RuPay, UPI technologies India’s identity in the world: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated on Tuesday that RuPay and UPI technologies are India’s global identity.

“In the era of ‘Industry 4.0’, platforms developed by India are becoming models for the world,” PM Modi said while addressing a post-Budget webinar on the subject of ‘Enhancing Efficiency of the Financial Services for Creating Growth Opportunities. This was the tenth of a 12-part webinar series organized by the government. The webinars are being held to solicit 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.

India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing ecosystems for fintech innovation, and the PM Modi-led government has played a key role in accelerating the globalization of India’s digital payment infrastructure. PM Modi has placed a strong emphasis on ensuring that the benefits of UPI are not limited to India alone, but that other countries benefit as well.

India and Singapore last month linked their respective online payment systems — Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of India and PayNow of Singapore — for seamless cross-border transactions between the two countries in a first-of-its-kind collaboration. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong attended the virtual launch event.

The integration of both countries’ payment systems would allow residents of both countries to transfer cross-border remittances more quickly and cheaply. People in both countries will be able to send money in real-time by scanning QR codes or entering mobile phone numbers linked to their bank accounts.

Separately, given the popularity of the UPI payment system, the Reserve Bank of India proposed allowing all inbound visitors to India to use UPI for merchant payments while in the country. In India, the UPI payment system has become extremely popular for retail digital payments, and its adoption is rapidly increasing. To begin, travelers from G-20 countries will have access to the facility.