New book traces the making of India’s digital payments revolution and the rise of UPI
Bengaluru, September 26, 2026: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday unveiled Cashless Nation, How UPI Changed Everything, a new book documenting the evolution of India’s digital payments ecosystem and the story behind the creation and rapid growth of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
The book, authored by Dr. Santanu Paul and B. Sambamurthy and published by Penguin Random House, was launched at Sangam 2026, the annual flagship conference of the IIT Madras Alumni Association and IIT Madras.
The launch was attended by Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras; Dr. Pramod Varma; Sankaran Naren; Ben Mathias; and Sharad Bulusu, among other guests from the technology, banking and business sectors.
Released in the year UPI completes a decade, Cashless Nation looks at the several decades of institutional and technological development that laid the foundation for India’s digital payments transformation. It examines how interoperable, real-time payments evolved into a system used widely in everyday transactions and how India emerged as a global reference point in digital payments.
Written in an accessible and fast-paced style, the book focuses not only on the technology but also on the people, institutions, policy decisions and execution that contributed to the transformation. It traces the journey from the early foundations of India’s payments infrastructure to the development of UPI and its expansion across the country.
Congratulating the authors, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said digital finance has become an important driver of economic growth and prosperity. He described UPI as a global model for digital payments and said the book offers valuable insights into the developments that shaped its success.
The authors bring different but complementary perspectives to the book. Dr. Santanu Paul, a technologist and entrepreneur, offers a technology and innovation perspective, while B. Sambamurthy, a veteran banker and former senior financial-sector leader, brings extensive experience from the banking and financial ecosystem.
Their professional association with institutions including the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), along with their broader experience in the financial sector, provides the book with insights into the institutional and technological journey behind UPI.
Cashless Nation: How UPI Changed Everything is positioned as an account of one of India’s most significant digital transformations and the people and institutions behind it.
For more information about the book, visit: “cashlessnationbook.com” (https://reference-url-citation.invalid/0)
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