As UPI turns 10, it is a timely moment to reflect on how it has driven a deep behavioural shift in how routine payment activity is conducted across the country. UPI now processes nearly 700 million transactions per day, but scale alone does not tell the full story. User experience is the real litmus test for good governance.

In a long-form piece for Mint, Nikita Kwatra, Khushi Baldota and Anushri Pundit highlight findings from their study, ‘Understanding UPI: Insights from the Ground’, which captures what users and micro-merchants across Maharashtra and Bihar are actually experiencing, and what those experiences signal for UPI’s next decade.

They draw attention to how, despite UPI’s reach, cash continues to play an important and context-dependent role, reminding us that digital progress does not automatically mean digital exclusivity. However, as more people rely on the system, their trust hinges not only on speed but also on whether issues are resolved transparently and reliably, which raises the question of how to introduce calibrated frictions that balance ease of use with safety, especially for first-time digital users. This also surfaces a deeper challenge: sustaining a system of this scale requires continuous investment in security, infrastructure, and consumer protection. But who pays for this in a public-good architecture, and how do we ensure that incentives remain aligned with inclusion?

Together, these themes raise critical questions about how to build a resilient, inclusive digital payments ecosystem that can support India’s diverse users now and in the future. As UPI enters its next decade, its unrealised potential lies not just in onboarding the next set of users, but in the quality of the experience we are inviting them into.

Read the full article here.