NPCI to set up 5,000-person R&D centre, establish global headquarters in Mumbai

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which operates the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), is setting up a 5,000-person-capacity research and development (R&D) centre as part of its global growth strategy, according to CEO Dilip Asbe.

“We are building about 5,000-people-capacity R&D and experience centre… Around 70 countries have visited the NPCI office in the last 4-5 years,” Asbe said at a Mumbai Tech Week event on Friday.

Additionally, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has allocated a plot in the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) for NPCI’s new global headquarters.


Over the years, NPCI has been working through its subsidiary, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), to expand UPI’s reach to international markets.

Currently, UPI is operational in seven countries: Bhutan, France, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Last September, NIPL entered into a strategic partnership with Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Digital Transformation to develop UPI-like realtime payments for that country.

As per earlier reports, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and NIPL aim to extend UPI services to 20 countries by FY29.

In January, UPI processed 16.9 billion transactions, which together amounted to a transaction value of Rs 23.48 lakh crore.