Neeraj Prem
Neeraj Prem leads infrastructure engineering at a digital-first small finance bank in Bengaluru. His team of SREs, database engineers, DevSecOps and cloud network engineers runs a multi-cloud estate under RBI, NPCI, PCI-DSS and CERT-In requirements. He wrote this guide to explain the machinery behind Indian payments the way he wishes it had been explained to him, with every fact sourced and dated. He writes about engineering leadership and DevOps at neerajprem.in.
Why this guide exists
The technology behind Indian banking is documented in pieces: regulators’ circulars, operators’ specifications, vendors’ brochures and the occasional press report. Each piece is accurate about its own corner and silent about the rest. Engineers joining the industry, and many who have worked in it for years, end up assembling the whole picture from memory and hallway conversations.
This guide puts that picture in one place. It starts with how a payment moves, opens up the core banking system, and works outwards through architecture, technology choices, scale, regulation and the institutions around the Reserve Bank.
How it is kept honest
Every number, date, limit and named regulation on this site comes from a register of facts, each tied to a source that was opened and read, and each carrying the date it was true. Claims that could not be confirmed are left out rather than guessed, and claims that turned out to be wrong are recorded as corrections. The details are on the sources and methodology page.
Independence
This is a personal, independent project. The views here are the author’s own and do not represent any employer. The site does not describe the internal systems of any organisation, it is not official documentation of RBIReserve Bank of India. India's central bank. It regulates banks and payment systems, runs RTGS and NEFT, and holds the accounts in which banks settle with one another., NPCINational Payments Corporation of India. A not-for-profit company set up in 2008 as an initiative of RBI and the Indian Banks' Association, owned by banks. It runs retail payment systems such as UPI and the National Financial Switch. or any bank, and nothing here is legal, compliance or investment advice.
Elsewhere
Corrections are welcome. Please include the page, the claim and a source.