• In a major boost to India’s digital payments ecosystem, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the RBI jointly launched several new initiatives at the Global Fintech Fest 2025 held in Mumbai.
• The highlight of the launch was the introduction of biometric and facial recognition-based authentication for UPI transactions, leveraging Aadhaar-based biometrics for enhanced security.
  • This feature allows users to authenticate payments through face or fingerprint recognition, stored securely on their device, reducing dependency on traditional 4- or 6-digit UPI PINs.
• NPCI also introduced a UPI Lite feature for wearable smart glasses, enabling hands-free, voice-command-based small-value transactions through QR code scanning.
• Another key innovation was the multi-signatory account feature on UPI, allowing joint account holders (such as families or business partners) to authorize transactions requiring multiple approvals, improving transparency and control.
• These advancements aim to make India’s digital payment ecosystem more inclusive, user-friendly, and secure, aligning with the government’s broader Digital India and cashless economy vision.
  

MCQs

Q. The biometric-based UPI authentication introduced by NPCI and RBI uses which of the following for identity verification?
a) Retina scan
b) Aadhaar-based face or fingerprint biometrics
c) OTP through SMS
d) Password and PIN combination
Answer: b)

SOURCE