"India Is Global Powerhouse Of Digital Financial Transactions": PM Modi

India today accounts for around 50 per cent of all digital monetary transactions - including those via UPI, or unified payments interface, applications - in the world, and dominates this space, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday night at the NDTV World Summit 2025.

The positive comments about digital transactions echoed remarks in a July report by the International Monetary Fund that called India the 'global leader in fast payments, an accolade analysts credited to the rapid introduction and dissemination of UPI during the pandemic.

There is, of course, a difference between digital payments and UPI. Simply put, all UPI payments are digital transactions, but not all digital transactions are executed via UPIs.

Digital transactions refer to all forms of internet-enabled financial transactions, including UPIs, digital wallets, net banking, and banking via mobile apps. Within this space UPIs have emerged as the go-to choice, thanks ease of use, zero transaction fees, and real-time processing.

Estimates suggest there were over 19 billion UPI transactions - with a total transaction value of around Rs 24.90 lakh crore - worldwide in September 2025 alone. And in June, UPIs recorded a 32 per cent year-on-year transaction growth, further cementing its role in India's shift to a digital-first economy.

READ | India's UPI Revolution Powers 50% Of World's Digital Payments

In fact, UPI payments have now overtaken Visa in daily global transactions, handling 640 million transactions daily. And much of that is built on India's UPI model, which sets the standard for real-time digital payments, blending technology, accessibility, and trust to revolutionise the way money is moved.

READ | How India's UPI Is Revolutionising Global Digital Payments, Explained Simply

Hailing the India growth story as one that had overcome many challenges, including the pandemic and misgovernance by the Congress-led UPA administrations that preceded his, he said India, over the past decade, had risen to become one of the world's largest economies.

The PM pointed to a raft of economic and financial developments to back his statement, including global ratings agency Standard & Poor upgrading India's credit ratings in August.

S&P bumped the country from BBB from BBB- with a stable outlook - a first upgrade in 17 years - and placed India among the world's best-performing economies, praising it for averaging 8.8 per cent real GDP growth from FY22 to FY24, despite monetary uncertainty in a post-Covid world and significant geopolitical challenges arising from conflicts in Ukraine and West Asia.

Similarly, the International Monetary Fund this week submitted an upward revision of India's GDP growth forecast for 2025/26, from 6.4 per cent to 6.6 per cent, the PM said.

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