Digital payments in India have reached a scale unmatched anywhere else in the world, placing the country at the top of the global real time payments ecosystem.
According to a June 2025 report by the International Monetary Fund titled “Growing Retail Digital Payments (The Value of Interoperability),” India’s Unified Payments Interface has been recognised as the world’s largest retail fast payment system by transaction volume. Data shared through a government information platform also confirms this leadership position.
A separate global report by ACI Worldwide titled “Prime Time for Real Time” 2024 shows that UPI now accounts for nearly 49 percent of total real time payment transactions worldwide. This makes India the clear leader in the global race for instant digital payments.
India recorded 129.3 billion real time transactions, giving it a commanding 49 percent share. Brazil followed in second place with 37.4 billion transactions and a 14 percent share. Thailand ranked third with 20.4 billion transactions at 8 percent. China stood fourth with 17.2 billion transactions at 6 percent, while South Korea recorded 9.1 billion transactions with a 3 percent share. All other countries combined accounted for 52.8 billion transactions or 20 percent of the total global volume of 266.2 billion transactions.
The Government of India along with the Reserve Bank of India and the National Payments Corporation of India is actively working to deepen the reach of UPI and RuPay across public services, transport systems and e commerce platforms. The aim is to ensure that digital payments reach every section of society and all categories of businesses.
To drive adoption among small merchants, several initiatives have been introduced. These include “scheme for promotion of low value BHIM UPI transactions, and the Payments Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), which provides grant support to the banks and fintechs for deployment of digital payment infrastructure (such as POS Terminals and QR codes) in tier 3 to 6 centres.”
By October 31 2025, around 5.45 crore digital touchpoints had been installed across these regions under PIDF. By the financial year 2024 25, nearly 56.86 crore QR codes were deployed to about 6.5 crore merchants nationwide.
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