Highlighting the evolution of cashless payments and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in India, Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar claimed that Indians made more cashless transactions in a month than users in the United States do in three years.
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“The life of every Indian citizen has become easier and this is because we have embraced technology in a very deep way. You can see this in payment, very few people today pay in cash and very few people accept cash. Today, we do as many cashless payments in India in a month as much as America does in three years,” Jaishankar said while interacting with the people of the Indian community in Nigeria on Sunday.
Jaishankar highlighted that there are five major examples that showcase the transformation of India in the last decade. Noting the changes, Jaishankar said UPI, 5G stack, coronavirus vaccinations were a few changes. He lauded the way India dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic.
“For me, how a country deals with a challenge, recovers from the challenge, and is able to pose such a strong economic performance, how the life of an average citizen becomes better, how we are capable of something that captures the imagination of the world… I take great heart, great hope, and great faith in how India dealt with it. When Covid started, during a virtual meeting in 2020, it was said that the country that would be most unable to cope with Covid would be India. Two years later, I saw that we had been through the Covid wave and lockdowns. We started making medicines for the rest of the world,” Jaishankar said on Sunday.
India has experienced three waves of Covid in the past, with the highest number of daily new cases and deaths occurring during the delta wave from April to June 2021. On May 7, 2021, a record number of 414,188 new cases and 3915 deaths were reported. Since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, more than 4.5 crore people have been infected and over 5.3 lakh deaths have occurred across the country in the span of approximately four years.
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The ministry’s website reports that more than 4.4 crore individuals have recovered from the disease, resulting in a national recovery rate of 98.81 percent. Additionally, the country has administered 220.67 crore doses of Covid vaccines as per the website’s data.
On the other hand, India witnessed an exceptional surge in UPI transactions in 2023. In FY2022-23, 8,375 crore transactions were reported up from 92 crore transactions in FY 2017-18, showcasing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 147% in terms of volume. UPI has emerged as a significant player in India’s digital payment sector, contributing to 62% of digital payment transactions in FY 2022-23.
UPI-based transactions touched a total value of Rs 17.4 lakh crore in December 2023, RBI recently said in its monthly bulletin.
The value of UPI transactions has seen a considerable rise, from Rs 1 lakh crore in FY 2017-18 to Rs 139 lakh crore in FY 2022-23, marking a CAGR of 168%. The data underscores the growing acceptance and usage of UPI in the country.
Last year, the RBI took several steps to make UPI more acceptable. The RBI raised the UPI payment limits for hospitals and educational institutions from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh per transaction. The announcement was made by Governor Shaktikanta Das while unveiling the December bi-monthly monetary policy.
The payments can be through UPI via payment apps like Paytm, Google Pay, PhonePe as well as similar services provided by the banks.
In 2023, the Central bank introduced the ‘instant credit via UPI’ feature. This feature enables individuals to access pre-approved credit lines from their respective banks through UPI. By linking their UPI accounts to scheduled commercial banks, users can avail of the credit facilities quickly and without hassle.
UPI Lite X was introduced to bring digital payments to even the most remote locations. UPI Lite X would allow users to send and receive money through UPI without an internet connection.
