UPI turns 10: PM Modi calls it major turning point

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday marked 10 years of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), describing it as a major turning point in India’s digital payments journey and saying its scale and reach are something every Indian must be proud of.

UPI was launched on August 25, 2016, by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) under the regulatory oversight of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Since then, it has emerged as the backbone of India’s digital payments ecosystem and a critical driver of financial inclusion.

“A decade ago, UPI was rolled out, marking a major turning point in India’s digital payments journey. The sheer scale and reach of UPI are something every Indian must be proud of,” Modi said in a post on X.

The prime minister also asked people to share their UPI experiences with him and explain how it impacted their lives.

Over more than a decade of operations, UPI has recorded a sharp rise in both transaction volume and value. Annual transaction volume increased from 1.78 crore in 2016-17 to over 24,162 crore transactions in 2025-26, an almost 13,000-fold surge.

Transaction value also rose from Rs 0.07 lakh crore in 2016-17 to approximately Rs 314 lakh crore in 2025-26, marking a more than 4,000-fold increase.

UPI has emerged as one of the most successful pillars of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). It provides an interoperable, real-time payments platform that enables seamless peer-to-peer and peer-to-merchant transactions through a single application, according to an official release issued on Monday.