DPI

What is CBDC / Digital Rupee (e₹)? Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is the digital form of sovereign currency issued directly by a country’s central bank. India’s CBDC, called the Digital Rupee (e₹) or e-rupee, is a tokenised digital version of the Indian rupee issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Unlike digital payments through UPI or NEFT — which transfer funds between bank accounts — the e₹ is a direct liability of the central bank itself, functioning as legal tender at par with physical cash12. ...

Fintech Brief — June 03, 2026 India-Cambodia Launch Cross-Border QR Payments via UPI India’s UPI has added another international corridor. On June 2, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) and Cambodia’s ACLEDA Bank officially launched Phase 1 of the India-Cambodia cross-border QR code payment linkage at a ceremony in Phnom Penh, presided over by Cambodia’s central bank governor and an RBI representative. In this first phase, Indian travellers can scan Cambodia’s KHQR codes to make payments directly from their UPI-enabled apps. This builds on NIPL’s expanding international footprint — UPI linkages are already live with Sri Lanka, Nepal, UAE, Singapore, Mauritius, and others under India’s DPI diplomacy push. ...

DPI Weekly Deep Dive — ONDC’s Tipping Point | Week of March 15-22, 2026 Executive Summary India’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has reached a critical inflection point, crossing 200 million cumulative transactions in March 2026—with the most recent 100 million transactions achieved in just six months, signaling accelerating adoption across the country’s digital commerce landscape. 1 This milestone represents more than numerical growth; it marks the maturation of India’s third major Digital Public Infrastructure layer after Aadhaar and UPI, demonstrating that open, interoperable networks can challenge entrenched platform monopolies while democratizing e-commerce for millions of small businesses. The network has expanded to over 620 cities, with Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities now driving 65% of retail orders—a demographic shift that fundamentally redefines who participates in India’s digital economy. 2 Government initiatives including the MSME Trade Enablement and Marketing (TEAM) scheme, combined with partnerships with platforms like Bhashini for multilingual commerce, signal sustained political commitment to ONDC’s inclusive vision. As the platform transitions from experimental initiative to nationwide movement, questions about sustainability, quality control, and competition with established e-commerce giants take on new urgency. ...

DPI Weekly Deep Dive — UPI Sustainability at Crossroads | Week of March 9-15, 2026 Executive Summary India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the world’s largest real-time payment platform processing over 21.7 billion transactions monthly worth ₹28.33 lakh crore, faces an unprecedented sustainability challenge. This week, a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance recommended exploring a tiered charging structure that would introduce interchange fees for larger merchants while preserving free transactions for small vendors and peer-to-peer payments. Simultaneously, NPCI announced revised TPAP and PSP fee structures for RuPay credit card transactions on UPI, effective April 1, 2026. These developments mark a critical inflection point in India’s digital public infrastructure journey, forcing policymakers to balance financial inclusion objectives with ecosystem viability. The proposed changes draw comparisons to Brazil’s Pix and China’s digital payment systems, where hybrid revenue models have sustained massive transaction volumes without compromising adoption. ...