A widespread outage of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on Wednesday evening left hundreds of users in India unable to complete financial transactions across multiple platforms.
The disruption, which lasted for several hours, triggered widespread concern and frustration among users, many of whom took to social media to voice their grievances.
According to data from Downdetector, a platform that tracks outages and service disruptions, more than 3,000 complaints were registered from users reporting issues with UPI services. Complaints began to pour in during the evening hours, with users reporting failures across major UPI-enabled mobile applications, including Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, and others.
“None of the UPI apps are working. UPI system is down, I think,” wrote Rohit Gupta, a frustrated user, on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), capturing the sentiment of thousands facing similar difficulties.
Later in the evening, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which oversees UPI operations, confirmed that the outage was caused by intermittent technical issues. NPCI assured users that the issue had been identified and successfully resolved, restoring UPI services to normalcy.
“NPCI had faced intermittent technical issues owing to which UPI had partial decline. The same has been addressed now and the system has stabilised. Regret the inconvenience,” NPCI stated in an official communication.
The exact cause of the technical glitch was not disclosed, but NPCI reiterated that it was actively monitoring the system to ensure seamless performance going forward.
The UPI outage sparked a wave of reactions on X, with users expressing surprise and dismay over the rare downtime of the country’s most widely used digital payments platform. Many recounted personal experiences where they were left stranded due to payment failures.
Anas Khan, a user on X, highlighted the unprecedented nature of the incident, stating, “For the first time in my life, I’ve experienced UPI downtime. Not banks or gateways, but @UPI_NPCI itself. BTW, uptime was 100% in February.”
Another user, humorously described a situation where two friends were stuck after eating at a food stall, unable to pay due to the outage.
Despite the humorous tone of some posts, many users expressed concern about the growing dependence on digital payment platforms and the potential risks associated with service outages.
In response to mounting complaints, the official UPI handle on X acknowledged user concerns and redirected them to their respective banks for further assistance.
“Hi, thank you for reaching out to us. We humbly request you to get in touch with your respective bank for better assistance in this regard,” UPI responded to users.
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a revolutionary real-time payment system developed by NPCI that integrates multiple bank accounts into a single mobile app, regardless of the bank. It facilitates seamless fund transfers, bill payments, and merchant transactions through a unified platform, making digital payments accessible to millions of Indians.
Since its launch in 2016, UPI has become the backbone of India’s digital payments infrastructure, handling billions of transactions each month and playing a key role in promoting a cashless economy. Its convenience, security, and speed have made it the preferred mode of payment for individuals and businesses alike.
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