Cash payments will be discontinued at toll plazas on national highways from April 10, with FASTag as the primary mode of payment and UPI as a fallback option at a higher charge.
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions in India reached a record high in March, driven by increased adoption and global expansion. The system now accounts for 85% of digital transactions in India and is live in eight countries.
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions in India reached a record high in March, with 22.64 billion transactions, marking a significant increase from the previous year and highlighting the growing adoption of digital payments.
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions reached a record high in March, driven by festivities and the financial year closure, according to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Delhi LG Taranjit Singh Sandhu addressed the Global Confluence 2026, emphasising the importance of maintaining a human element at the heart of digital nation-building. He highlighted India's digital transformation and the role of technology in improving lives, while urging a focus on inclusive development and national security.
Moving beyond digital payments, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the operator of Unified Payments Interface, is planning to add more muscle to the country's digital infrastructure by setting up a fourth subsidiary, NPCI Tech Solutions Ltd (NTSL).
This would imply a 29 per cent year-on-year rise, significantly lower than growth rates seen in recent years.
The amount involved in banking system frauds surged to Rs 21,515 crore in the first half of FY26, up 30 per cent from the same period last year, even as the number of frauds fell 2.8 times to 5,092.
In its June 2025 review, the International Monetary Fund spotlighted India's Unified Payments Interface as the world's most dominant retail instant-payment network, moving more transactions than any other system on the globe.
As India's biggest Unified Payments Interface (UPI) app PhonePe prepares to list, the updated draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) shows the impact of regulations on the business, and concentration of payments-linked revenue even as UPI lacks MDR (merchant discount rate).
'This will bring in a lot of net new users to UPI.'
'Just like oral hygiene, cyber hygiene must become a daily habit,' says Beena Vaheed, executive director, Bank of Baroda. 'It is not enough to rely only on banks, companies, or the government. Each of us must play our part.'
It will enable real-time intel sharing among banks and other financial sector participants to strengthen customer protection against digital fraud.
'The first time India has seen two consecutive blockbuster IPO years.'
Users experienced difficulties with UPI payments due to technical issues in some banks' systems. NPCI stated that its systems are operational and it is working with banks to resolve the problems.
Officials from both India and the US in the recent past have indicated that a "fair deal" will be concluded soon, with Indian officials holding that more formal rounds of talks are not needed.
About 85 per cent of the digital payment transactions take place through UPI in India, and the country can be a case study in inclusive, secure, and scalable Digital Public Platforms (DPPs), Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra has said. He was speaking at a "High-Level Dialogue on Forging Economic Resilience through Digital Public Platforms" organised by RBI on the sidelines of the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC on Tuesday.
'The real story of 2025 is that India officially stopped being a 'market of the future' and started acting as the world's primary economic engine.'
India has nearly 490 million online gamers, and an estimated Rs 10,000 crore is spent every month on online gaming transactions.
With a confident new generation of innovators, India now has the scale and self-belief to shape its own digital destiny marked by creation, observes Ajay Kumar chairman, UPSC.
'When you think of cross-border payments, the first things that come to mind are risk, compliance, taxation, speed, and cost.'
UPI crossed 20 billion monthly transactions for the first time in August 2025, with a transaction value of Rs 24.85 trillion.
'There is a debit execution failure which is because there is not enough money in the user's bank account.'
As deposit growth lags credit expansion, Indian banks face shrinking low-cost Casa inflows, rising funding costs, and structural shifts driven by UPI, e-Kuber, and digital savings trends, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'Reinvention is not a hugely difficult task. With technology as available today, you can reinvent yourself pretty quickly.'
SBI customers faced difficulties in accessing UPI and mobile banking services for more than four hours on Tuesday due to some "technical issues". The country's largest lender later said the technical issues have been fully resolved.
Let's work flat out and create a policy framework that fosters the growth of Indian non-family business VC and private equity firms. This will allow our Indian startups' dreams to flourish, explains Ajit Balakrishnan.
Nearly 7 out of every 10 P2M UPI transactions take place in high frequency categories like groceries, restaurants, pharmacies, fuel service stations, bakeries and utility services such as electricity, gas, water and sanitation.
Several executives argue that UPI has the potential to grow tenfold, but warn that the absence of a monetisation model risks stagnating the real-time payments system, which has been recording all-time-high transaction volumes every year.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday asked fintech firms to focus on risk management at a time when criminals are using AI to mimic voices, clone identities and create lifelike videos to manipulate people.
In a significant breakthrough, the Malerkotla Police apprehended two individuals for alleged involvement in espionage activities linked to a Pakistani official posted at the High Commission in New Delhi, said Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) on Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said Parliament's Monsoon session is like a 'Vijay Utsav' as the Indian armed forces achieved their objectives under Operation Sindoor 100 per cent, and expressed confidence that the MPs will articulate this sentiment in one voice.
We propose an expert group be set up to form a national strategy on digital fraud. This group would bring together skills in financial regulation, security economics, cyber defence, and public communications, and an understanding of the Indian financial and security systems. It should lay the foundations of a coordinated approach by the Indian State in fighting digital fraud, suggest Ajay Shah and Nandkumar Saravade.
Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm may deliberately delay transactions, issue fraud alerts, and require an extra layer of user confirmation before processing any transactions that are likely to be classified as fraudulent.
Digipin promises to revolutionise location-based services in India with safeguards.
This marks a 67% increase from the Rs 2,537 crore lost in scams in 2022-2023.
UPI topped Rs 24 trillion in value of transactions and 19 billion in volume for the first time after becoming operational in April 2016.
She has been booked under the relevant sections of the Official Secrets Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, said the police.
'The introduction of a reasonable MDR for large merchant transactions will allow the industry to continue investing in innovation, cybersecurity, grievance redressal, and merchant support, ultimately ensuring that UPI continues to thrive.'
'The next decade will be even more transformative,' says Prime Minister Modi. 'We are moving from digital governance to global digital leadership.'
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