Half the World Pays via India's UPI

India's unified payments interface (UPI) now accounts for nearly 49 per cent of the world's real-time payment transaction volume, making it the largest real-time payment system globally, the government said on Wednesday.

The achievement comes as the Digital India programme completes 11 years since its launch on July 1, 2015. According to the government, the initiative has transformed the country's digital public infrastructure, enabling faster payments, improving public service delivery and creating new economic opportunities across urban and rural India.

The government said India has transitioned from being a predominantly cash-based economy to one where digital payments have become the preferred mode of transaction for millions of consumers and merchants. UPI, launched in 2016-17, allows instant person-to-person and person-to-merchant transactions across banks through interoperable digital payment platforms.

It attributed the growth of digital payments to a combination of interoperable banking infrastructure, Aadhaar-based digital identity, affordable internet services, expanding 5G and optical fibre connectivity, rising smartphone penetration and a growing ecosystem of user-friendly payment applications.

According to the government, these factors have enabled secure and seamless digital transactions across the country, extending digital payments from metropolitan cities to remote rural areas while reducing dependence on cash.

India's digital payments ecosystem is also gaining international acceptance. The government said Greece recently became the 10th country to enable UPI services, allowing Indian travellers and businesses to make seamless digital payments overseas.

Beyond payments, the government highlighted the role of Digital India in strengthening public welfare programmes through digital platforms.

It said the Poshan Tracker, developed under Saksham Anganwadi and Mission Poshan 2.0 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, has digitised nutrition service delivery across the country. As of May 2026, the platform had over 13.3 lakh registered Anganwadi workers serving 8.93 crore beneficiaries, including pregnant women, lactating mothers, young children and adolescent girls. The government added that nearly 99.89 per cent of beneficiaries have been Aadhaar verified.

The platform, which integrates Aadhaar authentication, geo-tagging, geo-fencing and face recognition for ration distribution, now maintains a live database tracking nutrition indicators for more than 77 million children, enabling real-time monitoring and data-driven policymaking, it said.