Economy & Bankingv12 · 12 versions
India's Digital Payments Engine (UPI & Beyond)
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is India's real-time retail payment rail, developed by NPCI and regulated by the Reserve Bank, on which transfers between individuals stay free at any size. On 28 September 2026 the Supreme Court refused to stay its new merchant discount rate, due from 15 October: 0.4 percent on merchant payments above ₹2,000, capped at ₹300.
Last updated 1 October 20267 min read
Latest update
Replaces the August print with NPCI's September 2026 figures: 2,407 crore UPI payments, 23 percent more than a year earlier, worth ₹29.37 lakh crore.
- UPI
- NPCI
- RBI
- Payments Regulatory Board
- Payments Vision 2028
- digital payments
- Sanjay Malhotra
- IMF
- Global Fintech Fest
- GFF 2026
- agentic AI
- tokenisation
- Payments Council of India
- Digital Public Infrastructure
- merchant discount rate
- MDR framework
- P2PM
- zero MDR
- Dilip Asbe
- MDR
- Supreme Court
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