Digital India

DPI Brief — June 18, 2026 1. UPI Goes Live at Galeries Lafayette, Nice — India’s Payment Rail Reaches France (L2) Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal launched Unified Payments Interface (UPI) services at the iconic Galeries Lafayette in Nice, France, on June 16, 2026. The launch enables Indian travellers to make seamless QR-code-based payments using familiar apps like PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm while shopping at one of France’s most premium department store chains. Goyal called it “a significant step” in India’s ongoing effort to internationalise its digital payment infrastructure. UPI is now accepted at merchant locations across France through NPCI’s international linkage partnerships, following earlier rollouts in Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Nepal, and the UAE. ...

DPI Brief — June 17, 2026 Pine Labs Launches P3P: India’s First Autonomous Agentic Payment Protocol on UPI Layer: L2 (Payments) / L4 (Commerce) Pine Labs has launched the Pine Labs Payment Protocol (P3P), marking India’s first autonomous agentic payment protocol built directly on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) network. The protocol is already live in production, with Gullak, a digital gold savings platform, as the first merchant on the network. ...

DPI Brief — June 15, 2026 India’s DPI ecosystem saw significant movement this week across payments, commerce, telecom regulation, agriculture, and documents — five layers in a single news cycle. Here are the top stories. L2 Payments: India-Nepal UPI-NPI Cross-Border Corridor Goes Live India and Nepal operationalised a peer-to-peer cross-border remittance corridor on 6 June 2026, linking India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with Nepal’s National Payments Interface (NPI). The system, formally announced by the Ministry of Finance on 11 June, enables citizens of both countries to transfer money in real time via mobile banking apps and digital wallets — without remittance agents, cash couriers, or informal hundi networks. ...

DPI Brief — June 13, 2026 1. India–Nepal UPI-NPI Linkage Goes Live: Real-Time Cross-Border Remittances Layer: L2 — Payments NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) and Nepal Clearing House Ltd (NCHL) have operationalised the direct linkage between India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Nepal’s National Payments Interface (NPI). The service, which went live on 6 June, enables person-to-person cross-border remittances in real time using mobile numbers or virtual payment addresses (VPAs)—no bank account details required. ...

DPI Brief — June 12, 2026 Zelle Picks India as First International Market, Signalling Cross-Border Payment Convergence (L2 — Payments) Early Warning Services, the operator of the US-based peer-to-peer payment network Zelle, announced that India will be its first international market, with a planned expansion later this year. Roughly a third of all remittances sent to India annually originate from the United States, according to the Reserve Bank of India — making it what the company called a “natural starting point” for global expansion. ...

DPI Brief — June 11, 2026 TRAI V2X Consultation: Telcos Push for Spectrum Auction Over Direct Allocation The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has kicked off a consultation on a framework for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication — and India’s leading telcos are already staking their claim. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), representing Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, submitted its response this week arguing that V2X spectrum should be auctioned commercially under the “same service, same rules” principle, rather than specially allocated to automotive or technology firms. ...

DPI Brief — June 10, 2026 MeitY Pushes States to Adopt App-Based Aadhaar Verification for Citizen Services The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has written to Chief Secretaries of all states and Union Territories, urging them to adopt UIDAI’s recently launched app-based Aadhaar verification system for citizen-facing services. The recommended use cases span hotel and guest house registration, visitor management at government offices, hospital patient verification, and examination candidate checks. The system works via a QR code flow: the verifying entity generates a code, the citizen scans it using the Aadhaar app, and basic identity details (name, age, mobile number, photograph) are displayed on screen — eliminating the need for physical photocopies. This directly addresses documented fraud cases where Aadhaar photocopies collected on false pretences were used to obtain loans or purchase goods. Institutions adopting this system must register with UIDAI under the Aadhaar (Authentication and Offline Verification) Amendment Regulations, 2025, notified via Gazette on 9 December 2025. Delhi has already directed its police, Home Guards, forensic labs, courts, and fire services to adopt the mechanism, signalling early traction. ...

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. ...

DPI Weekly Deep Dive — UPI Goes Global: From 23 Billion Monthly Transactions to 9 Countries | Week of June 1-7, 2026 Executive Summary The week of June 1-7, 2026 marks a watershed moment for India’s flagship Digital Public Infrastructure — the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). On June 2, NPCI released data showing UPI processed 23.2 billion transactions worth ₹29.90 lakh crore in May 2026, crossing the 23-billion monthly threshold for the first time. Just a day later, on June 3, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) and Cambodia’s ACLEDA Bank launched UPI acceptance at over 4.5 million merchants across Cambodia through Bakong’s KHQR system, making Cambodia the ninth country to adopt UPI. 12 ...

DPI Brief — June 07, 2026 1. UPI Hits Record ₹29.9 Lakh Crore in May — L2 Payments UPI transactions surged to an all-time high in May 2026, processing 23.2 billion transactions worth ₹29.90 lakh crore (~US$312 billion), according to NPCI data. Volume rose 4% month-on-month from 22.35 billion in April, while value climbed 3% from ₹29.03 lakh crore. On a year-on-year basis, value grew 19% and volume 24%. Summer travel, IPL 2026 spending, and seasonal consumer activity drove the uptick after April saw a minor dip. PhonePe continued to dominate with 46.2% of transaction volume, while high-value transactions are increasingly shifting to credit-on-UPI — credit card transaction value has grown from ₹8.9 lakh crore in 2021 to ₹23.2 lakh crore in 2025. The trajectory keeps UPI on track to cross ₹30 lakh crore monthly in the near term. ...