SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth | SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure | SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
Department of Financial Services (DFS) | Ministry of Finance | National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)
The Socio-Economic Impact Analysis report notes that the Government of India’s incentive scheme for RuPay and BHIM-UPI has transformed India into a global leader in real-time payments, with UPI holding a 49% global market share. Launched in FY 2021-22, the scheme utilizes a structured incentive framework to drive the "P2M" Transaction Model, successfully removing cost barriers for merchants and banks. By FY 2024-25, UPI accounted for approximately 80% of total digital transactions, contributing $16.2 billion to India’s GDP in 2022 alone. While adoption is led by younger users (18–25 years), the scheme has spurred significant growth in the North-East region and among micro-merchants. To achieve universal adoption, the report recommends scaling UPI Lite for low-bandwidth zones and deploying AI-driven fraud detection to enhance user trust.
Key Pillars of India’s Digital Payment Transformation
Incentivized Formalization: Removing financial barriers for merchants and banks to accelerate the transition from a cash-heavy to a digitally-recorded economy.
Global Market Leadership: Positioning UPI as a foundational layer of economic activity, contributing to half of the world’s instant payment transactions.
Stakeholder Value Creation: Providing users with convenience and security while enabling merchants—especially smaller vendors—to improve record-keeping and reduce cash dependency.
Infrastructure Scaling: Driving a massive expansion of UPI QR codes and PoS terminals, even as traditional ATM growth remains flat.
Technological Diversification: Scaling high-tech features like AutoPay, 123Pay, and UPI Lite to ensure the ecosystem remains inclusive for feature-phone and low-connectivity users.
What is the “P2M” Transaction Model? P2M stands for “Person-to-Merchant” transactions, where a customer pays a business or vendor for goods or services. Unlike P2P (Person-to-Person) transfers between individuals, P2M transactions are a critical indicator of economic formalization. By incentivizing low-value P2M transactions (under ₹2,000) through RuPay and BHIM-UPI, the government ensures that micro-merchants—like street vendors and small shopkeepers—can accept digital payments without incurring prohibitive Merchant Category Code (MCC) costs. This builds a digital audit trail that helps these small businesses eventually qualify for formal credit and insurance products.
Policy Relevance
India’s digital payment success represents a transition from “Financial Accessibility” to “Digital Prosperity,” where UPI serves as the central nervous system for India’s ₹3.85 lakh crore annual creative and informal economies.
Strategic Impact:
Formalizing the 85% Informal Workforce: By enabling micro-merchants to build a transaction history, UPI helps bridge the credit gap for the informal sector, aligning with the Viksit Bharat 2047 goal of inclusive growth.
Digital Literacy for 60 Crore Citizens: Scaling UPI Lite and 123Pay through Gram Panchayat workshops ensures that the benefits of digital finance reach the 27 crore people recently lifted above the poverty line.
Aligning with AI Safety: The recommendation for AI-driven fraud detection mirrors the India AI Governance Guidelines, ensuring that the payment ecosystem remains “Safe and Sustainable” for vulnerable rural populations.
Boosting $300 Billion E-Commerce Exports: Improving the international acceptance of RuPay and UPI is essential for reducing the 10-18% cost disadvantage faced by Indian exporters in global markets.
Follow the full report here: NPCI: Socio-Economic Impact of RuPay and UPI Incentives