UPI Handles Nearly 80 Crore Transactions Daily, Says Nirmala Sitharaman in Odisha
Jatni, Oct 26: India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is processing nearly 80 crore transactions every day and more than 2,400 crore transactions a month, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during a visit to Odisha on Sunday, highlighting the country’s rapid progress in digital payments.
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Sitharaman made the remarks while inaugurating the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) new Data Centre and Cyber Security Training Institute at Jatni in Khordha district. She said UPI transactions had increased approximately 13,000 times since 2016-17, reflecting the growing adoption of digital payment services across the country.
UPI Driving India’s Digital Payment Growth
The Finance Minister described UPI as the world’s largest real-time payment system, pointing to its expanding role in India’s digital economy.
She also highlighted the wider growth of the country’s fintech ecosystem, which is helping extend financial services such as credit, insurance and investment opportunities to people accessing these services for the first time.
The expansion of digital payments, she said, underscores the importance of building secure and reliable infrastructure to support India’s increasingly digital financial system.
Data Centres Key to Digital Infrastructure
Describing data centres as the “vaults of the digital age,” Sitharaman noted that the government granted infrastructure status to data centres in 2022.
She also referred to the tax holiday announced in the Union Budget 2026-27 for foreign companies providing global cloud services through data centres located in India.
The measures reflect the growing importance of data storage, cloud computing and digital infrastructure as India’s technology-driven services continue to expand.
New RBI Facility to Support Critical Payment Systems
The newly inaugurated RBI Data Centre will house mission-critical payment systems, including Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT).
The accompanying Cyber Security Training Institute, which includes a dedicated research wing, will focus on building expertise in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and data centre technologies.
The facilities are expected to strengthen the technological foundation supporting India’s banking and payment networks, with an emphasis on security, resilience and reliability.
Focus on Secure and Reliable Digital Finance
As digital transactions continue to grow, the need to protect payment systems and financial data remains a key priority.
Sitharaman’s remarks at Jatni highlighted both the scale of India’s digital payments expansion and the importance of investing in infrastructure and specialised cybersecurity skills to support the next phase of digital finance.