New Delhi: Digital transactions through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) have surged exponentially 77 times within a year of the demonetisation drive.
The number of transactions through UPI, a payments system launched by NPCI, was very low (0.1 million in October 2016), before the government's decision to replace old currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 with new notes in 500 and 2,000 denominations with a view to checking black money and promote digital transactions.
As per the latest data of the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), the number of payments through UPI has zoomed to 76.96 million at end-October 2017. In October alone, the transactions increased to 76.96 million from 30.98 million in September.
"UPI transactions: Oct 2016 - 0.1 million, Oct 2017 - 76.96 million. What a story!," said Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani, who was associated with development of India's unique identity number Aadhaar.
In terms of value, the transactions were valued at Rs 70.57 billion in October 2017. Meanwhile, the number of banks on UPI have increased to 57 from 21 in August last year.
In order to push UPI transactions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December had launched BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) app to facilitate quick payment transactions using UPI.
