UPI services down across India, users face third outage in 20 days
PTC Web Desk: Unified Payments Interface (UPI) services in India remained interrupted on Saturday, leaving users struggling to complete transactions. This marks the third outage in the past 20 days.
According to outage-tracking platform Downdetector, around 72% of affected users reported issues while making payments. Another 27% faced problems with fund transfers, and nearly 1% encountered disruptions while making purchases. The most significant disruption occurred between 11.30 am and 12. 30 pm. Notably, UPI services were also down for nearly two and a half hours on March 26 and again on April 2.
During those incidents, users were unable to send money using platforms like Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm. In addition, over 10 banks experienced interruptions in both UPI and net banking services, with several users also unable to log in to their banking apps or websites.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which operates the UPI system, earlier acknowledged the issue and said, "Users faced temporary technical difficulties which led to partial disruptions in UPI services. These issues have now been resolved and the system is stable."
For context, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) manages RTGS and NEFT systems, while NPCI oversees IMPS, RuPay, and UPI networks. Since January 1, 2020, the Central Government has enforced a zero-charge framework for UPI transactions, ensuring users do not pay any fees for peer-to-peer payments.
How UPI works
To use UPI, users must first create a Virtual Payment Address (VPA) and link it to their bank account. Once set up, users do not need to remember details like account numbers, bank names, or IFSC codes. Payments can be initiated simply using the recipient’s mobile number or UPI ID, which could be an email ID, mobile number, or Aadhaar number.
UPI enables not just money transfers but also utility bill payments, online shopping, and merchant transactions—all through a unified, real-time interface accessible on smartphones.
- With inputs from agencies
