Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Digital Payments Index (DPI) rose to 516.76 as of September 2025, up from 493.22 in March 2025, according to an RBI statement issued on Thursday.
Growth Driven by Payment Performance, Enablers
The RBI said the rise in the index was mainly driven by strong growth in payment performance and payment enablers across the country during the period.
The central bank has been publishing the composite RBI-DPI since January 1, 2021, using March 2018 as the base period to measure the level of digital payment adoption across India. The base period was assigned a score of 100.
The index has shown a steady and sharp rise over the years — climbing to 153.47 in March 2019 — and has since been released every six months. The previous index reading was announced on July 28, 2025.
Five Key Parameters Behind the Index
The DPI tracks the deepening and penetration of digital payments using five broad parameters. These include:
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Payment enablers (25% weightage)
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Payment infrastructure — demand-side factors (10%)
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Payment infrastructure — supply-side factors (10%)
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Payment performance (45%), which carries the highest weight
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Consumer centricity (5%)
Each of these parameters is further divided into sub-parameters and measurable indicators to assess the progress of digital payments in detail.
UPI’s Major Role in Digital Push
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has been a key contributor to the surge in digital payments. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recognised UPI as the world’s largest retail fast-payment system by transaction volume in its June 2025 report titled ‘Growing Retail Digital Payments (The Value of Interoperability)’.
According to the ACI Worldwide report ‘Prime Time for Real-Time’ 2024, UPI leads globally with a 49 per cent share in real-time payment systems and a transaction volume of 129.3 billion.
Brazil ranks second with a 14 per cent market share and 37.4 billion transactions, followed by Thailand in third place with an 8 per cent share and 20.4 billion transactions. China stands fourth with a 6 per cent share and a transaction volume of 17.2 billion.