When did UPI start?

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) was officially launched on April 11, 2016, by Dr. Raghuram G. Rajan, the then Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). This pilot launch was conducted by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) with 21 member banks in Mumbai. Following this, banks began uploading their UPI-enabled applications for public use starting from August 25, 2016. UPI serves as a real-time instant payment system that enables seamless inter-bank transactions through mobile devices.