New Delhi, Oct 25 — India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has become the world's largest real-time payment system, processing more than 2,400 crore transactions a month, or nearly 80 crore transactions every day, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Sunday.
Addressing the inauguration of the Reserve Bank of India's Greenfield Data Centre and Training Institute by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Khordha, Odisha, FM Sitharaman said UPI's annual transaction volume has increased around 13,000 times since 2016-17.
She noted that the platform now processes more than 2,400 crore transactions in a single month, equivalent to nearly 80 crore transactions every day, underscoring the scale and adoption of India's digital payments infrastructure.
"UPI has become the world's largest real-time payment system. Its annual transaction volume has grown around 13,000 times since 2016–17, and it now handles over 2,400 crore transactions in a single month, or nearly 80 crore transactions every day," the finance minister noted.
The finance minister said the rapid growth of UPI has helped foster a vibrant fintech ecosystem that is bringing credit, insurance and investment opportunities to millions of first-time users across the country.
Highlighting the importance of digital infrastructure, FM Sitharaman described data centres as the "vaults of the digital age" and said the government has taken several measures to boost the sector.
"The vibrant fintech ecosystem built on these initiatives is bringing credit, insurance and investment opportunities to first-time users. A data centre is the vault of the digital age," FM Sitharaman noted.
She pointed out that data centres were granted infrastructure status in 2022, while the Union Budget 2026-27 announced a tax holiday for foreign companies providing global cloud services from data centres located in India.
According to FM Sitharaman, the newly inaugurated RBI facility will further strengthen India's domestic digital infrastructure and support systems that form the backbone of the country's payments architecture.
"This campus will house the Reserve Bank's mission-critical systems, including RTGS and NEFT. The training institute, with its own research wing, will build expertise in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and data centres," the minister noted.