Daily Brief

DPI Brief — August 25, 2026 DoT Makes Biometric Verification Mandatory for All SIM Cards — Aadhaar eKYC Forced for Holders Layer: L1 (Identity) + L7 (Trust) The Department of Telecommunications on August 21 notified the Telecommunications (User Identification) Rules, 2026 (G.S.R. 750(E)), making live biometric verification — face, fingerprint, or iris — mandatory not just for new SIMs but for replacements, detail changes, and even SIM surrender. Aadhaar holders have no alternative: they must use Aadhaar e-KYC, with no option for offline or document-based verification. ...

DPI Brief — August 24, 2026 UPI MDR Returns: PSS Amendment Act Gets Presidential Assent Layer: Payments (L2) The President has granted assent to the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Act, 2026 and the Payment and Settlement Systems (Amendment) Act, 2026 — the legislative vehicle that removes UPI's zero-MDR protection after nearly six years. Transactions above ₹2,000 will likely attract a 0.3% merchant discount rate, with fees split across issuing banks, acquiring banks, and payment service providers. The government has clarified that consumer-facing person-to-person (P2P) UPI payments remain free. The legal groundwork is now in place for RBI and NPCI to notify the operational framework. The Hans India first reported the MDR comeback details; Moneycontrol notes the fee structure will follow NPCI's existing interchange model for PPI-initiated payments (1.1% for prepaid instruments). ...

DPI Brief — August 23, 2026 R S Sharma Warns Against UPI MDR: Keep Payments Free R S Sharma, former UIDAI Director General and ex-ONDC Chairman, has made a forceful case for keeping UPI free for both merchants and consumers. Writing in the Indian Express, Sharma warned that introducing a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI transactions would be deeply regressive — disproportionately hitting small merchants and low-value payments that form the backbone of India’s digital payments revolution. ...

DPI Brief — August 22, 2026 TRAI Signs Cooperation Pact with Singapore’s IMDA; Starlink Reapplies for India Entry L7 — Trust / Telecom Regulation TRAI and Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) exchanged a Letter of Intent on August 21 to deepen cooperation in telecommunications and broadcasting regulation. The LoI, witnessed during the fourth India-Singapore ministerial roundtable in New Delhi, will facilitate knowledge exchange on regulatory experience, quality-of-service frameworks, and emerging areas like satellite spectrum management. 1 ...

DPI Brief — August 21, 2026 PIB Revisits UPI’s Decade of Scale; Zero MDR Stays for Consumers The Press Information Bureau released a comprehensive retrospective on UPI’s ten-year journey, confirming that the platform processed 24,162 crore transactions worth ₹314 lakh crore in FY26 — a 60.9% CAGR from FY21’s 2,233 crore transactions. The data reveals that 86% of Person-to-Merchant (P2M) transactions were below ₹500, underscoring UPI’s deep integration into everyday retail commerce. P2P low-value transfers also continued to expand. Critically, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reiterated that UPI will remain free for consumers, even as the Payments Council of India and Startup Policy Forum push for a tiered MDR structure — zero for small merchants, 0.3% for large ones (above ₹20 lakh annual turnover). Government incentive outlay for FY27 stands at ₹2,000 crore, which the PCI considers insufficient against the ecosystem’s processing costs. The policy tension between sustainability and inclusion remains unresolved. ...

DPI Brief — August 20, 2026 UPI MDR Bill Gets Presidential Assent; Cash Usage Quickens The Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 received the President’s assent on August 18, amending the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 to legally enable a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI and RuPay transactions. The government reiterated that UPI will remain free for consumers; any future MDR will be “nominal” and restricted to select merchant categories. The actual rates, eligibility thresholds, and revenue-sharing mechanism will be decided by the UPI and Services Steering Committee chaired by NPCI — six key questions the final framework must still settle, as Business Standard outlined. ...

DPI Brief — August 19, 2026 President Assent Opens Door for UPI MDR Charges 1 President Droupadi Murmu gave assent on August 17 to the Payment and Settlement Systems (Amendment) Act, 2026, fundamentally altering the legal framework around zero-MDR on UPI and RuPay. The amendment gives the government power to notify which electronic payment modes or transaction categories will remain exempt from Merchant Discount Rate charges — and, by implication, which won’t. ...

DPI Brief — August 18, 2026 L2: Parliament Clears Path for UPI Merchant Fees — But Consumers Stay Shielded The Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 has amended Section 10A of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, removing the statutory prohibition that barred banks and payment companies from levying a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI transactions. The change, passed in the just-concluded Parliament session, empowers the UPI Steering Committee to implement targeted charges — effectively transitioning the network from a fully subsidised public good to a commercially viable utility. ...

DPI Brief — August 17, 2026 India’s DPI ecosystem saw significant movement this week across identity, cybersecurity, and infrastructure security layers. Here are the five most important updates. 1. UIDAI Extends Free Aadhaar Email Updates via Mobile App — L1 (Identity) UIDAI has made email address updates linked to Aadhaar free through its mobile app until 31 December 2026, waiving the usual ₹50–75 fee. Users can update via the Aadhaar app with OTP verification and face authentication, with changes typically reflecting within 2–3 hours. The move lowers the barrier for citizens to maintain a secondary recovery channel alongside mobile numbers — a small but meaningful improvement to the identity layer’s resilience, especially as Aadhaar increasingly underpins financial services, e-KYC, and welfare delivery. ...

DPI Brief — August 16, 2026 1. UPI Growth Slows as Cash Usage Quickens — MDR Debate Heats Up (L2 — Payments) The Parliament-passed Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 has opened the door for a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI transactions — a first since the platform was launched in 2016. While the government insists consumer-facing transactions will stay free, the Bill creates legal room to levy charges on select high-value merchant payments (potentially above ₹2,000). ...