When Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the BHIM UPI App during the “DigiDhanMela” inauguration on December 31, 2016, he urged citizens to adopt digital payments and turn India into a cashless economy.

On Tuesday, he recalled this decade-long journey, marking a major turning point in India’s payment landscape. Highlighting its massive scale, PM Modi posted on X that every Indian could feel proud of UPI’s success. He invited citizens to share how the platform changed their daily lives.

Digital payments have reshaped how citizens transact, positioning India as a global leader in digital finance. A platform that began modestly now forms the backbone of the nation’s financial system—achieving, as the Prime Minister noted in another post, “nearly a 13,000-fold rise in transaction value.”

During its inaugural month in August 2016, UPI processed around 90,000 transactions. By FY 2025–26, it handled 84 percent of all digital payments in India.

Simultaneously, the platform expanded its live network from 44 banks in FY 2016–17 to 703 banks in FY 2025–26, integrating public, private, small finance, and cooperative institutions.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) developed UPI, enabling real-time payments through apps like BHIM, PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm. The numbers tell a compelling story: UPI processed fewer than 2 crore transactions in its first year, but by 2026, that figure surged past 24,000 crore transactions worth nearly ₹314 lakh crore. The Prime Minister frequently cites these figures, pointing out that UPI now accounts for nearly half of all global real-time digital transactions.

In its June 2025 report, “Growing Retail Digital Payments: The Value of Interoperability,” the International Monetary Fund (IMF) named UPI the largest retail fast-payment system globally by volume. The IMF noted that high interoperability drives this rapid adoption, letting users freely select apps and banks for seamless transfers.

This recognition highlights India’s digital leadership and its shift toward a cashless economy. UPI has sparked a citizen-centric revolution, empowering shoppers, street vendors, farmers, and students to pay digitally with ease.

Beyond domestic borders, international partners accept UPI payments via QR codes to serve Indian tourists, expatriates, and cross-border businesses. Countries including Bhutan, Nepal, France, the UAE, Singapore, Cyprus, and Qatar currently process UPI transactions, while expansions continue across Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. This footprint project’s India’s ambition to export technology as a form of soft power.

UPI proves India can set global standards rather than simply follow them. The platform opens doors for stronger bilateral trade and expands the nation’s international influence.

Observing this success, institutions worldwide now seek to replicate UPI’s framework. The platform tells a dual story—one of immense numerical scale, and another of national pride and financial inclusion. Over the past decade, India proved its capability to innovate at scale and democratize technology.

As UPI enters its second decade, it serves not just as a payment tool, but as a symbol of India’s digital confidence and technological transformation.

A Gartner report released on Wednesday forecasts that the global market for securing AI will reach nearly $4.8 billion in 2027—a 68.7 percent jump over 2026.

By 2028, Gartner projects the market will hit nearly $7.7 billion.

“The urgent need for enterprises to secure AI systems, address emerging vulnerabilities, and strengthen defenses against sophisticated cyberthreats drives this surge,” said Shailendra Upadhyay, senior principal analyst at Gartner.

Growing vulnerabilities and supply-chain attacks involving third-party and open-source software in AI projects compound the issue. Upadhyay noted that without adequate security and visibility controls, enterprise AI initiatives face a high risk of failure.

By 2029, Gartner expects access control weaknesses and prompt injections to account for over half of successful cyberattacks on AI agents.

AI application security will remain the largest spending category in 2027, reaching almost $851 million, while AI usage control will follow at $749 million.

However, AI usage control will experience the fastest growth rate at 73 percent, with AI gateways following close behind at 70.9 percent.

“As defenses like AI runtime protection and dedicated gateways become more reliable, organizations will gain confidence in these tools and accelerate adoption,” said Upadhyay.

He noted that as businesses expand their AI initiatives, autonomous AI will introduce new vulnerabilities beyond the reach of traditional monitoring, driving further demand for specialized AI security solutions.

The report emphasizes that organizations must identify, monitor, and protect AI models from these unique threats—a requirement pushing companies toward advanced AI security tools.

To build a strong defense, businesses must combine existing security systems with specialized AI security tools.

Upadhyay explained that traditional tools treat AI applications like any other software, requiring vendors to make significant updates before these tools can address AI-specific threats.

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) released an official statement confirming it credited August pensions to 4,40,901 Kerala Zone pensioners for Onam.

EPFO typically disburses monthly pensions under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS), 1995, at the end of each month. However, special arrangements allowed EPFO to release funds on August 26, 2026, so pensioners and their families could meet financial needs and celebrate Onam without delay.

