Around 40% Indians use digital formats like UPI for money transfer: Nandan Nilekani

India's Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and Aadhaar-enabled payment system has brought in a "dramatic shift" in consumer behaviour and consumer usage as around 400 million people tap into these digital technologies, said Nandan Nilekani, chairman of Infosys and founding chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

“Around 400 million people are using digital mode to withdraw money from their accounts. Roughly around 40-45% Indians are using digital format. It was zero percent 10 years ago. It is a dramatic shift in consumer behaviour and consumer usage which has become very powerful,’’ said Nilekani while delivering the keynote address at The India Advantage Summit 2022 in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

Roughly 260 million people are using the UPI and another 150 million people use the Aadhaar-enabled payment system to withdraw money from their bank accounts, he added.


He also added that Indians and small businesses can use digital footprints on their salary and spending, and transactions to avail credit. "One billion people in the country can use their data and 20 million businesses can use their own data. The ability of people to use their own data is called data empowerment...historically, collateral for loans have been physical assets," Nilekani said.

This comes as iSPIRT (Indian Software Products Industry Round Table, a think tank for the Indian software products industry) -- the builders of UPI -- are working on Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) to democratise lending through a consumer-facing app like UPI for payments. The OCEN protocol provides a standardized set of APIs so that applications that already interface with individuals and MSMEs can effectively ‘plug-in’ lending capabilities into their current product offerings.