India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is the world’s largest payment network. It has digitized the economy. It has been introduced in 2016, and has become a game changer in payment system. It has already overtaken both credit card and debit card transactions. UPI’s user base has grown to 260 million.

In early 2023, UPI has been linked to Singapore’s PayNow enabling Indian users to remit up to SGD1000 per day. The focus is on NRIs abroad. The US too has large Indian diaspora but the rival payment networks such as Visa and MasterCard lobby against UPI.

Despite digitization, India still has a lot of cash transactions people still do cash-on-delivery (CoD) transactions in India’s e-commerce market worth $30 billion. The cash payment is preferred by Tier I and beyond, though there has been rise of digital currency led by UPI.

As Mastercard CFO says, though UPI is driving a digital shift in India, still it is not a money maker.