New Delhi, Aug 23 (UNI) Forging an alliance that brings millions of riders and driver partners into the digital payments revolution, Uber India today announced a comprehensive Unified Payments Interface (UPI) integration in partnership with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and banking partners Axis Bank and HDFC Bank. Supporting the government’s mission to transform India into a digital payments led society, Uber's initiative reaffirms the ridesharing technology firm’s resolve to play a catalytic role in the mass adoption of fintech innovations such as BHIM/UPI for millions of riders and driver partners. Launching the integration, Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology and Law & Justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said "India’s digital economy will become a 1 trillion dollar economy in the next five years. India’s digital payments economy alone will be bigger than 500 billion dollar. Integration of Uber app with UPI-BHIM will boost the digital economy of India.” Underscoring the significance of India as a priority market for Uber that clocked double-digit growth and completed 500 million trips within less than four years of operations, David Richter, SVP-Global Business, Uber reaffirmed to the audience that India, one of the largest markets for the ride-sharing technology firm, will remain a priority for the company globally and will continue to witness the rollout of a robust pipeline of new products and features for both riders and driver partners. After demonetisation, businesses in India have witnessed a significant uptick in adoption of digital payment methods over cash transactions and Uber believes that fintech innovations such as UPI are the future of payments in India. Echoing this sentiment, David Richter, SVP-Global Business, Uber said, "We are proud to be a partner in the government's monumental mission to create a digital payments led society and thrilled to announce UPI integration, a significant collaborative step towards unlocking the potential of fintech innovations in accelerating the growth of the nation's digital economy.” “Uber, like several other tech companies in India and around the world, depends on consumers being able to frequently make low value payments with minimal friction. UPI integration will bring millions of riders and driver partners into the digital payments ecosystem, offering them another secure and seamless payment interface and bolster the nation’s digital payment revolution,” he said. As a technology driven company, Uber is encouraged by the recent moves of the government towards mainstreaming digital payments. Hailing the impact that new-age fintech solutions such as UPI can make, as a first step, Uber offered its riders the option to use their existing UPI IDs to pay for their rides in July 2017. With over 9.4 million Uber trips a week in India this July, the potential for encouraging adoption of UPI across riders is immense. Equally significant will be the impact on the driver side. Through the steadfast adoption of BHIM over the next few weeks among its 285,000+ weekly active drivers, the move will additionally enable over 450,000 registered drivers on the Uber platform to experience the power of UPI. UNI ADP ADG 2004