37 India: World's First Unified Payment Interface India’s largest demonetisation was exercised on 8 November, 2016. All Rs 500 and Rs1,000 notes were abruptly withdrawn in a bid against black money, terror funding, corruption and fake currency proliferation. In search for a new alternative to replace cash, Indian citizens turned to digital transactions, which witnessed a 400 – 1,000% increase since the beginning of the demonetisation. At the same time, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the body that CH governs all retail payments in India, unveiled a new payment system called Unified TE PaymentInterfaceorUPI,whichenables: N I F 01 Payment systems to be fully interoperable across all payment system players, F O enabling funds to be transferred between mobile wallets from different financial TE institutions TA S E 02 Smartphones to double up as virtual debit cards for sending and receiving money TH instantly Global FinTech Trends: India 37