UPI Should Become a Means of Financial Inclusion, Empowerment for Whole World: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said RuPay and UPI technologies are India's identity in the world.

"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 the series of 12 webinars being organised by the government. The objective behind hosting the webinars is 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.

India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing ecosystems for fintech innovation and the PM Modi-led government has been instrumental in driving the globalisation of India's digital payment infrastructure.

A key emphasis of PM Modi has been on ensuring that the benefits of UPI 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. The virtual launch function was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong.

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. 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.

Separately, taking into account 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.

UPI payments system has become hugely popular for retail digital payments in India, and its adoption is increasing at a rapid pace. To begin with, the facility will be extended to travellers from G-20 countries.