• Dilip Modi, Founder at Spice Money


• 02.06.2022 10:00 am
#payments

UPI has crossed a phenomenal milestone again, this time crossing the $10-trillion mark in transactional values, and 5.95 billion transactions in terms of volume, in May 2022. We are delighted to see the exponential rise of the adoption of UPI, with the pandemic acting as a catalyst in the last two years. Both the volume and value of UPI transactions have skyrocketed in a year's time which is a testimony to the success of UPI in India. The main advantage of UPI is that it has eliminated the hassle of third-party payments, and while services like net banking require steps like OTP generation which is also a cause of many digital frauds across India, there is no such thing as UPI. UPI also has decreased the risks of any financial fraud as the payment authentication takes place on a smartphone with the help of a PIN helping users with quick and secure real-time settlements.

In the same breath, we must also mention AePS, the other major tool that can complement UPI in taking financial services to the digitally unaware, unbanked and underbanked sections of the rural population. Launched almost a decade ago, AePS was created to foster financial inclusion through interoperable financial transactions. With AePS, rural citizens can transact with just their biometrics, without having to worry about their bank account numbers, using a pin and so on. Integrating AePS with other rural remittances will help this mode complement UPI in India’s journey towards being a cashless economy. 

India is at the forefront of building a world-leading digital financial infrastructure with financial inclusion as its core objective. Initiatives such as UPI Lite which aims to encourage small-ticket offline digital payments, and UPI123Pay allowing transactions to be done through feature phones without an internet connection will further the reach of the digital payments ecosystem. We're looking forward to being a part of NPCI's journey towards processing a billion transactions a day in the coming year, especially keen on front-ending this journey in rural India.