An RBI statement released on Thursday stated that the Digital Payments Index (DPI) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) increased from 493.22 in March 2025 to 516.76 as of September 2025.

The apex bank stated that the notable expansion in criteria like payment performance and payment enablers nationwide over the period was the primary driver of the RBI-DPI’s rise.

Since January 1, 2021, the RBI has been releasing a composite RBI-DPI, using March 2018 as the basis month to gauge the level of payment digitization nationwide.

The base period ending in March 2018 received a score of 100. After a year, in March 2019, the index increased to 153.47. Since 2021, the index has been released every six months, and it has been rapidly increasing over time.

Significant increases in the country’s payment performance and payment enablers over the period were the main drivers of the RBI-DPI index’s rise. On July 28, 2025, the most recent index was released.

The DPI is made up of five key metrics that track how widely and deeply digital payments have become used in the nation over time.

Among these metrics are payment enablers, which have a weight of 25%; payment infrastructure, which includes supply-side and demand-side elements (10%); payment performance, which has the largest weight (45%); and consumer centricity, which has a weight of 5%. Every parameter has sub-parameters, which are made up of different quantifiable indications.

The country’s adoption of digital payments has increased significantly thanks in large part to UPI. According to transaction volume, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is the biggest retail fast-payment system globally, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF’s June 2025 paper on “Growing Retail Digital Payments (The Value of Interoperability)” made this point clear.

Furthermore, UPI leads the world in real-time payment systems with a 49 percent market share and a transaction volume of 129.3 billion, according to the ACI Worldwide research on “Prime Time for Real-Time” 2024.

With a market share of 14% and a transaction volume of 37.4%, Brazil is ranked second. Thailand comes in third with a market share of 8% and a transaction volume of 20.4 billion. With a 6% market share and a 17.2 billion transaction volume, China comes in fourth place.