New Delhi: On March 7, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said RuPay and UPI technologies are India’s identity in the world.
In a post-Budget webinar on the topic of “Enhancing Efficiency of the Financial Services for Developing Development Opportunities,” Prime Minister Modi stated, “In the era of ‘Industry 4.0’, platforms developed by India are becoming models for the world”.
This was the tenth of the series of 12 webinars being organised by the Government. The webinars aim to seek ideas and suggestions for the effective implementation of the initiatives announced in the Union Budget 2023.
“RuPay and UPI are not just a low cost and highly secure technology, but it is our identity in the world. There is immense scope for innovation. UPI should become a means of financial inclusion and empowerment for the whole world, we have to collectively work for it. I suggest that our financial institutions should also have a maximum partnership with fintech to increase their reach,” PM Modi said.
The PM Modi-led Government has been instrumental in driving the globalisation of India’s digital payment infrastructure, and India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing ecosystems for fintech innovation.
Prime Minister Modi has strongly emphasised ensuring that UPI’s benefits are not limited to India only but other countries, too, benefit from it.
In what is a first-of-its-kind collaboration with another country, India and Singapore last month linked their respective online payments systems — Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of India and PayNow of Singapore — for seamless cross-border transactions between the two countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong attended the virtual launch function.
The linkage of these two payment systems of both countries would enable residents of both countries to the faster and more cost-efficient transfer of cross-border remittances. Individuals from both nations will be able to send money in real-time by scanning QR codes or by typing in mobile numbers that are connected to the bank account.
Separately, considering the popularity of the UPI payment system, the Reserve Bank of India proposed to permit all inbound travellers to India to use UPI for their merchant payments while they are in the country.
In India, the UPI payments system has proven incredibly popular and is being adopted at a rapid rate. To begin with, the facility will be extended to travellers from G-20 countries.
