India, Prof. Montes added. He further said that it also has potential for other countries to learn from the experience and get ideas on how to adopt it in their own countries.
For FY 2023-24, the digital payments landscape has demonstrated remarkable expansion. UPI remains the cornerstone of India's digital payment ecosystem contributing to 80% of the retail payments across the country. The total transaction volume exceeded 131 billion and the value exceeded Rs 200 lakh crore for the FY 2023-24. Its ease of use, combined with a growing network of participating banks and fintech platforms, has made UPI the preferred mode of real-time payments for millions of users across the country.
As of Jan, 2025, 80+ UPI Apps (Bank Apps & Third Party Application Providers), 641 banks are currently live on UPI ecosystem. In FY 24-25 (till Jan, 2025), the P2M transactions contribute 62.35% and P2P transactions contribute 37.65% of the overall UPI volume. The contribution of P2M transactions reached 62.35% in Jan, 2025 where 86% of these transactions are upto a value of INR 500. This indicates the trust that UPI enjoys among citizens for making low value payments.
UPI: Transactions (by Volume in mn) for Jan'2025
UPI Global Expansion:
Shri Sudhir Shyam, Economic Adviser at Department of Financial Services (DFS) said that India's digital payments revolution is extending beyond its borders. UPI is rapidly expanding globally, enabling seamless cross-border transactions for Indians traveling abroad. Currently, UPI is live in over 7 countries, including key markets such as [UAE, Singapore, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, France, Mauritius], allowing Indians to make payments internationally. This expansion will further bolster remittance flows, improve financial inclusion, and elevate India's stature in the global financial landscape.
Sundar also said that some other countries have also shown interest in UPI.
Demonstration of UPI
Jignesh Solanki added that while volume of total online transactions have increased massively over the years, the share is taken by UPI mainly due to ease and low cost of the transactions. Government is focussed on bringing new innovations that will help UPI expand in uncovered areas as well.
The session ended with a small demonstration of working of UPI to the delegation as well.
