New Delhi, 25 August (H.S.): Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw took a political swipe at former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) marked its 10th anniversary, referring to Chidambaram’s earlier remarks in Parliament about the digital payments system.

Vaishnaw shared a video of Chidambaram’s old parliamentary speech on social media platform X and captioned it, “10 years of proving him wrong.”

The video shared by Vaishnaw shows Chidambaram expressing reservations and concerns in Parliament over UPI and the digital payments ecosystem. His earlier remarks are juxtaposed with visuals of vegetable vendors and small businesses accepting payments through QR codes in present-day India.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also targeted the Congress over UPI’s decade-long growth. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said Chidambaram had described the launch of UPI as a major mistake and had expressed apprehensions in Parliament that the digital payment system would be difficult for poor people, vegetable vendors and those living in rural areas to use.

According to the BJP, Chidambaram’s assessment stands in sharp contrast to the scale of UPI’s adoption today. The party said QR code-based payments have become commonplace among small shopkeepers, street vendors and ordinary consumers.

Official data on UPI’s decade-long journey also highlights its widespread adoption. UPI transactions increased from 1.78 crore in 2016-17 to 24,162 crore in 2025-26. During the same period, the value of transactions rose from Rs 0.07 lakh crore to Rs 314 lakh crore. In March 2026, UPI recorded a new monthly high of 2,264 crore transactions worth Rs 29.53 lakh crore.

UPI was launched with just 21 banks, but its network has now expanded to more than 700 banks. UPI accounts for around 85 per cent of India’s digital payments and India contributes nearly 49 per cent of global real-time payment transactions.

The widespread use of UPI is also reflected in person-to-merchant transactions, with 86 per cent of such payments being below Rs 500. This indicates the extensive use of UPI by small retailers, street vendors and consumers for everyday purchases.

UPI has also expanded beyond India’s borders and is now accepted in eight countries.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar