UPI Outage Sparks Criticism from Shaadicom Founder Anupam Mittal

On March 26, 2025, the UPI (Unified Payments Interface) system in India, which powers the digital payment landscape of the country, faced a significant outage. Major platforms like Google Pay and Paytm were disrupted, leaving millions of users unable to make payments. The issue was confirmed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), but the outage continued to affect users for several hours after the official resolution. Anupam Mittal, the founder of Shaadi.com and a judge on Shark Tank India, voiced his frustration about the situation. His post on X (formerly Twitter) has since sparked a conversation about the stability of India’s digital payment infrastructure.

UPI Outage Causes Frustration Among Users and Critics

Anupam Mittal took to X to express his concerns over the ongoing issues with UPI, criticizing NPCI for the outage and the delayed resolution. Mittal stated that the digital payments system continued to struggle even after 24 hours, calling attention to the “spinning problem” that users were encountering. He pointed out the critical nature of UPI for India’s economy, stating that “Desh ke GDP ka sawaal hai” (The nation’s GDP is at stake).

Mittal’s criticism was echoed by several other users who commented on his post. Many pointed out that UPI has been hailed as one of India’s greatest innovations, but the repeated outages were eroding trust in the system. One user mentioned that the increasing cash withdrawal fees were adding to the frustration, as people were being forced to rely on cash when UPI failed. Another commenter noted that the problems were becoming more frequent, with a third user mentioning that UPI remained unstable.

What Happened During the UPI Outage?

According to outage tracking site Downdetector, reports of UPI-related problems began to spike around 7:40 pm IST on March 26, with more than 2,750 users affected. The issues were primarily related to payment transactions, with a smaller portion of problems arising from funds transfers and app-related difficulties. By 8:45 pm IST, the number of complaints began to decrease as the NPCI worked on resolving the issue.

The NPCI later issued a statement on X acknowledging the technical difficulties and explaining that UPI had faced intermittent issues, resulting in partial declines of the system. However, the organization reassured users that the situation had been addressed and the system had stabilized.

What Undercode Say:

The incident highlights a growing concern regarding the reliability of UPI, especially given the increasing dependence on it for daily transactions. Anupam Mittal’s post is just one of many voices questioning the current state of digital payment systems in India. UPI, which was initially celebrated as a revolution in financial inclusion, has been facing recurring technical issues, leading to user frustration.

The problem lies not just in the frequency of outages, but in the way these disruptions affect everyday users. For many, UPI is the preferred method of payment, and even short-term disruptions can cause significant inconvenience. From a broader perspective, Mittal’s comment about the “GDP ka sawaal hai” underscores a fundamental issue—India’s digital payment infrastructure is at the core of the country’s economic growth. Any disruption in UPI’s functionality, even if momentary, can potentially impact a massive swath of the population, including small businesses, government transactions, and daily consumer activities.

Moreover, the inability to resolve these technical difficulties in a timely manner damages trust in digital payment systems, pushing people back towards cash-based transactions. This shift can have far-reaching consequences, particularly as India has been making significant strides towards becoming a less cash-dependent economy.

While NPCI’s statement mentioned that the issue was addressed, the repeated nature of such outages suggests a deeper issue in the technical and infrastructural backbone supporting UPI. It’s clear that the system needs to be upgraded and reinforced to prevent such disruptions from recurring. The rising frequency of these outages is alarming and could undermine the trust in India’s vision for a digital-first economy.

Fact Checker Results:

The UPI outage on March 26, 2025, affected several major platforms, including Google Pay and Paytm.
NPCI confirmed the issue and resolved it within a few hours, but users continued to face disruptions for longer.
Outage tracking site Downdetector reported that most issues occurred during payment transactions, with over 2,750 users impacted at the peak of the outage.

References:

Reported By: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/shark-tank-judge-anupam-mittal-to-npci-on-upi-outage-over-24-hours-solve-karo-pls-desh-ke-/articleshow/119584590.cms
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