UPI outage disrupts digital payments across India, users face transaction failures
New Delhi: A widespread disruption in the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) services affected thousands of users across India on Saturday morning, leaving many unable to complete digital transactions via platforms like PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm.
Reports on Downdetector showed around 1,168 complaints by noon, with Google Pay accounting for 96 and Paytm for 23. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) confirmed intermittent technical issues causing partial failures in UPI transactions and assured users that efforts were underway to resolve the issue. They also expressed regret for the inconvenience caused.
The outage impacted several major banks including HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, and Kotak Mahindra Bank, further highlighting India's growing reliance on UPI for daily financial activities.
This marks the second major outage in recent weeks. On March 26, users had faced similar difficulties for 2–3 hours due to technical glitches.
Meanwhile, on April 8, the NPCI announced that international UPI transactions would no longer support QR code-based payments, aiming to ensure proper identification of the payer. Domestic QR-based payments remain unaffected.
The root cause of Saturday’s outage remains unclear, with possibilities ranging from server overloads and scheduled maintenance to cybersecurity concerns.
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Maharashtra sets up state vaccination task force to strengthen immunisation programme
Mumbai (PTI): The Maharashtra government has set up a State Vaccination Task Force to strengthen the regular immunisation programme and review the progress of related campaigns, a health department official said on Monday.
The State Vaccination Task Force will comprise at least 29 members and will be headed by the administrative head of the health department, he informed.
The government has also constituted separate district-level and municipal vaccination task forces to improve implementation and address challenges at the grassroots level, he said.
Municipal task forces, chaired by respective civic commissioners, have been constituted in view of the vast urban population in Maharashtra and the role of civic bodies in implementing different health programmes.
The district-level task forces will function under the chairmanship of collectors.
"Complete immunisation of children at the appropriate age is an extremely simple, cost-effective and highly effective measure to reduce child mortality and the prevalence of diseases among kids. Immunisation is a powerful tool for reducing illness in children," maintained the official.
To ensure full vaccination of all children, the state government implements various campaigns from time to time as per the central government guidelines, he pointed out.
"Active participation and cooperation of other relevant government departments are essential (in making these campaigns successful)," according to the official.
The state-level body will review the regular immunisation programme, associated campaigns and vaccine-preventable diseases in detail. It will also conduct focused assessments of high-risk districts and municipal corporations, including vacancies at district, municipal and sub-district levels, availability of cold chain equipment, resource gaps and training requirements, he noted.
The state task force will review allocation and utilisation of funds for immunisation and ensure timely action by officers concerned based on reports from district and municipal task forces and state-level monitoring mechanisms, the official said.
It will also ensure active coordination and participation of other government departments in immunisation drives, while district and municipal task forces will carry out similar functions at their respective levels, the official added.
