Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Jun 12: Over the past decade, India has undergone a transformative digital revolution, marked most strikingly by a 90-fold surge in Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) and an unparalleled dominance in real-time digital payments.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in a post on social media platform X, highlighted this milestone by stating that DBT payouts soared from just ?7,368 crore in 2013-14 to an astonishing Rs 6.83 lakh crore in the financial year 2024-25 under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership. “Every rupee now reaches the intended beneficiary. This is not just fiscal progress—it’s a paradigm shift in governance,” she said.
Sitharaman also underscored India's top spot in real-time payment systems globally. “In FY 2024-25 alone, India processed over Rs 260 lakh crore worth of real-time digital transactions, with a staggering annual volume of 18,600 crore transactions,” she noted, placing India ahead of the curve in digital finance.
She hailed the past 11 years as a period of "tech-led renaissance," during which India emerged as a global beacon of innovation, whether in space technology, manufacturing, digital governance, or rural internet connectivity. “India has not just digitised—it has humanised technology,” she added, framing it as central to building a ‘Viksit Bharat’ (Developed India).
Adding to this picture of progress, RBI Deputy Governor M. Rajeshwar Rao revealed that more than 55.44 crore Jan Dhan accounts have been opened as of May 21, with women holding 56% of them. Total deposits in these accounts have crossed Rs 2.5 lakh crore—a powerful indicator of grassroots financial empowerment.
In the digital payments space, volume surged 35% year-on-year in FY 2024-25 to 60.81 crore transactions per day. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) alone accounted for 83.73% of these, underscoring how India’s homegrown tech innovation is reshaping global financial trends.
“UPI’s phenomenal adoption is a result of collaborative, use-case driven innovation. It’s a story of inclusion, scalability, and trust,” Rao concluded.
India’s journey from digital infancy to becoming a global digital powerhouse is now not just measured in data—but in impact.