UPI users may not be able to do transactions between 1 AM to 3 AM for next few days, know why

NEW DELHI: The National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has said that its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) may not function optimally between 1 AM and 3 AM for the next couple of days.

The NPCI, through a tweet, informed the users that its UPI platform will be under an upgradation process for the next few days. "To create a better architecture for the growth of UPI transactions, the UPI platform will be under an upgradation process for next few days from 1 AM - 3 AM," NPCI tweeted.

To create a better architecture for the growth of UPI transactions, the UPI platform will be under an upgradation process for next few days from 1AM - 3AM.
Users may face inconvenience, so we urge you all to plan your payments. pic.twitter.com/oZ5A8AWqAB

— India Be Safe. India Pay Digital. (@NPCI_NPCI) January 21, 2021

It also advised users to avoid making transactions during the specified time and plan their transactions ahead of that time to avoid any inconvenience. It may be noted major digital payments platforms like Google Pay, PhonePe prefer to work on the UPI system.

NPCI runs the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) used for real-time payments between peers or at merchants' end while making purchases.

On its website, the NPCI has cautioned about the cyber threats, which are  managed and mitigated by the Information Security team by "leveraging technologies appropriately deployed which are used by constantly trained professionals using well developed procedures adopted from various industry best practices and guidelines." 

It also notes that the NPCI has deployed various technologies to upgrade its security posture leveraging a multi-layered defence approach to combat evolving cyber threats.

Currently, there are 165 banks that are listed on the BHIM UPI platform. As of October 2020, the NPCI recorded 155.14 million users on Android and 2.94 million users on iOS. 

Interestingly, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a massive surge in digital payments and transactions as they are contactless and considered safer.