Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has expanded its international footprint to 11 countries and processed transactions worth Rs 29.87 lakh crore in July alone, according to the government.
In a detailed release titled “UPI Transforming India’s Payment Landscape”, the Press Information Bureau said UPI has grown 12,000-fold over the past decade and has emerged as the backbone of India’s digital payments ecosystem and a key pillar of the country’s Digital Public Infrastructure.
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Developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI accounted for around 49% of global real-time payment transaction volume in 2024, according to a figure highlighted by the International Monetary Fund in its June 2025 report, “Growing Retail Digital Payments: The Value of Interoperability.”
The payment platform is now operational for acceptance and/or cross-border remittances in Bhutan, Nepal, Singapore, the UAE, France, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Qatar, Cambodia, Greece and the Maldives. Greece and the Maldives are the latest countries to adopt UPI.
The government said UPI has undergone several major expansions since its launch. Between 2020 and 2022, UPI AutoPay was introduced for recurring payments such as EMIs and SIPs, while UPI 123PAY enabled feature-phone users to make payments through IVR and missed calls. UPI Lite was also launched for low-value payments without requiring a PIN, while credit cards were subsequently linked to the platform.
UPI also made its international debut in Bhutan during this period.
In 2024, UPI Circle was introduced to enable delegated payments. The Reserve Bank of India also increased the tax payment limit through UPI from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. The UPI 123PAY transaction limit was raised to Rs 10,000, while the UPI Lite wallet limit was increased to Rs 5,000, with the per-transaction limit raised to Rs 1,000.
In 2025, UPI added on-device biometric authentication and Aadhaar-based face authentication for UPI PIN onboarding, further expanding its authentication options.
The government said UPI’s international expansion reflects the growing global acceptance of India’s digital payment infrastructure and its interoperability-focused model.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
