With 1.5 billion transactions in July, UPI breaks June record: Report

As per data released on August 1, the channel operated by the National Payments Corporation of India had clocked in transactions worth Rs 2.61 lakh crore in June, which rose to Rs.2.90 lakh crore in July.

Moneycontrol News

August 01, 2020 / 10:02 PM IST

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the government has been urging people to move to online transactions as much as possible to reduce the risk of being exposed to the pathogen.

With the mobile-based digital payments push, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has been clocking unprecedented transaction volumes.

According to an Economic Times report, in July 2020, UPI registered 1.49 billion transactions – the highest recorded thus far. This broke last month’s record of maximum transaction volume at 1.34 billion.

As per data released on August 1, the channel operated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) had clocked in transactions worth Rs 2.61 lakh crore in June, which rose to Rs.2.90 lakh crore in July.

The UPI transaction volume limped back after plummeting through March and April during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown phase. At that time, online deliveries of non-essentials were not allowed, which might have led to the 25 percent decrease in transaction volumes.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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