India’s real-time payments system on quest to leave global footprint

[NEW DELHI] INDIA’S real-time payments system, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), has made great strides since it was launched in 2016, to the point where transactions on the platform are now worth 55 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

According to latest government data, UPI transactions worth 71.7 billion rupees (S$1.17 billion) were recorded by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) since the start of FY2023 in April. India’s real GDP at constant prices was pegged at about 121 billion rupees in FY2022.

Over the last five years, UPI transactions in terms of value saw a compounded annual growth rate of 160 per cent. A recent report by payments platform PayNearby found that UPI transactions registered a 650 per cent and 500 per cent increase in value and volume across rural- and semi-urban retail counters of PayNearby, suggesting its wider adoption beyond Tier One and Tier Two regions in India.