Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath has drawn global attention after comparing India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to oil in terms of its potential geopolitical influence. In a LinkedIn post on 29 October, Kamath suggested that UPI could become a tool of “digital diplomacy” if adopted globally, asking, “If oil shaped geopolitics, can payments protocols do it too? An India-made standard other countries plug into is soft power by design. Should UPI be an export, not just a success?”
His remarks come at a time when India’s digital payments ecosystem has seen rapid expansion. UPI currently processes around 650 million transactions daily, surpassing Visa’s 640 million and Mastercard’s 450 million global volumes. The value of payments handled through UPI has grown from ₹2.62 lakh crore in June 2020 to ₹24.04 lakh crore in June 2025, an almost ninefold increase since the pandemic.
UPI’s Global Rollout Gains Momentum
India’s payment network is now expanding beyond its borders. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has enabled UPI transactions in eight countries, including Singapore, the UAE, France, Mauritius, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Qatar. NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) plans to extend UPI’s reach to four to six more nations by 2025, focusing on Qatar, Thailand, and parts of Southeast Asia. Its longer-term goal is to make UPI available in over 20 countries by 2029.
India remains the world’s top recipient of remittances, with inflows reaching $137.7 billion in 2024, more than double Mexico’s $67.6 billion. UPI now accounts for 83% of India’s retail digital transactions and processes over 12 times the value of all card payments combined. With 491 million users, 65 million merchants, and 675 participating banks, India leads the world in real-time digital payments, processing more transactions than the next 10 countries combined.
UPI as a Digital Diplomacy Instrument
The International Monetary Fund has described UPI as a “global standard” for modern payment systems, recognising India’s growing technological influence. Industry observers have called the network’s international expansion a form of “fintech diplomacy,” enabling India to export its payment infrastructure as a soft power tool. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal recently inaugurated UPI services in Qatar, while PayPal CEO Alex Chriss remarked at the Global Fintech Fest that “everywhere I travel, India is a topic of discussion.”
NIPL is also helping countries such as Peru, Namibia, and Trinidad and Tobago to develop their own real-time payment networks based on UPI’s open-source, interoperable framework. This model allows nations to maintain financial sovereignty while connecting to India’s system, offering an alternative to conventional banking routes and lowering cross-border transaction costs, which currently average between 3% and 5%.
As geopolitical tensions reshape financial systems, UPI’s rise provides India with a digital pathway to global influence. Unlike traditional infrastructure exports, payment technology offers immediate functionality and long-term economic interconnection, positioning India as a key technology partner in a divided global economy.
