New Delhi: The risks involved in relying heavily on online payments became evident once again on Saturday morning after UPI services crashed for millions of users across the country. Users of Paytm, PhonePe, and Google Pay, were hit alike, impacting financial transactions nationwide.
Not only individuals, but even businesses were hit on the start of a weekend. People in several cities were seen queuing up outside ATM kiosks to withdraw cash. DownDetector highlighted 1,168 complaints by noon, with Google Pay users reporting 96 issues and Paytm users noting 23 problems.
Major financial institutions like HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, and Kotak Mahindra Bank were affected.
This is the second such outage in less than a month. A similar outage on March 26 left users unable to access UPI functions for up to three hours. The reliance on UPI for regular transactions means that any disruption can lead to significant operational setbacks, affecting both the personal and commercial sectors.
The outage has left several users fuming. Many of them said that the government promoted the service without creating necessary infrastructure.
“Imagine the condition of a person, totally reliant on UPI, who has food at a restaurant and then realises that services are not available. He may not be carrying a credit or debit card. What is this person supposed to do? Wait for hours at the restaurant,” an user pointed out.
The National Payments Corporation of India or NPCI stated on ‘X’ that: “NPCI is currently facing intermittent technical issues, leading to partial UPI transaction declines. We are working to resolve the issue, and will keep you updated. We regret the inconvenience caused.”
The NPCI, even in the past, has not been able to identify the specific cause of such outages that leave many users and businesses in the lurch. The worst affected are small traders who watch prospective customers walk away on realising that UPI is down.
According to experts, such outages can happen due to server overloads or cyber attacks. Regular maintenance and adequate security through firewalls are the key.
