Now, you don't need a smartphone to make UPI payments - Know details

Till now, one has to use a smartphone with internet connectivity to make a digital payment through Unified Payments Interface (UPI). But now the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday launched UPI for feature phones as well. 

'UPI123Pay' will promote digital transactions in the country, especially in rural India. It will let customers use feature phones for almost all transactions except scan and pay. It won't even require an internet connection for this.

Customers only have to link their bank account with feature phones to use this facility. The Central bank also announced the rollout of a 24x7 helpline for digital payments called DigiSaathi.

What is UPI?

UPI is a platform developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) together with the Reserve Bank of India and the Indian Banks Association (IBA). Users have a unique UPI ID that can be used to send and receive payments using a secure PIN.  

Since its inception in 2016, UPI has become the top choice for payments by Indians. The UPI platform registered 4.52 billion transactions, amounting to Rs 8.26 trillion in February. In January, the number was 4.61 billion transactions, amounting to Rs 8:32 trillion, in January.

In December 2021, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had first proposed to launch the UPI payment service for feature phones. Speaking at the launch of the event today, Das said that the UPI on feature phones will help people in rural areas and allow India's 40 crore feature phone users to access the payment service.