Digital Payments Awareness Week 2026 The sixth edition of Digital Payments Awareness Week (DPAW) was observed during March 9-13, 2026. As part of this initiative, a pilot program titled 'Awareness Program on Digital Payments' was launched. The pilot will be conducted in Maharashtra in partnership with CSC e-Governance Services India Limited. The pilot will include conduct of in-person awareness programs for 10 lakh participants in rural and semi urban areas through Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs). The campaign highlights the need to maintain trust in digital payments and underscored the Reserve Bank's efforts towards enhancing customer awareness and protection. On this occasion, the Reserve Bank also launched a multi-media awareness campaign "Thoda Dhyan Se" (be alert/ be careful), which encourages users to be careful while making payments and transacting online. UPI emerges as world’s largest real-time retail payment system, accounting for 81% of retail digital payments in FY 2024-25 Of the total retail digital payment transactions, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) accounts for 81% in FY2024-25 and has emerged as the largest real-time retail payment system in the world. The specific data on demographic or geographic segments-wise contribution in digital payments is not maintained. The growth in retail digital payments, including UPI, is driven by several factors such as smartphone penetration, Aadhaar‑enabled authentication, e‑KYC, wider financial inclusion and expansion of merchant acceptance infrastructure across both urban and rural areas. The digital public infrastructure has supported inter-operability and simplified on-boarding processes, contributing to wider adoption across user groups. The initiatives such as the Incentive Scheme for Promotion of Digital Payments, Payment Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), etc. have also facilitated the continued expansion of digital payments. To address the digital financial frauds, various initiatives have been taken up by the Government, RBI and NPCI. These, inter alia, include device binding between the customer’s mobile number and device, two‑factor authentication through PIN, daily transaction limits and restrictions on certain use cases. NPCI provides an AI/ML‑based fraud‑monitoring solution to all banks for generating alerts and declining suspicious transactions. RBI and banks have also been conducting awareness campaigns through short SMS, radio campaigns and other publicity material for prevention of cyber‑crime. Further, to facilitate citizens in reporting cyber incidents including financial frauds, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has launched National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (www.cybercrime.gov.in) and National Cybercrime Helpline Number “1930”. Similarly, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has launched Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) and “Chakshu” facility, which enables citizens to report suspected fraudulent communication received through calls, SMS or WhatsApp. To support the deployment of payment infrastructure in the rural and interior areas, PIDF was set up by RBI. Approximately 5.80 crore digital touch points and about 56.86 crore QR codes have been deployed under the scheme. To facilitate users in low connectivity areas and for feature‑phone users, NPCI has launched UPI 123PAY (enabling payments through Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and sound-based proximity payments), and Hello UPI (enabling conversational payments). Further, steps have been taken for greater financial awareness & literacy and safe usage of digital payments. A total of 2421 Centre for Financial Literacy (CFL) have been set up across the country as on 31 March 2025, with one CFL covering three blocks. Financial Literacy Week has been conducted annually since 2016 to disseminate financial education among citizens. Source : PIB RBI-Digital Payments Index The Reserve Bank of India has constructed a composite Digital Payments Index (DPI) to capture the extent of digitisation of payments across the country. The RBI-DPI comprises of 5 broad parameters that enable measurement of deepening and penetration of digital payments in the country over different time periods. These parameters are – Payment Enablers (weight 25%) Payment Infrastructure – Demand-side factors (10%) Payment Infrastructure – Supply-side factors (15%) Payment Performance (45%) and Consumer Centricity (5%). Each of these parameters have sub-parameters which, in turn, consist of various measurable indicators. To see the major sub-parameters under each parameter, click here. The RBI-DPI has been constructed with March 2018 as the base period, i.e. DPI score for March 2018 is set at 100. The DPI for March 2019, March 2020 and March 2021 work out to 153.47, 207.84 and 270.59 respectively, indicating appreciable growth. Going forward, RBI-DPI shall be published on RBI’s website on a semi-annual basis from March 2021 onwards with a lag of 4 months. The index for September 2025 stands at 516.76 as against 493.22 for March 2025 which was announced on July 28, 2025. Source : RBI