The organization routed the payments through its Centralized Pension Payment System (CPPS), transferring funds directly and seamlessly into beneficiaries’ bank accounts nationwide.

EPFO reaffirmed its commitment to delivering timely social security benefits while actively improving services through tech initiatives and citizen-centric reforms.

In a major milestone, EPFO completed the full-scale nationwide rollout of CPPS across all disbursing offices.

CPPS replaces the old decentralized system, where each Zonal or Regional EPFO office maintained separate agreements with just 3 to 4 local banks.

Under CPPS, pensioners can receive payments through any bank without visiting a branch for verification when pensions commence, receiving immediate credits upon release.

Furthermore, the new system eliminates the hassle of transferring Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) between offices if a pensioner moves or switches banks—providing immense relief to retirees returning to their hometowns.

IT industry apex body Nasscom said on Tuesday that the proposed increase in US visa fees should reflect the original purpose of the H-1B programme, which allows employers to access temporary skills that face shortages in the US.

Nasscom said it remains actively engaged with all key stakeholders on the issue.

The proposed $103,265 H-1B fee comes under a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulation that gives the public 30 days to submit comments.

The US administration says the fee would help recover immigration-system costs and encourage employers to hire and train American workers rather than rely on foreign labour.

Nasscom said the H-1B programme has long helped US employers address short-term skill shortages.

“It is also important to recognise that, over the past 5 years, the number of H-1B employees of Indian technology companies operating has reduced significantly, as companies have steadily expanded local hiring,” the industry body said.

The industry has also invested more than $1.1 billion in strengthening the US STEM pipeline. Nasscom said its members have worked with more than 130 universities and colleges across the US, reached 2.9 million students and upskilled more than 255,000 employees.

The Donald Trump administration has proposed an additional $103,265 fee for employers filing cap-subject H-1B petitions. The sharp increase could significantly raise the cost of hiring skilled foreign workers, including professionals from India.

DHS said the fee would apply to every cap-subject petition, including applications for workers who qualify under the advanced-degree exemption. Employers would pay the fee when they file the petition, in addition to all other applicable fees and payments.

DHS estimates that the fee could generate about $8.8 billion annually, based on an expected 85,000 cap-subject petitions each year.

The government would use the revenue to recover part of the costs of running the legal immigration system. DHS identified immigration benefit adjudication, fraud detection, national security screening, government-system modernisation and record collection among the expenses.

The US limits the annual H-1B allocation to 65,000 visas. An additional 20,000 places are available to foreign nationals who have earned a master’s degree or a higher qualification from a US institution.

India’s manufacturing sector recorded double-digit growth in 2025–26 and continues to gain momentum, emerging as one of the world’s fastest-growing manufacturing hubs, driven by government schemes and rising private investment, a new report said.

The Morocco-based publication Assahifa said structural reforms and flagship programmes such as Make in India, the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, PM Gati Shakti, the National Logistics Policy and improvements in ease of doing business have started to boost industrial output, investment and exports.

Global companies increasingly view India as a preferred production and sourcing destination because of its large domestic market, competitive workforce, policy stability and improving logistics ecosystem, the report said. Rising domestic demand and deeper integration into global value chains are also accelerating growth.

Flagship initiatives such as PM Gati Shakti, industrial corridor development, multimodal logistics parks, dedicated freight corridors, port modernisation and expanded highway networks continue to reduce logistics costs and improve supply-chain efficiency.

Meanwhile, reforms such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST), digital governance, labour-law rationalisation and faster regulatory approvals have increased India’s appeal as a global manufacturing destination.

India’s expanding network of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) could further accelerate manufacturing-led exports, the report said. Ongoing negotiations with the European Union and the United Kingdom could improve market access for Indian manufacturers and strengthen their integration into global production networks.

The report cited industry body ASSOCHAM, which said average annual manufacturing growth stood at 3.44 per cent between 2016 and 2019, below the global average of 4.39 per cent. Between 2022 and 2025, after the Covid-19 pandemic, India accelerated manufacturing growth to 4.15 per cent, while the global average slowed to 2.19 per cent.

The study compared India’s performance with China, where average manufacturing growth fell from 6.79 per cent before the pandemic to -0.07 per cent between 2022 and 2025, leaving China more than two percentage points below the global benchmark.

“This reversal highlights shifting global manufacturing dynamics and presents India with an unprecedented opportunity to capture a larger share of international production and investment,” the report said.

