Jyotiraditya Scindia unveils UPI-UPU integration

• Union Minister for Communication Jyotiraditya M. Scindia unveiled the UPI-UPU Integration project at the 28th Universal Postal Congress in Dubai on September 9.

• Developed by the Department of Posts (DoP), NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), and the Universal Postal Union (UPU), it integrates India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with the UPU Interconnection Platform (IP), combining the reach of the postal network with the speed and affordability of UPI.

• The UPU is the UN specialised agency responsible for coordinating and developing international postal services.

• It is a landmark initiative aimed at transforming cross-border remittances for millions worldwide.

• The reliability of the postal network combined with the speed of UPI means families across borders can send money faster, safer and at much lower cost. 

• It reaffirms that public infrastructure built for citizens can be linked across borders to serve humanity better.

Universal Postal Union

• The Universal Postal Union (UPU), with its headquarters in the Swiss capital Bern, is one of the oldest international organisations.

• It was established in 1874.

• India became a member of the Universal Postal Union in 1876.

• With its 192 member countries, the UPU is the primary forum for cooperation between postal sector players. It helps to ensure a truly universal network of up-to-date products and services.

• It coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system.

• The UPU became a specialised agency of the United Nations on July 1, 1948. The UPU contributes to the development of UN policies and activities that have a direct link with its mandate and missions to promote social and economic development.

• The organisation fulfils an advisory, mediating and liaison role, and provides technical assistance where needed. 

• It sets the rules for international mail exchanges and makes recommendations to stimulate growth in mail, parcel and financial services volumes and improve quality of service for customers.

• Any member country of the United Nations may become a member of the UPU.

• Any non-member country of the United Nations may become a UPU member provided that its request is approved by at least two-thirds of the member countries of the UPU. 

The UPU consists of four bodies

i) The Congress: Congress is the supreme authority of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and meets every four years.

ii) The Council of Administration: The Council ensures the continuity of the UPU’s work between Congresses, supervises its activities and studies regulatory, administrative, legislative and legal issues.

iii) The Postal Operations Council: It is the technical and operational mind of the UPU and consists of 48 member countries, elected during Congress.

iv) The International Bureau: Fulfilling a secretariat function, the International Bureau provides logistical and technical support to the UPU’s bodies.

What is Unified Payments Interface (UPI)?

• Before 2016, India used a number of different systems to transfer money between banks. The traditional forms included National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) and Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS). With the plethora of systems, rules and growing paper burden, there was a need for a unified system that could automate and standardise India’s payment platforms.

• In 2016, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) set out with a mandate to change the face of India’s payment systems. It developed the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as an architecture framework with a set of standard Application Programming Interface (API) specifications to facilitate online payments. 

• UPI is an instant payments platform built over the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) infrastructure, India’s pre-existing real-time interbank electronic fund transfer service.

• The aim was to simplify and provide a single interface across all NPCI systems, thereby creating interoperability and a superior customer experience.

• The pilot programme, with 21 member banks, was launched on April 11, 2016.

• The UPI is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features, seamless fund routing and merchant payments into one hood. 

• It also caters to the “peer to peer” collect request which can be scheduled and paid as per requirement and convenience. 

• It facilitates immediate money transfer through mobile devices round the clock.

• A user seeking to make a payment can open an app and use that to make a transfer to a user of a different payments app. The NPCI, which runs UPI, sits in the middle and ensures that the payer’s and payee’s banks debit and credit the amount accordingly.

Growth of UPI

• UPI has transformed the digital payments landscape in India. 

• The UPI ecosystem has grown steadily, reaching more than 600 banks and more than 200 apps. 

• UPI now processes more than 18 billion transactions per month and dominates other electronic retail payments in India.

• In June 2025, UPI handled over Rs 24.03 lakh crore in payments. This was spread across 18.39 billion transactions. 

• Compared to the same month last year, when there were 13.88 billion transactions. There is an increase of about 32 per cent in just one year.

• The UPI system now serves 491 million individuals and 65 million merchants. 

• The UPI is also now the world’s number one real-time payment system. It has surpassed Visa to take the lead in processing daily transactions. UPI handles more than 640 million transactions every day, compared to Visa’s 639 million.