Why in News
The Ministry of Communications set out India’s digital finance record at the Global Fintech Festival 2026 in Mumbai.
Core facts
- Guiding frame: Finance must become inclusive before it becomes intelligent. Connectivity, compute and trust are named the new digital trinity.
- Internet access: It expanded from 25 crore users to 100 crore users over a decade.
- Broadband access: It grew from 6 crore to 103 crore, a 16 fold rise in ten years. About 6.5 lakh villages now join the digital economy.
- 5G rollout: The fifth generation (5G) network covers 99.9% of districts and 85% of the population within 26 months of its 2022 launch. It runs on over 5 lakh base stations with ₹4.5 lakh crore capital expenditure.
- Data price: Data costs about 10 cents per gigabyte. India is stated as the world’s most affordable data market.
- Unified Payments Interface (UPI): UPI is a real time retail payment system linking bank accounts for instant transfers. It processed 24,162 crore transactions worth ₹314 lakh crore in the 2025 to 2026 financial year. It forms 84% of domestic digital transactions and 49% of global real time payment volumes.
- UPI abroad: It is live in nine countries at no cost. Expansion to 20 more nations is planned.
- Financial inclusion base: 60 crore Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) accounts are open. 9 billion documents sit on DigiLocker, the government’s digital document wallet.
- Rural coverage: Under Digital Bharat Nidhi, 22,000 towers are being placed across 34,000 villages without telecom links.
- Fraud tools: Sanchar Saathi blocks suspicious connections and stolen devices. ASTR, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool, cut 88 lakh suspicious mobile connections. The Financial Fraud Risk Indicator blocks fraudulent transfers before withdrawal.
- Stated vision: A Trust Grid would integrate telecom, digital identity, UPI and financial systems. The 6G mission targets 10% of global patents.
Static Context
- UPI is operated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). NPCI is an umbrella body for retail payments set up in 2008 under the guidance of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Indian Banks’ Association.
- Digital Bharat Nidhi is the successor to the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). It was renamed under the Telecommunications Act, 2023. It funds telecom access in commercially unviable rural and remote areas.
- PMJDY launched in 2014 as the national financial inclusion mission. It provides basic savings accounts, RuPay cards and overdraft access.
- DigiLocker operates under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. It issues and stores verified documents linked to Aadhaar.
Prelims angle
UPI versus Central Bank Digital Currency (Digital Rupee) distinctions; the operator of UPI is NPCI, not RBI; Digital Bharat Nidhi sits under the Telecommunications Act, 2023 and replaces the USOF; PMJDY launch year 2014; Sanchar Saathi as the fraud reporting platform.
Mains angle
GS Paper 3, Indian economy and inclusive growth. The digital public infrastructure stack can frame a question on how far technology driven financial inclusion closes welfare and credit gaps.
Matching Previous Year Question
“[2026] Which one of the following statements about Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Central Bank Digital Currency (Digital Rupee) is NOT correct?
(a) UPI is a real-time payment system but Digital Rupee is akin to sovereign paper currency
(b) In case of UPI, settlement for end users happens instantly; in case of Digital Rupee, wallet balance gets transferred to another wallet (no traditional settlement)
(c) UPI transactions are recorded by banks and reflected in bank statements; in case of Digital Rupee, no data is captured in bank statements
(d) In both the cases (UPI and Digital Rupee), the liability lies with the users and their respective banks
Answer: (d)”
“[2023, GS3, 10 marks] What is the status of digitalization in the Indian economy? Examine the problems faced in this regard and suggest improvements.”
