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Stream/Area:
-
Subject:
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Paper ID:
IJSREM64372
Volume:
10 |
5 |
May 2026
Pages:
1-10
Publication Frequency:
Monthly (12 issues per year)
License:International Journal of Scientific Research in Engineering and Management follows the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) License, allowing free use and distribution with proper attribution.
Management of Business Administration
K.G Reddy College of Engineering & Technology
Management of Business Administration
K.G Reddy College of Engineering & Technology
UPI – India’s Unified Payment Interface has been revolutionary, it can rightly be termed as a disruptive technology. India has been undergoing a digital payments revolution and the UPI Interface has been instrumental in the process. The paper attempts to provide a critical analysis of India’s UPI Interface right from it’s inception to date. Discussing its advantages, disadvantages and impact on financial inclusion and macroeconomic parameters by analyzing secondary data gathered from journals, white papers and insights from the transaction volumes that the UPI platform has seen over time. India’s Unified Payments Interface, popularly known as UPI, has reduced the cost of transactions, made them interoperable and made instant payments possible to the farthest corners of the country reaching all demographics. It has enabled millions of Indians to transact digitally and also avail themselves of formal financial services. By critically analyzing UPI’s adoption & performance we hope to see if UPI has been successful in aiding financial inclusion. We also try to study the impact of UPI on India’s shift to a less-cash economy. Do low cost digital payments have a deflationary impact on the economy? This paper tries to analyze UPI’s impact on consumer protection, how it has reduced friction in day to day economic activities we undertake and some recent disadvantages like cybersecurity threats, scalability issues, digital literacy and centralization of power.
KEYWORDS
In conclusion, this research project was able to determine that the Unified Payments Interface has been a significant development in revolutionizing financial transactions in India. With over 185 billion transactions and ₹260 lakh crore processed in fiscal year 2024–25 alone, UPI has seen explosive growth since its inception in 2016. The motivation for this innovation was attributed to technological advancements, along with government initiatives and behavioral shifts towards cashless payments. UPI has managed to capture the majority of the market share with over 84% of total retail transaction volume. Two major takeaways from this project are as follows. Firstly, UPI has allowed millions of people access to digital payments. As of May 2024, the average transaction value for UPI hits ₹1461, highlighting its predominance in lowervalue payments. Second, behaviorally how UPI is being used has shifted. What was initially designed to operate as a person-to-person payments system is now being used as a primary method of retail payment. Areas of improvement can be seen in cybersecurity, regional adoption, and overstressing of the network by the big four(UPI-KYC (Know Your Customer) Enabled Accounts , 2024). Cybersecurity measures will have to be improved to ensure trust in the system. Continued efforts to increase rural adoption of digital payments will have to be addressed. Finally, regulations will need to made to prevent monopolistic practices as the largest UPI-enabled apps are responsible for 95% of all transactions.
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Publication Date
6/2/2026
Peer Review Type
Double-Blind Peer Review
Review Rounds: 2
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