Top News

Millions of Indians were caught off guard as a widespread technical glitch brought digital payments to a standstill. Popular UPI-based apps like PhonePe Paytm and Google Pay experienced major disruptions leaving users unable to send or receive money or complete transactions. From small businesses and kirana shops to daily commuters trying to pay for rides the impact was felt across the country. Social media was flooded with posts and complaints with users sharing screenshots of failed payments and app error messages. “Stuck at the petrol pump with no cash and GPay isn’t working. What’s going on?” tweeted a user from Bengaluru. Another user in Delhi shared “Tried transferring money via PhonePe three times. Every time it failed. Please fix this soon!” The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) which operates UPI acknowledged the outage and said that engineers were working to resolve the issue urgently. A spokesperson from NPCI said in a statement “We are aware of intermittent UPI service disruptions being faced by some users. The issue is being addressed in coordination with partner banks and service providers. We regret the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.” While most users expressed frustration some also took the opportunity to joke about returning to “cash days.” Memes with taglines like “UPI down = chai on hold” and “Aaj sab free mein khayenge” did the rounds online.