Unified Payments Interface Impact

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) enables instant money transfers and direct digital payments. Its most direct and likely consequence is enabling effective direct benefit transfer (DBT) of government subsidies to beneficiary accounts without intermediaries, reducing leakage and ensuring targeted delivery to the poor. Option (a) is partially true but UPI complements rather than eliminates mobile wallets entirely. Option (b) is too speculative and extreme—digital currency adoption is gradual and complex, not guaranteed to replace physical currency within two decades. Option (c) overstates the direct impact; while UPI supports financial inclusion, it does not directly cause FDI inflows. The DBT mechanism through UPI ensures transparent, instant subsidy transfer directly to intended recipients, making it the most measurable and likely consequence. > Key insight: UPI's primary advantage is enabling direct digital fund transfer, particularly for government benefits and subsidies to reach beneficiaries immediately. Answer: (d).