The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has blinked. By deferring the introduction of a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) until immediately after Diwali, policymakers have acknowledged a delicate economic reality that tampering with India’s primary digital economic engine right before the festive shopping peak could trigger an unwanted consumer slowdown. Yet, it appears that the era of entirely free digital liquidity is drawing t