As UPI approaches its ten-year milestone, Artha Global hosted a closed-door discussion bringing together participants from across banks, technology platforms, and the broader payments ecosystem to reflect on how India’s digital payments infrastructure is shaping everyday financial life. The conversation drew on findings from the DPI Academy’s recent report, Understanding UPI: Insights from the Ground, presented by lead author Nikita Kwatra, Principal at Artha Global, along with reflections from Dr. Nirupama Kulkarni (CAFRAL).
The discussion explored how UPI has become deeply embedded in daily transactions across geographies and occupations, while also reshaping merchant financial behaviour through clearer digital transaction trails. At the same time, the fieldwork highlighted emerging challenges around scam-related vulnerabilities, grievance redressal, and the broader implications of scaling a zero-cost payments system.
Three themes animated the conversation: the sustainability of a zero-cost public payments system, the promise and limitations of UPI transaction data in supporting credit access, and what the continued coexistence of cash and digital payments means for inclusion and system design. The discussion underscored a shared view that UPI’s next phase will be shaped as much by institutional and policy choices as by technology itself.
