Digital payments have recorded a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50% and 10% in volume and value terms, respectively, in the last seven years involving 164 billion transactions worth Rs 2,428 lakh crore in 2023-24. Payment infrastructure has also received a boost from the Payment Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF).
India is leading the global digital revolution, emerging as a frontrunner on the back of its robust digital public infrastructure, rapidly evolving institutional arrangements, and a growing tech-savvy population, observes Report on Currency and Finance (RCF) for the year 2023-24, released by the RBI. Globally, India ranks first in biometric-based identification (Aadhaar) and real-time payments volume; second in telecom subscribers; and third in terms of the startup ecosystem.
The UPI has seen a tenfold increase in volume over the past four years. Currently, the UPI is recording nearly 14 billion transactions a month, buoyed by 424 million unique users in June 2024. The surpassing of UPI transactions volume for peer-to-merchant (P2M) transactions over the peer-to-peer (P2P) segment and high volume for small value transaction categories indicate its high usage.
The report notes that since the Account Aggregator (AA) framework was first launched in August 2021, nearly 80 million individuals and companies have benefited from easier access to financial services through AAs. Adoption is increasing rapidly, with around 40 million new accounts being linked in 2024 alone so far. DigiLocker, the online cloud-based document depository, has issued more than six billion documents, catering to 300 million users in 2024.
