India, Nov. 12 -- The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has introduced a new scheme to expand UPI acceptance among small merchants. Under the new initiative, the payments body will offer incentives to banks for deploying QR codes and soundboxes to further drive transaction growth.

The scheme will be funded through a portion of the merchant discount rate (MDR) earned by banks and other UPI ecosystem participants.

In a circular dated November 11, NPCI announced the launch of the 'UPI Vyapaar Saksham Scheme', which aims to address the limited availability of digital payment acceptance infrastructure among small merchants, particularly in smaller cities and towns.

The scheme will run for a period of three years from the impleme...