New Delhi, April 12: A major disruption in the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system brought digital transactions to a halt across India on Saturday, impacting users of popular platforms like Paytm, PhonePe, and Google Pay.
Reports of failed transactions surged around noon, as users flooded social media and outage-tracking platform Downdetector with complaints. “It’s frustrating—I couldn’t pay at the store or transfer rent,” said Mumbai resident Anisha Singh, one of many caught off guard by the glitch.
Downdetector logged more than 1,200 incidents at the peak of the outage. Of those, 66% involved issues with making payments, while 34% related to fund transfers. The disruption appeared widespread, affecting multiple banks and digital payment services, according to user reports.
While the scale of the outage prompted concern, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which manages UPI infrastructure, did not release any immediate statement. Major platforms also remained quiet, offering no timeline or cause for the failure.
Delhi-based tech researcher Ravi Sharma noted that the lack of communication could deepen user frustration. “UPI is essential to everyday life—when it stops working, even briefly, people are left without options,” he said.
As the outage continued into the evening, users were advised to switch to other forms of payment, such as debit cards, credit cards, or net banking, until the issue is resolved.
