India’s digital payment system saw a big rise during the financial year 2024-25, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Annual Report released on Thursday. The total number of digital payments went up by 34.8% in volume and 17.9% in value compared to the previous year.

India tops the world in real-time payments

The report highlighted that India is now a global leader in real-time payments, thanks to the success of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). As the RBI put it, the UPI placed India "in a leadership position with a share of 48.5 per cent in global real-time payments by volume."

UPI continued to be the most popular way for people in India to make payments digitally. It accounted for a huge 84% of all retail digital payment volumes. In total, UPI processed Rs 11,761.4 crore transactions in 2024-25. This was a 59.2% increase in the number of transactions from the year before.

The total value of these transactions stood at Rs 180.24 lakh crore, which marks a 44.8% rise from last year.

More and more people are choosing digital methods over cash. The RBI report noted that digital payments made up 99.9% of all non-cash retail payments in FY25. This was a small but notable increase from 99.8% in FY24, showing how digital methods have become the norm for most people.

The report also shared that India’s central bank digital currency, the E-rupee, saw a big rise in circulation. Its total value grew by 334% year-on-year, reaching Rs 1,016 crore in 2024-25.

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