DPI Brief — June 09, 2026
1. UPI Goes Live in Cambodia — Ninth International Destination
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has formally gone live in Cambodia, making it the ninth country where Indian travellers can scan-and-pay using their existing UPI apps. The cross-border QR payment corridor was launched on June 2, 2026, in Phnom Penh through a partnership between NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) and ACLEDA Bank Plc., under the aegis of the Reserve Bank of India and the National Bank of Cambodia.
Indian travellers can now make real-time QR-code payments at over 4.5 million KHQR-enabled merchants across Cambodia — covering hotels, restaurants, retail stores, tourist sites, and transportation. The first phase enables Person-to-Merchant (P2M) transactions from India to Cambodia; a subsequent phase will allow Cambodian visitors to pay at UPI-QR merchant locations in India using their domestic banking apps, creating a bi-directional payment corridor.
Cambodia joins Bhutan, France, Mauritius, Nepal, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and the UAE as countries accepting UPI payments. RBI noted in its latest annual report that further international linkages with fast payment systems are underway, signalling that UPI’s global footprint will continue expanding.
Source: RBI / Hindu Business Line
2. ABHA Crosses 90 Crore — 100 Crore Health Records Linked
The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) has crossed a landmark 90 crore ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account) registrations, with over 100 crore health records now linked to these digital health IDs. The milestone was confirmed by Dr. Sunil Kumar Barnwal, CEO of the National Health Authority (NHA), and marks a shift from identity creation to actual health data connectivity.
ABHA — India’s 14-digit digital health identity — has grown from 14.7 crore accounts in 2021 to 30.4 crore (2022), 50.6 crore (2023), 72.2 crore (2024), 84.5 crore (2025), and now past 90 crore in 2026. Uttar Pradesh leads with over 15.3 crore registrations, followed by Rajasthan (7.1 crore), Maharashtra (7.1 crore), Bihar (6.3 crore), and West Bengal (5.9 crore). Several Union Territories have achieved 100% population saturation.
The NMC had earlier mandated all medical colleges to issue ABHA IDs to patients. India’s Electronic Health Records market is estimated at USD ~730 million in 2025 and projected to reach USD 1.5 billion by 2033-34, driven by ABDM-aligned interoperability and cloud-based clinical systems.
Source: Biometric Update · Digital Health News
3. ONDC Expands to 616+ Cities, 7.64 Lakh Sellers
The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) continues its rapid scale-up, now covering 616+ cities with over 7.64 lakh registered sellers on the network. Launched in April 2022, ONDC has emerged as the government’s flagship platform for democratising e-commerce by enabling interoperable transactions across buyer apps, seller apps, and logistics providers — reducing dependence on large aggregator platforms.
This week, ONDC also highlighted its push into the tourism sector, making India’s tourism offerings more discoverable and bookable through the open network. CPG/FMCG companies are increasingly leveraging ONDC for digitally enabled general trade distribution, expanding retailer reach beyond traditional kirana supply chains.
The platform was featured prominently in PIB summaries marking 12 years of India’s ease-of-doing-business reforms, underscoring ONDC’s role as a structural pillar of the country’s digital commerce infrastructure.
Source: PIB / Legacy IAS
4. Aadhaar App Expands with Face Authentication and Privacy Controls
UIDAI’s new Aadhaar App, launched in January 2026, is gaining traction with expanded capabilities including QR-based Aadhaar sharing, face authentication for attendance marking, offline verification support, and improved privacy controls. The app allows users to store a digital version of their Aadhaar securely on their mobile device and use face-based authentication for services like EPFO UAN activation and organisational attendance.
The app represents UIDAI’s push toward a more privacy-first, user-controlled identity experience — moving beyond the traditional physical card paradigm to a digital-first approach where citizens can share only the specific information required by verifiers through QR-code scanning, without handing over a physical copy.
Notably, UIDAI has also extended the deadline for free online Aadhaar document updates to June 14, 2026, after which demographic updates will cost ₹75 and biometric updates ₹100.
Source: UIDAI (Official) · Aadhaar Official Social
5. DPDP Compliance Clock Ticks — May 2027 Deadline in Focus
With the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules 2025 notified in November 2025, Indian businesses are now under an 18-month compliance runway with a full compliance deadline of May 13, 2027. The rules establish obligations across seven buckets for Data Fiduciaries: compliant notices, consent management aligned with Consent Manager specifications, data retention and deletion policies, breach notification protocols, and verifiable consent mechanisms.
Obligations for Consent Managers — intermediaries that manage user consent for data fiduciaries — apply within 12 months of notification. Penalties for non-compliance can reach up to ₹250 crore for security safeguard failures and ₹200 crore for failure to notify breaches. The National e-Governance Division (NeGD) has been conducting DPDP Act awareness workshops across states, with a recent session in Chandigarh covering DigiLocker, UMANG, and cybersecurity alongside data protection.
The DPDP framework represents a fundamental shift in India’s data governance landscape, and its phased rollout will reshape how fintech, health-tech, e-commerce, and public digital platforms handle personal data.
Source: MeitY / NeGD · DPDP Rules 2025 Guide
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