Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman declared on Sunday that India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has emerged as the world's largest real-time payment system. The platform now handles an astounding 2,400 crore (24 billion) transactions every month, or nearly 80 crore daily.
Addressing the inauguration of the Reserve Bank of India’s Greenfield Data Centre and Cybersecurity Training Institute in Khordha, Odisha, Sitharaman highlighted UPI's exponential growth as a testament to India's robust digital public infrastructure.
UPI's Remarkable Global Leadership
Since 2016-17, UPI's annual transaction volume has surged approximately 13,000 times, solidifying its position at the forefront of global digital payments. This immense scale of adoption has fostered a vibrant fintech ecosystem, extending crucial financial services like credit, insurance, and investment opportunities to millions of first-time users across India.
According to the finance ministry, UPI accounted for 81% of retail digital payment transactions in the fiscal year 2024-25, underscoring its dominance within India's retail digital payments landscape. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) data further supports these figures, showing 24.07 billion transactions processed in September alone.
Strengthening Digital Infrastructure and Cybersecurity
The Finance Minister's comments coincided with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's inauguration of the RBI's state-of-the-art data center and cybersecurity training institute. Sitharaman emphasized that this new facility will significantly enhance India's domestic capacity for critical systems underpinning the nation's payment infrastructure.
The campus is set to house the RBI's mission-critical systems, including Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT). Furthermore, its dedicated training institute will cultivate expertise in vital areas such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and data center management, complete with its own research wing.
Data Centers: The Vaults of the Digital Age
Referring to data centers as the “vault of the digital age,” Sitharaman noted that the government granted infrastructure status to the sector in 2022. The Union Budget 2026-27 further incentivized this growth by announcing a tax holiday for foreign companies providing global cloud services from data centers located within India, aiming to attract more international investment and expertise.
Expanding UPI's International Footprint
Beyond its domestic success, UPI is also expanding its reach globally. Sitharaman previously stated that the payment system is now operational in 11 countries, including France, Singapore, the UAE, Greece, and Mauritius, facilitating seamless cross-border digital transactions. India now accounts for nearly half of all global real-time digital transactions, cementing UPI’s role as a cornerstone of the country's digital economy and a model for global financial inclusion.