India’s UPI Push: Aiming 300M New Users and Global Reach
India is expanding UPI to 300 million new users while promoting global adoption. Discover what this means for digital payments.
India’s Ambitious UPI Expansion: From Local Dominance to Global Aspirations
India is betting big on its revolutionary Unified Payments Interface (UPI), charting a bold course to onboard up to 300 million new users, while setting its sights on expanding the platform’s influence across international borders. The aim is not only to deepen digital payment penetration at home but to transform UPI into a global benchmark for real-time payments.
Breaking the Cash Habit: UPI’s Next 300 Million Users
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the brain behind UPI, is determined to bring digital transactions to the nation’s most cash-reliant demographics. Its goal? Empower children, household workers, and other underserved groups with access to delegated accounts—an innovation designed to bypass the traditional banking hurdles many still face.
“Our goal is to break the cash memory,” said NPCI Managing Director and CEO Dilip Asbe, underscoring a broader strategy to cultivate digital habits from the ground up.
Over the past five years, UPI has reshaped India’s financial behavior. Over 450 million users now scan QR codes for everything from chai stalls to luxury vacations, making payments directly from their smartphones—without any transaction fees. According to PwC, India now processes nearly 46% of all global digital transactions, thanks to a staggering 90-fold increase in digital retail payments over the past 12 years.
Beyond Borders: UPI’s Global Footprint Begins to Emerge
India’s ambitions for UPI stretch far beyond its borders. The government, working in tandem with RBI and Indian embassies, is actively pitching the platform to other nations. The focus: transforming how the Indian diaspora—who transferred a record $129 billion to India in 2024, according to the World Bank—manages cross-border remittances.
The promise is compelling: fast, real-time, and affordable international money transfers powered by a system already trusted by millions.
While partnerships with Singapore and the UAE are already in place, progress in western markets like the US, UK, and Australia remains gradual. “Other countries are at different maturity levels with their own real-time payment systems,” Asbe noted, hinting at the diplomatic and technical hurdles still to be overcome.
Innovations at Home: Vision Tech and Credit-as-a-Service
NPCI is also enhancing UPI’s domestic appeal through a slate of forward-looking features. These include multilingual, conversational interfaces and vision recognition technology aimed at streamlining everyday uses—like paying for parking.
Even more transformative is UPI’s push into the credit space. Small-ticket loans are already available, but the platform’s infrastructure may soon help banks evaluate creditworthiness based on real-time payment behavior. The “credit-as-a-service” model, Asbe predicts, could scale dramatically within the next three to five years, particularly for India’s vast unbanked population.
Fees and Friction: Could Transaction Charges Slow UPI’s Growth?
Despite UPI’s meteoric rise, its zero-fee model is under scrutiny. Before 2020, merchants paid a 30-basis point fee—known as the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR). That fee was later waived to encourage adoption, with the government stepping in to provide merchant incentives. However, those subsidies fell from ₹36 billion in 2024 to just ₹15 billion in 2025, sparking debate over the platform’s long-term financial sustainability.
Industry groups argue that reinstating a small fee—particularly for large merchants—could support operations without discouraging casual users. But data suggests otherwise. A LocalCircles survey involving 32,000 respondents found that 73% of users would consider abandoning UPI if a fee were introduced.
In response, the UPI ecosystem is negotiating a compromise: keep it free for everyday users but allow for modest transaction charges on large enterprises to maintain the platform’s viability.
Conclusion: A Digital Future Hinges on Trust, Access, and Innovation
India’s UPI journey is a masterclass in how technology can drive financial inclusion. As it eyes another 300 million users and a place on the global stage, success will depend on preserving the platform’s accessibility, affordability, and trust. Whether it’s paying a neighbor’s kid for chores or sending tuition fees overseas, UPI’s evolution is set to define the next era of digital payments.
Its story is far from over. But one thing is clear—India isn’t just building a cashless economy. It’s laying the foundation for a borderless financial ecosystem.
Disclaimer:
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Readers are encouraged to consult appropriate professionals for specific guidance related to digital payments or financial decisions.
source : The Economic Times