The Unified Payment Interface and the growth of digital payments in India: An analysis

Abstract

This paper analyses the massive growth in digital payments in India since 2010. In addition to discussing the various factors that have contributed to this, most notably the introduction of the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), the paper also highlights some of the challenges facing the UPI, and how these might be addressed. By way of comparison, the paper also analyses a similarly successful system, namely Brazil’s PIX. As many developing nations are now investigating UPI-like solutions and hoping for similar results, this paper sets out to improve understanding about digital payment infrastructure and the factors that have driven the successful growth of digital payments and the UPI in India in order to support such nations to determine the appropriate strategy going forward.