More than half of all digital transactions in India in FY22 (2021-2022) involved payments made through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), indicating rapid adoption of the technology that was introduced only six years earlier.
Government’s pre-Budget Economic Survey:
According to the government’s pre-Budget Economic Survey, UPI accounted for 52% of all 8,840-crore financial digital transactions in FY22, with a total value of Rs 126 lakh crore. According to the Economic Survey, UPI only accounted for about 17% of the nation’s 3,100 crore digital transactions in FY19 (2018-19).
UPI transactions grew 121 percent in value and 115 percent in volume on average between FY19 and FY22 (the calendar year), according to the survey. UPI reached its highest-ever mark in December 2022, when there were 782 crore transactions totalling Rs 12.8 lakh crore, according to the Economic Survey.
The Economic Survey also noted that in the first nine months of FY23 (2022-23), UPI processed 2,922 crore contactless merchant transactions, totalling more than Rs 21.7 lakh crore.
According to the survey, India took the lead with the fintech adoption rate of 87 percent, higher than the world average of 64 percent as per the latest Global FinTech Adoption, a report by EY. According to the EY report, the figures show fintech adopters as a percentage of the digitally active population.
UPI, which was introduced in 2016, combines several features, including fund routing, merchant payments, and peer-to-peer payments, into a single mobile application. As of December 2022, more than 380 banks joined UPI, up from just 35 in December 2017, according to the Economic Survey.
Government & RBI expanded the application of technology:
Additionally, the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have been actively expanding the application of the technology. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) announced earlier this month that non-resident Indians (NRIs) from at least ten different nations will soon be able to use UPI without an Indian mobile number.
Announcing single-block and multiple-debit functionality for UPI in December, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das claimed that it would make it easier to make payments for investments in securities, including those made through the Retail Direct platform and e-commerce transactions.
