Digital Payments Index Hits Record High in March

• 31 Jul 2025

On 29th July 2025, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced that its Digital Payments Index (RBI-DPI) surged to an all-time high of 493.22 in March 2025, signalling the deepening of India's digital payments revolution across both urban and rural sectors.

• The RBI-DPI was launched in January 2021 to capture the extent of digitalisation in India’s payments ecosystem, with March 2018 set as the base period and indexed at 100.
• The March 2025 index level of 493.22 represents a more than fourfold rise in digital payment activity since the baseline year, highlighting the pace at which India has embraced cashless transactions.
• According to the RBI, this recent growth has been primarily driven by enhancements in supply-side infrastructure and payment performance, notably through better availability of digital banking services and merchant touchpoints.
• The expansion of the merchant acceptance network, increased use of QR code-based payments, and a sharp rise in UPI transactions have significantly contributed to the rise in the index.
• The RBI-DPI has displayed a strong upward trajectory since its inception, growing from 153.47 in March 2019 to 207.84 in March 2020, and reaching 349.30 by March 2022.