Apple Pay has officially launched in India, allowing eligible cardholders to make contactless and online payments. Currently, only Axis Bank credit cards on the Visa and Mastercard networks are supported. Merchants will need to enable Apple Pay for it to function at payment terminals, so it won't be universally accepted yet. India's domestic card network, RuPay, is not compatible with Apple Pay. Several major banks, including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and SBI Card, have not yet integrated Apple Pay support. The long-awaited launch faced regulatory hurdles over the past decade. India already possesses a dominant digital payment system called the Unified Payments Interface, or UPI. UPI is a government-backed system facilitating instant bank-to-bank transfers. Crucially, UPI accounts for a significant majority of India's digital transaction volume. However, UPI is not compatible with Apple Pay, posing a potential challenge for widespread adoption.