FM Nirmala Sitharaman reviews UPI ecosystem, sets goal of 1 billion daily transactions

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday chaired a high-level meeting to review the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ecosystem, with a focus on strengthening infrastructure, scaling operations, and expanding global reach.

Senior officials from the Finance Ministry, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) were present, including Finance Secretary Ajay Seth, DFS Secretary M. Nagaraju, RBI Executive Director Vivek Deep, and NPCI MD & CEO Dilip Asbe.

The meeting focused on strengthening UPI's resilience, scalability, and real-time monitoring to maintain uninterrupted services and build user confidence. Finance Minister Sitharaman highlighted the need to quickly address infrastructure shortcomings, bolster cybersecurity measures, and elevate the overall user experience.

Officials shared that UPI has grown rapidly, adding that the platform added 26 crore users and 5.5 crore merchants between FY 2021–22 and FY 2024–25. UPI currently has around 45 crore active users annually. In FY 2024–25, transaction values reached Rs 261 lakh crore, showing a 30% year-on-year rise, while transaction volumes increased by 42% to 18,586 crore.