The primary focus of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the French Republic is generally on matters related to defence. However, the two countries have agreed to take giant steps in other areas such as digital economy, manufacturing, and clean energy, which includes developments related to the 9900MW nuclear power plant in Jaitapur, Maharashtra.
After five years, the India-France CEO Forum has been activated, and on July 14, 2023, will have a meeting in Quai d’Orsay, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Office, with ten to twelve corporate leaders from each side. Hari Bhartia, the co-chairman of Jubilant Bhartia Group, will lead the Indian side.
Paul Hermelin, the Chairman of Information Technologies firm Capgemini SE will represent the French side. He has been appointed by the French government as the point person of business and trade with India. The organisation employs around 200,000 people in India and is set to open a 6G laboratory in Pune.
The bilateral trade between India and France has doubled since 2014 (12 billion Euros) with the balance in favour of India. However, the big-ticket item that is currently work under progress between the two countries is the possible launch of digital payment technology called Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in France by PM Modi during his two-day visit.
In 2023, Singaporean Pay Now and UPI from India signed an agreement to allow users in either country to make cross-border transactions. If the Emmanuel Macron government agrees to the same with UPI-NPCI, the company behind the UPI and French Lyra have been working on this for a year, then France would become the first country in Europe to have the UPI.
The linkage between Pay Now and the UPI will enable residents of both countries to the faster and more cost-efficient transfer of cross-border remittances. People in both countries will be able to send money in real-time via QR-code based or simply by entering mobile numbers linked to the bank account.
It will be highly beneficial for the Indian Diaspora, especially migrant workers and students, through the instantaneous and low-cost transfer of money from Singapore to India and vice-versa.
It is understood that if all agreements are closed in time, the linkage launched by PM Modi from an iconic location in Paris. The other major focus of PM Modi’s visit is clean energy. It was from Paris that the International Solar Alliance (ISA) was launched in 2015, which today has hundred member countries. The key focuses this time will be on green hydrogen, renewable batteries and small modular reactors.
It is in this context that the two sides have made significant progress in the 1650X6 MW Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant Project with forward momentum to technical discussions on the 8000-page techno-commercial offer made by France in 2019. It is understood that this exercise will come to fruition soon, and the plant will become a reality as a part of a bilateral clean energy initiative.
The French are also open to the Transfer of Technology (ToT) and are keen to get companies from France to diversify their management and sourcing footprint and are looking at India as an alternative supply chain hub to China. France is also ready to build collaboration with India for EXA Scale computing and has been India’s partner in supercomputing in the past and shared technology.
India has introduced the UPI system at the G-20 level. It has called on the G-20 countries to adopt the UPI and the Aadhar to promote digitisation across the world.
“India leads the world in real-time digital payments by clocking almost 40 per cent of all such transactions,” said Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
With more than 48 billion digital transactions, Bharat led the global list in 2021. Bharat did almost three times more transactions than China, which is second by completing 18 billion transactions, and 6.5 times more than the transactions done by the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Also Read: https://organiser.org/2022/11/09/98271/bharat/upi-digital-ashvamedha-of-bharat/
The Unified Payments Interface is an advanced version of Immediate Payment Services. It is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application. It makes cashless payments faster, easier, and smoother.
The National Payments Corporation of India developed the idea of the UPI. It is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India and the Indian Ban Associations. It is much faster than the NEFT (National Electronics Fund Transfer) and is available for 24 hours.
One of the key benefits of UPI is the ease of use, which makes it attractive for small business owners and vendors. To use UPI, one needs to have a bank account and a UPI ID.
Unlike traditional payment methods, such as credit and debit cards, UPI payments do not require any physical cards or point-of-sale (POS) machines. With the help of the UPI, small vendors and merchants can simply display their UPI ID, and customers can make payments through their UPI-enabled mobile applications. It also provides real-time processing and is very secure. It has a restriction or limit on the number of transactions,and it is financially inclusive as well.
Complaints can be raised through the Mobile app directly, and the fund transfer is free of cost. It is also available during holidays. Neither the Payee nor the beneficiary is required to share bank details. Also, there is no need for an ATM card or account details while making the transactions. The payments can be made through Virtual Payments Address.
UPI has more than 300 million registered users as of August 2021 and processed more than 3 billion transactions monthly. In India, UPI has surpassed other digital payment options like credit and debit cards to become the preferred way of transaction.
Thus, it can be said that the UPI is a payment tool for ordinary Indians for their regular payments too.
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