India has witnessed an exponential growth in digital payments, with transactions soaring from 162 crore in FY 2012-13 to an astounding 14,726 crore in 2023-34 (till February 2024), marking nearly a 90-fold increase in just over a decade. This surge has positioned India at the forefront of the digital payments landscape, accounting for nearly 46% of the world’s digital transactions (as of 2022). The extraordinary growth in digital payments is also evident in the Reserve Bank’s Digital Payment Index, which has witnessed a four-fold rise in the last five years.
Making these observations at the Digital Payments Awareness Week celebrations, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that over the years, India has not only navigated through the fast-evolving technological innovations but also played a pivotal role, as a catalyst, in developing one of the most modern payment systems in the world.
“The flagship of our payment systems, the ‘UPI’, has become the most talked about fast payment system not only in India but across the world. It is the biggest contributor to the growth of digital payments in India. The share of UPI in digital payments has reached close to 80% in 2023. At a macro level, the volume of UPI transactions increased from 43 crore in CY-2017 to 11,761 crore in CY-2023,” Das noted.
Apart from being a user-friendly interface and facilitating QR code-based payments, the UPI has evolved to include advanced functionalities such as offline payments through near field communication (NFC) technology (UPI Lite X), payments through feature phones (UPI 123Pay), and AI-based conversational payments (hello! UPI).
There is, however, considerable scope for expanding the use of digital payments in India, the Governor said, adding that trust in digital payments is built on the pillars of transparency, ease of use, and above all, security. Hence, reinforcing the notion of safety and security of the system is very important.
The RBI’s current campaign, “Digital Payment, Safe Payment” – “Digital Payment, Surakshit Payment,” aims to educate and empower individuals to navigate the digital payments landscape securely and confidently.
