Platform-Driven Fintech in India: SME Inclusion and Global Expansion
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Abstract
This essay examines the impact of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on financial inclusion in India, particularly for SMEs, and ponders whether or not the service can be replicated in other countries. I apply a Vector Autoregression (VAR) model to the monthly transaction volumes between January 2020 and December 2025 in order to identify the dynamic interaction between the number of transactions, the value of transactions, and the number of transactions per day. Fundamentally, the cointegration test indicates that there is a long-run equilibrium of the three sets of series, and the Granger causality tests inform us that there is a powerful two-way causality. Stated differently, both volume and value have a strong relationship with the daily average. Due to these outcomes, it is possible to state that platform-like fintech could help to reduce the inclusion gap and make India a leader within the international digital payment landscape.
Keywords: Unified Payments Interface, fintech, financial inclusion, SMEs, VAR, digital payments, India
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