Published Paper Details:

Although UPI was launched in August 2016, long before demonetization, it could not touch the number of clients like mobile wallets did at the time of demonetization. Unified Payment Interface is a payment system launched by NPCI, the umbrella organization for all retail payments in the country. It is a fast payment method that facilitates the instant transfer of funds between two bank accounts on a mobile platform without requiring any information about the beneficiary's bank account, except a VPA. The government also launched Aadhar Merchant Pay, targeting the 350 million people who don't have access to phones. At AMP, payment can be made using only a biometric ID which only requires Aadhar and a bank account. According to RBI survey data, in December 2016, RuPay and other wallets accounted for 95 billion transactions and UPI only 7 billion compared to 314 billion for debit cards (excluding RuPay and ATMs) and 270 billion for credit cards. Clearly, UPI's absorption was much lower at the time, but has increased over time.