Recently an International Monetary Fund (IMF) note titled ‘Growing Retail Digital Payments: The Value of Interoperability’ made an announcement declaring India has become the world’s top player in real-time digital payments, largely due to the rapid growth of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
Indian Leading The World With UPI Payments
As we know that UPI, which was earlier launched in 2016 by the National Payments Corporation of India, appears to have revolutionised the country’s payment ecosystem by enabling users to link multiple bank accounts to a single mobile app and make instant transactions with ease.
This has also helped in simplifying peer-to-peer payments further enabling millions of small businesses to accept digital payments at minimal cost.
Presently UPI processes over 18 billion transactions every month which is a very significant amount almost accounting for 85 per cent of India’s total digital payments as per the data from the Press Information Bureau (PIB).
This platform recorded 18.39 billion transactions worth Rs 24.03 lakh crore during June this year which is again representing a 32 per cent increase from June last year.
Now UPI connects 675 banks through a single digital framework having 491 million users and 65 million merchants onboard.
Becoming A Digital-First Economy
PIB in its latest background series mentioned “This shift has taken India away from cash and card-based payments and pushed it towards a digital-first economy.”
Further adding, “Millions of individuals and small businesses now rely on UPI for safe and low-cost transactions.By making payments quick and accessible, UPI has become a powerful tool for financial inclusion.”
In the meantime, the platform’s global footprint is expanding as UPI is now operational in seven countries, including the UAE, Singapore, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, France, and Mauritius.
Now its debut in France marks UPI’s first foray into the European market further allowing Indians to make payments seamlessly without the usual hassles of foreign transactions.
After this, India is pushing for UPI to be adopted within the BRICS grouping now includes six new member nations.
Such an expansion “will improve remittances, boost financial inclusion and raise India’s profile as a global tech leader in digital payments,” as noted by the PIB.
If we look into the journey to this digital success, it was built on a strong foundation of financial inclusion.
Besides this, the Jan Dhan Yojana seems to be a key enabler as it would bring over 55.83 crore people into the formal banking system as of July 9.
With these accounts, the account holder gets a secure way to receive welfare benefits and also encourages them for saving and digital financial habits.
Further, PIB said, “These figures show more than just numbers. They reflect trust, convenience and speed. Every month, more individuals and businesses choose UPI for their payments. This growing use is a strong sign that India is moving steadily towards a cashless economy.”
