India’s innovative and free homegrown digital payments ecosystem BHIM UPI (Unified Payments Interface) has got yet another vehement support from a noted global economist, after winning accolades from the likes of global tech leaders such as Google’s Sundar Pichai and Dell’s Michael Dell. New York-based economist Nouriel Roubini has lauded India’s BHIM UPI, saying that it is the future of digital payments, while at the same time continuing to lash out at cryptocurrencies.

Nouriel Roubini said in a recent tweet that the India’s UPI-based systems,  are the “future of digital payments…” and are “already used by billions of folks”, along with other such payment modes in China, Kenya, US and Europe. “Indeed virtually free & used by hundreds of millions of Indians,” Nouriel Roubini tweeted referring to UPI. Nouriel Roubini said India’s BHIM UPI is the true Fin Tech revolution in digital payment systems.

Started in 2016, UPI-based payments system allows mobile apps run by retailers, airlines and other firms to take payment directly from customers’ bank accounts. According to a recent Bloomberg report, there has been a surge in UPI transactions, and has also hurt major digital payment players such as Mastercard and Visa, who have lost market share built over the last 3 decades. BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) is a mobile app developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), based on the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), which allows users to make digital payments even without internet.

“The introduction of UPI in August 2016 led to the creation of a wealth of new innovative payment solutions, and the adoption rates of UPI payments are truly spectacular. UPI opens up access to real-time by allowing payments to be directly integrated into external business applications,” U.S.-based Fidelity National Information Services Inc. said in a recent report.

This observation from Nouriel Roubini comes just days after Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies, recently said that he is inspired by the way India is leveraging technology to move towards becoming a cashless society, and used IndiaStack as an example to drive his point home. “IndiaStack, for example, is a world-leading concept and as a techie, I get very inspired by what India is doing. It is an amazing government-led effort,” Michael Dell said, while addressing the media at the Dell Technologies World 2018.


The ace economist also praised the Indian regulators for not falling to crypto scams. “Luckily Indian regulators don’t fall for these crypto scams & they have banned them,”  ace economist Nouriel Roubini tweeted. Roubini has been very critical of not merely cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but also its technology Blockchain, calling it ‘crappy,’ and over-hyped. “Blockchain is not only crappy technology but a bad vision for the future: Pseudo crypto paradise is actually a medieval hellhole. Read this more brilliant critique of the most over-hyped and faddish technology ever: blockchain,” he tweeted recently.