Digital India

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). ...

DPI Brief — August 15, 2026 UPI Hits Record 23.66 Billion Monthly Transactions in July India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processed 23.66 billion transactions worth ₹29.88 lakh crore in July 2026, registering a new all-time high according to NPCI data released this week. Volume grew 4.1% month-on-month from June’s 22.72 billion, while average daily transactions touched approximately 763 million. On a year-on-year basis, volumes grew 22%. The concentration dynamics remain noteworthy: the top three apps — PhonePe (48.38% volume share), Google Pay (~37%), and Paytm — together processed 93% of all UPI transactions in July. NPCI has been actively pushing new product lines — including UPI Tap & Pay, Hello UPI (conversational payments), and UPI Lite X for feature phones — to diversify usage patterns and chase its ambitious 100 billion monthly transaction target. ...

DPI Brief — August 14, 2026 India’s Digital Public Infrastructure ecosystem saw significant developments across payments, governance, health, and trust layers in the past 24 hours. Here are the key updates. UPI Enters “UPI@10” Era as Government Signals MDR Flexibility (L2 — Payments) The Finance Ministry has signalled that subsidies alone cannot sustain UPI’s next growth phase as the system enters its tenth year of operations. According to a detailed analysis in UPSC daily current affairs, UPI ecosystem costs are estimated around ₹20,000 crore annually, while existing government subsidies do not fully cover technology, infrastructure, and compliance expenses. ...

DPI Brief — August 12, 2026 UPI Expands to Sri Lankan Ride-Hailing; BRICS Discusses CBDC Interoperability L2 — Payments: India’s payments infrastructure diplomacy continues to accelerate. NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) announced a partnership with Sri Lanka’s ride-hailing platform PickMe, enabling Indian tourists to pay for rides via UPI and receive a flat 20% discount per trip (capped at LKR 750). This is the latest in a series of UPI integrations across Sri Lanka, which has seen international UPI transactions surge from 180 in 2022 to over 7.5 lakh in 2025 — a 20-fold increase. With India remaining Sri Lanka’s largest tourism source market (5.31 lakh Indian visitors in 2025), the integration targets everyday consumer use cases rather than just merchant payments. UPI for Indian Travelers @ Lanka With PickMe Rides — FinTech Biz News ...

DPI Brief — August 11, 2026 Parliament Clears Path for UPI Merchant Fees, Ending Zero-MDR Era The Lok Sabha passed the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 on August 6, creating the legal groundwork for reintroducing Merchant Discount Rates (MDR) on UPI transactions. The amendment authorises the government to permit banks and service providers to levy charges on electronic payments, a power that had effectively been suspended since the zero-MDR mandate of January 2020. The government has clarified that person-to-person (P2P) payments will remain free for citizens; any MDR would apply only to merchant transactions, with reports suggesting rates of 0.25–0.30% for high-value transactions by large merchants. The actual structure—including thresholds and rate slabs—will be decided by the NPCI-headed UPI and Services Steering Committee once the bill receives Rajya Sabha approval. The move comes as UPI’s growth moderates: transaction volumes grew 23.5% year-on-year between April and July FY27, down from 33.5% in the same period last year, even as value growth held steady at ~20%. ...