UPI: Pay, if you don’t mind!

Namrata More
3 min readAug 16, 2023

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Do you know Zepto accepts COD? I didn’t know till my mumma told me today!

It’s such a learning to see this hybrid traditional way of digital transformation with my own people.

So basically my mother ordered via Zepto opting for COD and then my sister (who is in 10th class) paid online via UPI. The reason I & some of us never explored this method was because we’re (or at-least I am) too lazy to stand at the door paying for the order and so we opt PIA (Payment in Advance) ie. payment before the product is dispatched. Whereas, the traditional and trustworthy way of buying something for my mother is you get the product in hand and then pay for it which she would prefer anytime.

This basically explained me the use-case, my MBA lectures weren’t able to :p

The concept of PIAs:

  • Payment in Advance - Advance payment is a type of payment made ahead of its normal schedule such as paying for a good or service before you actually receive it.
  • Payment in Arrears - Arrear payment is a type of payment made after you receive goods or services.

The best part here is, though opting COD, my sister paid via UPI. Though the electricity office in my hometown is like half a kilo-meter from my place, my mother prefers to pay online using Paytm that too mentioning about the reminder on the app which is helping her keep records.

The point is, the ease of making the payment and the trust in the success rate.

If this somehow relates to you, let’s try understand more such use-cases indulging tech into the society in a very traditional and hybrid way.

UPI (Unified Payments Interface)

UPI (Unified Payments Interface) is a unique payment system through which you can link your bank account to a mobile application and make transactions safely. From transferring money to friends to paying merchants, from online shopping to paying utility bills, UPI makes transferring money easy, safe, and instant.

India keeps dominating the digital payment landscape with 46% of Global real-time payments done by India! With innovative solutions and widespread adoption, we’re leading the way towards a cashless economy.

Tweet by MyGovIndia

Any user across India can download any UPI Apps and experience the easy to pay with minimum clicks. Some of the most common used apps are - PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm, Cred, Amazon Pay & alot more.

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

With the above context in mind, NPCI conducted a pilot launch with 21 member banks. The pilot launch was on 11th April 2016 by Dr. Raghuram G Rajan, Governor, RBI at Mumbai. Banks have started to upload their UPI enabled Apps on Google Play store from 25th August, 2016 onwards.

Govt website explaining UPI use-cases in 9 Indian languages : https://www.upichalega.com/

Types of UPI :

  • UPI Intent
  • UPI Collect

Updates in UPI: UPI Lite

UPI LITE is a new payment solution that leverages the trusted NPCI Common Library (CL) application. UPI LITE is more like a wallet-experience where user can add up-to ₹ 2000 from the bank account. Maximum one-time transaction via UPI Lite can be made up-to ₹ 200 with a seem-less wallet experience.

We’ll deep-dive in the above concepts in the upcoming blogs. You can refer to What’s in Payments? for some basic concepts.

Knowledge of these concepts cater many of our day-to-day use-cases solving for time, travel, ease to pay, helping India grow digital at an individual level.

What to follow to be updated with UPI payment system ?

Read more the Builders of Indian Payment System.

Here’s where you can find me for any queries :)
namratamore.xyz
Email: nmrtmore@gmail.com

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Namrata More

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