THE NEW SWIFT CODE

A fast, accessible, easy-to-use mode of payment, UPI has eliminated all the woes associated with cash and democratised payments in the country

- M.G. ARUN

THE DRUDGERY

Yeh phata hua note nahin chalega (This torn note won't work)." How many times did a transaction come undone courtesy that one statement, even as you thought the shopkeeper hadn't noticed it in the sheaf of cash you shoved his way. Or, just when you had taken out friends to a restaurant, you found you had run short of cash, as had the nearest ATM. And were you among those who had saved some Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes for a rainy day, only to find them demonetised in 2016? Or those stuck at home during Covid-19, and discovering the virtue of online payment? If digital payments had a share of 14-19 per cent in March 2021, they more than doubled to 40-48 per cent by March 2024. And comprising 70 per cent of those payments today is the United Payments Interface, or UPI.

HOW IT TRANSFORMED MY LIFE

"Who wants to keep cash any more?"

SANJIVANI JADHAV, 48

Poynad village, Alibaug, Maharashtra