UPI's Free Ride Ends: India's Digital Payments Face Their Biggest Test Yet

UPI's six-year free ride is over. Starting October 15, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) will impose a 0.4% Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on person-to-merchant UPI transactions exceeding ₹2,000, capped at ₹300 for payments above ₹75,000. Essential sectors like fuel, railways, and telecom get a flat ₹5 charge instead. The fee is designed to fund the ₹20,000-crore annual infrastructure running India's digital payment backbone—servers, fraud detection, and...