NPCI Proposes Unified Agent Protocol (UAP) to Enable AI-Led UPI Transactions

India is building a proposed Unified Agent Protocol (UAP) — a national infrastructure standard that would let AI agents make UPI payments autonomously after verifying their legitimacy, authority limits, and accountability chain, per Business Standard (8 Jul 2026); UPI processed 22.71 billion transactions in June 2026 with ₹28.92 trillion in value, per NPCI data cited by Vision IAS (9 Jul). If UAP ships, every consumer app with a checkout or subscription flow must register and authorise its AI agent inside the protocol — builders should map their agentic use-cases now and watch for the NPCI consultation paper to secure early-mover positioning in the trust registry.

Source: Business Standard ↗