Before the pandemic, only China, Mexico and Russia recorded manufacturing growth above the global average.

The Covid-19 pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in highly concentrated production networks. As a result, global companies began diversifying their supply chains away from traditional hubs and increasingly chose India as a production destination.

“Multinational corporations have increasingly adopted strategies such as China+1, friendshoring, and nearshoring to diversify production across multiple countries and enhance supply chain resilience,” the publication said.

India’s key advantage lies in its ability to offer manufacturers both large-scale production capabilities and strong long-term market potential.

The United Forum of Bank Unions has called a nationwide strike on September 11 over delays in five-day banking, differences on the PLI scheme and pending pension-related demands.

The UFBU, an umbrella body representing nine bank employees’ and officers’ unions, also announced plans for a three-day nationwide strike from September 28, coinciding with the half-yearly bank closure.

The unions warned that they could launch an indefinite strike from October 26 if the government and bank management fail to address their demands.

The UFBU took these decisions at a meeting on Sunday, citing what it described as the government’s negative response to several key demands.

If the unions proceed with the strikes, banking services could face disruptions, particularly across public sector banks and in several parts of the country.

September 11 falls on a Friday and precedes two bank holidays. September 14 will also mark a holiday in some states for Ganesh Chaturthi.

Five-Day Banking

On five-day banking, the unions said the Indian Banks’ Association agreed to the proposal under the 12th Bipartite Settlement and 9th Joint Note signed on March 8, 2024.

Under the proposal, banks would extend daily working hours by 40 minutes from Monday to Friday. The IBA later recommended the proposal to the government, but the government has yet to implement it, despite more than two years passing, the UFBU said.

Opposition to PLI Scheme

The unions have also opposed the government’s performance-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for bank officers in Scale IV and above.

According to the UFBU, the scheme differs from the understanding reached with the IBA, which linked incentives to the overall performance of individual banks while maintaining uniformity across employee cadres.

Under the government scheme, officers in Scale IV and above could receive PLI equivalent to up to 365 days of basic pay based on individual performance. In comparison, workmen employees and officers up to Scale III could receive a maximum of 15 days’ basic pay plus dearness allowance.

Other Pending Demands

The unions have also raised several other issues, including:

• Pension updation
• A uniform dearness allowance formula for pensioners
• An option for NPS-covered employees to switch to the old pension scheme
• Other pending recruitment and employee-related demands

The UFBU has urged the government and bank management to resolve these issues before the proposed strikes escalate.

India’s monsoon situation has improved significantly in recent months, easing concerns about widespread disruption to Kharif crops. However, rainfall distribution remains a key factor to watch, according to a report.

Global brokerage Macquarie said the cumulative rainfall deficit narrowed sharply to 12.6 per cent as of August 19, from 35 per cent in June.

“The situation is recovering, albeit not fully recovered,” it said. The improvement has also supported Kharif sowing, which has recovered considerably after a weak start to the season.

As of August 14, total Kharif sowing stood 2 per cent below last year’s level, compared with a 21 per cent shortfall in late June, according to the brokerage.

Rice acreage remained 3.7 per cent below last year’s level, while maize acreage declined 4 per cent.

In contrast, farmers brought pulses, oilseeds, sugarcane and cotton acreage to within around 1 per cent of year-ago levels.

Macquarie said the remaining sowing weakness remains concentrated in a few crops rather than across the broader Kharif season.

Healthy reservoir levels are also providing a buffer against the rainfall deficit. Reservoirs in Maharashtra and Gujarat hold storage at or above their 10-year averages. Key agricultural states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab, also maintain storage levels at around 80-100 per cent of their respective averages.

However, Bihar and parts of southern India require close monitoring.

The improving monsoon, limited shortfall in overall sowing and adequate irrigation reserves have collectively reduced downside risks to Kharif output, the report said.

The development also offers a positive signal for inflation, as food-supply pressures and inflation risks have moderated from June levels.

India’s battery manufacturing sector has a strong global cost position but remains structurally dependent on imports. The country must rapidly expand cell manufacturing capacity to meet rising demand, according to a Wood Mackenzie report released on Thursday.

The report said India offers a 154 per cent cost advantage over Japan and a 9 per cent advantage over South Korea, making it the second-most competitive major manufacturing destination after China.

However, Wood Mackenzie expects locally manufactured cells to cost 25–40 per cent more than imported cells in the near term. Limited production scale, higher financing costs and an underdeveloped supplier ecosystem are driving the cost gap.

