India's fintech market to become $400 billion in next 3 years: Finance minister
New Delhi: India's fintech market is flourishing and projected to become $400 billion in the next three years, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday urging the industry to continue 'fearlessly' innovating people-centric new solutions to maintain the country's leadership position in this area.
India accounts for almost half of all real time digital transactions in the world, she said at the Digital Payments Awards 2025 ceremony organised by the department of financial services (DFS), an arm of the finance ministry. According to industry estimates, the country's fintech market is estimated at around $110 billion with an adoption rate of 87%, significantly high compared to the global average of 67%.
'The fintech revolution in India will further flourish. Our fintech market is projected to grow to over $400 billion by 2028-29, reflecting an anticipated annual growth of over 30%. The scale of opportunity is immense. I firmly believe its best chapters are yet to be written. Together, let us Innovate, Include, and Inspire. Innovate new solutions fearlessly, include every citizen in your vision, and inspire the world with what India can achieve,' the finance minister said.
The speed at which innovation is happening in India is just a dream for many other countries, she said. 'Several advanced countries are nowhere close to the kind of momentum our fintech companies have achieved, not just in terms of progress in their respective areas, but also in creating entirely new paradigms. This is something which is very unique of the Indian fintech sector,' she said.
She said the scale of adoption in India is also phenomenal and the same is globally acclaimed. Citing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for 'Make in India, Make for the world', she said: 'In this context, Indian fintech innovations have the potential to become global public goods that can benefit other emerging and developed economies. This will open new markets for our firms.'
'Our players must aim to export our successful models abroad and capture global markets. We have the talent, we have the market scale, and we have the proven solutions,' she said. India's international merchant payments through Unified Payment Interface (UPI) are now accepted at select merchant outlets in seven countries -- Bhutan, France, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Quoting from a World Bank's report, she said that through the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), India achieved an 80% financial inclusion rate in just six years. 'Some observers who have gone through this report have said that this feat would have otherwise taken nearly 50 years,' she added.
During the pandemic, payment apps became lifelines – enabling contactless payments and doorstep banking when mobility was restricted, she said. As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India's Digital Payments Index, which measures the overall usage of digital payments, has quadrupled in the last five years, from 100 in 2018 to 465 in 2024, she added. India now accounts for over 48.5% of all real-time digital payment transactions in the world. Over 35 crore users are part of the UPI ecosystem.
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