In August 2026, Indians made 24.51 billion payments through UPI, the Unified Payments Interface. It was an all-time high, according to data from the National Payments Corporation of India.
Here the ideal of rapid transformation and the daily routine meet.
On March 27, 2020, the Reserve Bank of India permitted lenders “to grant a moratorium of three months on payment of all instalments” falling due between March 1 and May 31. In May it extended the moratorium “by another three months, i.e., from 1 June 2020 to 31 August 2020,” as Business Standard reported.
“The most important class of credit Instruments that evolved in India were termed Hundis,” the Reserve Bank of India writes in its history of payment systems. One kind, the sah-jog hundi, was “payable only to a Sah or to his order.”
The RBI explains who that was. “A Sah was a respectable and responsible person, a man of worth and substance who was known in the market.”
Income tax returns for the assessment year 2025-26 were due on July 31, 2025. The Central Board of Direct Taxes moved the date to September 15. Then it decided “to further extend the due date for filing these ITRs for AY 2025-26 from 15th September, 2025 to 16th September, 2025.” Taxpayers had complained of problems with the filing portal, The Tribune reported.
July 31, 2024, was the last day for filing income tax returns. That evening the Income Tax Department posted on X that more than 7 crore returns had been filed so far. It added: “over 50 lakh ITRs have been filed today till 7 pm.” Fifty lakh is five million.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, banks opened 18,096,130 accounts from August 23 to 29, 2014. Guinness World Records recognized it as a world record. In March 2018 the government said that around 20 percent of Jan Dhan accounts were dormant.
India’s Planning Commission was set up on March 15, 1950. It drew up the country’s Five-Year Plans. It reported directly to the Prime Minister, and Jawaharlal Nehru was its first chairman. The Prime Minister was its ex officio chairperson.
On January 1, 2015, a Cabinet resolution replaced the Planning Commission with NITI Aayog. Its chairperson is the Prime Minister.
On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced at 8 p.m. that 500 and 1,000 rupee notes would be scrapped. The board of the Reserve Bank of India had taken the decision at 5:30 p.m. the same day. Before the Cabinet met that evening, ministers and officials were asked to switch off their mobile phones.
“When I went to the cabinet meeting, I had no idea such a big move would be announced,” the minister Piyush Goyal said later.
India’s Fourth Five-Year Plan was due to begin in 1966. It did not. Two successive years of drought, a devaluation of the rupee, rising prices and shrinking resources had disrupted the planning process. India made three Annual Plans instead, and the Fourth Plan began in 1969. The gap became known as the Plan Holiday.
Something similar happened in 1990. Because of the political situation, the Eighth Plan could not start, and 1990 to 1992 were treated as Annual Plans.
On Diwali, India’s stock exchanges hold a one-hour session called Muhurat trading. It marks the start of the new Samvat year. On October 21, 2025, the NSE and the BSE opened the session at 1:45 p.m. for the start of Samvat 2082.