Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which serves as the backbone for a large-scale disruption of digital transactions in Delhi and beyond India, seemed to be the worst-hit service troubling several people across the nation. As multiple citizen accounts across popular payments platforms such as Paytm, Google Pay, PhonePe and more are down in a massive outage the nation has become more dependent on continuous flow digital payment infrastructure.
It is said to have been caused by a technical issue in the UPI network, which is overseen by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). NPCI has acknowledged the concern and has made statements stating that they are in the process of restoring services to their users as quickly as possible. Yet this has not assuaged the immediate distress of several hundred million people.
Not to mention the severe impact of UPI outage on Delhi’s warren-like markets and commercial pockets where digital transactions have now become normal. UPI street vendor and supermarkets are struggling causing immensley reduced sales as small businesses (mostly) who cater to common man are returning into backdrops. Consumers were unreachable, and unable to pay for basic products and services after UPI got clogged.
Expressing the collective agitation, frustrated customers are using online social media to post and share their multifaceted experiences of failed transactions and inconvenience in normal day-today life.
Fast forward, #UPIDown was flying for hours on end as to show the magnitude of problem.
This is another such incident which has made the very majorities of Indian economy working on a digital payment system vulnerable to attack. The increase of these interruptions leads to fear about the strength of the infra and more resilient systems.
The NPCI is working to get at a technical solution for this, which incident just reminds, not only Businesses but also Individuals should have contingency plans to curb the fiasco on such mass scale digital emergencies.
Recurring Issues:
UPI service seems to have faced some of the most recurring issues ever. multiple outages in short span of time is attributed to reports.
For instance, sources note that there have been multiple upi disruptions in just the last 30 days.
Duration of Outages:
Based on data collected from Downdetector, the complaints started to increase during midday on April 12, 2025.
Further notes- On April 2nd,2025 outage at the highest point was hit around 7:30 PM.
A March 26 2025 there were also said to’ve been an outtage
Causes:
The technical reasons behind the outages for these systems are, in part, ascribed to NPCI.
“intermittent technical issues”
Fluctuations in network traffic success rates among the banks (leading to a network’s latency.
We also have scheduled downtimes, as derived from banking year end closing. In this instance on April 1,2025 when there was scheduled downtime for 2 hours or so from 1 PM to 4 PM.
Impact:
NSAC claims that these have resulted in an enormous havoc for individuals and corporates across India in similar, massive bang.
Popular UPI apps (eg- Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm) users have too reported failure in transactions.
