New Delhi: In a development that brings fresh embarrassment for former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the latest global recognition of India’s digital payments ecosystem underscores how decisively the Modi government’s vision has transformed the country.
In 2017, Congress leader P Chidambaram had mocked the Modi government’s digital push, questioning whether UPI could ever work in rural India. Opposition leaders Supriya Sule and Shashi Tharoor too had labelled UPI “unrealistic” and “impossible” for India. Yet today, UPI stands as a global benchmark for innovation and scale. Against this backdrop, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on “Growing Retail Digital Payments (The Value of Interoperability)” dated June 2025 has recognised the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as the world’s largest retail fast-payment system (FPS) by transaction volume.
🚨 BIG BREAKING
IMF has recognized India’s UPI as the world’s LARGEST real-time payment system, noting that it accounts for nearly half of global instant payment transactions 🔥 pic.twitter.com/nIM7DdKpPv
— Megh Updates 🚨™ (@MeghUpdates) December 9, 2025
In order to support small-scale merchants in adopting digital payment systems, including UPI, various initiatives have been taken up by the Government, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) from time to time.
These, inter alia, include an incentive scheme for promotion of low-value BHIM-UPI transactions, and the Payments Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), which provides grant support to the banks and fintechs for deployment of digital payment infrastructure (such as POS Terminals and QR codes) in tier-3 to 6 centres.
As per the Ministry, as of October 31, 2025, approximately 5.45 crore digital touch points have been deployed through PIDF in tier-3 to 6 centres. Further, as of FY 2024-25, a total of 56.86 crore QR were deployed to approximately 6.5 crore merchants.
The Government, RBI and NPCI have initiated deepening digital transactions through RuPay and UPI across businesses, including public services, transport and e-commerce platforms, on a nationwide basis. This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary, in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.
Meanwhile, UPI continued its rapid rise in November 2025, crossing over 19 billion transactions worth Rs 24.58 lakh crore as of November 28, according to data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
This marked a sharp increase compared to the same period last year, when UPI recorded 15.48 billion transactions valued at Rs 21.55 lakh crore in November 2024. The steady year-on-year growth highlights how digital payments have become deeply embedded in India’s everyday life. The latest figures show that UPI’s transaction volume in November 2025 grew by about 23 per cent from November 2024, while the transaction value rose by nearly 14 per cent. When compared to November 2023, the growth looks even stronger. UPI transactions have increased by nearly 70 per cent in volume and over 41 per cent in value in just two years.
NPCI data also shows a consistent surge over the past five years. In November 2021, UPI logged only 4.18 billion transactions valued at Rs 7.68 lakh crore, and by November 2022, the figures had nearly doubled. Since then, the system has maintained an upward trajectory, underlining India’s rapid shift from cash to digital modes of payment.