“Cell manufacturing is expected to develop progressively with imported inputs over the next two to five years, while full refining capabilities will take more than ten years to establish,” the report said.

India currently produces less than 1 per cent of the approximately 260 GWh of cell demand projected from competitive tenders in 2026, the report added.

This supply shortfall continues to leave India dependent on imports even as the government accelerates its battery manufacturing ambitions.

Companies have announced more than 226 GWh of cell manufacturing capacity for construction through 2035. However, execution delays, financial viability challenges and continued dependence on Chinese and Korean technology licensors could keep India 10 to 15 years away from building a globally competitive and self-sufficient cell manufacturing industry.

India had only 2 GWh of commissioned cell manufacturing capacity as of 2026, compared with China’s cumulative capacity of 2,695 GWh.

China controls between 85 per cent and 98 per cent of global capacity across major battery supply chain components, including cathodes, anodes, separators and electrolytes. Wood Mackenzie said India must fundamentally restructure its manufacturing ecosystem to close this gap.

“India’s battery storage ambitions are credible, but the gap between policy intent and operational capacity is wide,” said Ankita Chauhan, director at Wood Mackenzie.

Chauhan added that India’s near-term opportunity lies in downstream components such as containers, EMS and battery packs, where localising production is both technically feasible and commercially attractive.

US-based technology giant Google has announced a one-year free subscription to its ‘AI Plus‘ plan for eligible college students in India, giving them access to enhanced artificial intelligence tools and higher usage limits to support their learning.

In its latest blog post, Google said eligible students will receive access to Gemini Omni, twice the usage limits available to non-AI subscribers, 400 GB of storage and other features at no cost for one year.

Google is also offering students a discounted bundle that combines Google AI Pro and YouTube Premium, with savings of up to 70 per cent for those seeking ad-free music and video streaming.

Alongside the student plans, Google is introducing new and enhanced learning tools across Gemini and Google Search.

The company said students will also get access to a dedicated student hub that will help them organise their studies and get started with Gemini’s learning tools.

In addition, Google is introducing a new study notebook feature that provides personalised learning support through diagnostic quizzes. The quizzes identify students’ strengths and knowledge gaps before generating bite-sized study plans tailored to their individual learning goals.

Google is also expanding Gemini Live, allowing students to request and discuss Deep Research reports through voice-based conversations while on the move.

Google Search will also offer new features that allow students to generate interactive visuals to understand complex concepts, take practice quizzes across subjects, including standardised tests, and learn concepts step-by-step using Google Lens.

Additionally, students can organise academic projects using notebooks and create custom files to streamline their studies.

Google said it designed its education tools across Search, Gemini and YouTube with safety in mind. The company also said the tools draw on learning science to support personalised learning while keeping teachers in the lead.

The student offer is available in more than 140 markets where Google AI Plus operates, subject to certain exclusions. Eligible students in India can redeem the offer until December 31, 2026, subject to verification and applicable terms.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that new avenues are being created for Indian farmers and processed food manufacturers to expand presence in the Singapore market and further to the whole ASEAN region and Australian market.

Goyal met Gan Siow Huang, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Trade and Industry, Singapore, and other dignitaries at the APEDA-FairPrice roadshow-cum-instore promotion being organised for expansion of exports of diverse range of India’s agricultural & processed food products.

“Organic products, fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen fruits and vegetables, dairy products, cashew, rice, millet-based products, and products sourced from different regions of India are being promoted through this engagement,” the minister posted on X.

He also held a meeting with Sopnendu Mohanty, Group CEO, Global Finance and Technology Network, a global advisory and investment firm based in Singapore.

They discussed opportunities to deepen India-Singapore cooperation in financial innovation, technology, and emerging areas of the digital economy.

“We also exchanged views on how India’s dynamic financial ecosystem and Singapore’s global financial and technology network offer significant opportunities for greater collaboration,” said Goyal.

The minister also met Cindy Lim, CEO of Keppel Infrastructure, in Singapore.

“We discussed opportunities for greater collaboration in infrastructure and sustainable development, building on the strong economic partnership between India and Singapore. India remains committed to enabling investments and partnerships that support resilient infrastructure and sustainable growth,” Goyal highlighted.

Goyal earlier joined Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Jitin Prasada, in engaging “with our Singaporean counterparts at the 4th India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable”.

“We discussed deepening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) across advanced manufacturing, fintech, digitalisation, healthcare, and sustainability,” the Commerce Minister informed.