Digital payment growth: India's digital payments has undergone a transformation, surging from 162 crore transactions in FY2012-13 to an impressive 14,726 crore transactions in 2023-24 (up to February 2024), the RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said on Monday. 

He also highlighted that remarkable 90-fold increase over 12 years places India at the forefront of global digital transactions, accounting for nearly 46 per cent of the world's digital transactions according to 2022 data.

According to Das, the Reserve Bank's Digital Payment Index has witnessed a significant four-fold rise in the past five years, signaling a rapid shift towards digital financial transactions in the country.

UPI Juggernaut

The RBI governor added that the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has emerged as a global standout, becoming the most talked-about fast payment system. “UPI's contribution to digital payments has reached nearly 80 per cent in 2023, with transaction volumes skyrocketing from 43 crore in CY-2017 to an astounding 11,761 crore in CY-2023,” Das said. 

According to Das, beyond traditional payments, UPI has evolved with advanced features like offline payments using near field communication (NFC) technology, feature phone-based payments, and AI-driven conversational payments.

“The agility of UPI in achieving transaction milestones is evident – while the first 1000 crore transactions took around 4.56 years, the latest 1000 crore transactions were accomplished in a mere 45 days. Similarly, for UPI peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions, the latest 1000 crore transactions took just over two months,” Das said. 

He also believes that despite these impressive strides, there is ample room for expanding digital payments in India. “The "Har Payment Digital" mission, launched in the previous year, aims to make every individual in India a user of digital payments,” he added.