Indonesia’s popular digital payments system, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), experienced a severe technical snag on Wednesday night, with thousands of users unable to go through with transactions. Even though the NPCI assured the problem was fixed, users continued to face payment failures on Thursday morning.
As per Downdetector, grievances flooded in at around 7:00 pm on Wednesday, with more than 3,000 reports of unsuccessful transactions between 7:50 and 8:00 pm. Widely used UPI apps Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm were hit the hardest. While some banks like ICICI Bank continued to function normally, others like HDFC Bank suffered setbacks.
At 8:40 pm, NPCI confirmed the problem on social media site X (formerly Twitter), saying, “The same has been addressed now and the system has stabilised. Regret the inconvenience.” But even after this promise, more than 200 fresh complaints were registered on Thursday morning between 7:00 am and 9:30 am.
Social Media Responds: Memes Swamp the Internet
Netizens turned to social media to express their annoyance—and humor—over the UPI disruption.
A user made a sarcastic remark, “Seems like the great UPI has chosen to play hide and seek with our payments.” A venting user commented, “Why is UPI not working? I have already finished my ice cream, now I cannot make a payment. What can I do?”
One popular meme of Phir Hera Pheri depicted Johnny Lever asking for, “Maal kaha hai?” (Where’s the money?), which read, “UPI not working. Receiver—”
Another witty take highlighted the irony of the situation: “People worrying about UPI being down with just Rs. 2 in their bank account.”
Citing the Bollywood film Welcome, a user wrote, “UPI services are down for several users in India… Cash be like, ‘Abhi Hum Zinda Hai’” (We are still alive).
The Importance of UPI and Why It’s So Popular
UPI is a real-time payment system that facilitates instant money transfers through distinct UPI IDs or associated mobile numbers. NPCI created and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governs UPI, enabling simple transactions at no extra expense. In contrast to other older methods such as NEFT and IMPS, UPI facilitates direct payments and even enables requesting money from someone, making it a highly convenient and popular mode of payment.
Most UPI apps generate unique IDs from users’ bank accounts, such as:
Google Pay: @oksbi, @okhdfcbank, @okaxis, @okicici
PhonePe & Paytm: Mapped with several banks having custom UPI handles
While the outage was likely transient, it reminded us all of how deeply UPI has woven itself into India’s financial fabric—and of the potential utility of holding a little cash in reserve after all. source zeebiz.com
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