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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Moscow (PTI): Russian President Vladimir Putin has received an invitation to join US President Donald Trump's Gaza Peace Board, and the invitation is under consideration, the Kremlin said on Monday.

"Indeed, President Putin also received an offer through diplomatic channels to join this Peace Board," the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"We are currently studying all the details of this proposal, and we hope to contact the American side to clarify all the details," he said.

Several other countries have received offers from the US to join this body. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Shehbaz Sharif have also received invitations to join the Peace Board.

The US president unveiled the board as part of the second phase of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In October, Israel and militant group Hamas agreed to Trump's peace plan.

The board is being projected by Washington as a new international body to usher in peace and stability in Gaza and beyond, triggering speculations that it may respond to other global conflicts as well.

"Russia sees the Gaza Peace Board as the US attempt to create a rival of the United Nations Organisation with a broader mandate," Russia's Channel- 1 TV said on Monday in its 'Pryamoi Efir' (Live Broadcast) political show.