Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das, said that India’s UPI system has generated a ‘lot of interest’ during ongoing G20 meetings and said that the government is ‘looking forward to linking it with payment platforms of other countries’. Das reportedly made the comments during a Digital Payments Awareness Week 2023.
“(A) lot of interest is found in India’s UPI systems during G20 meetings. Looking forward to linking it with payment platforms of other countries,” Das said. His comments may be viewed on the backdrop of the government’s fresh push to digital payments. In February, the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology launched a ‘digital payments utsav’ between February 9-October 9 to promote digital payments in the country, especially in the cities of Lucknow, Pune, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru, as part of the G20 Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG).
In February, Das had said that inbound travellers from G20 nations arriving at select airports could use the popular UPI for making payments in the country. Addressing the G20 Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting (FMCBG) later that month, PM Narendra Modi highlighted the initiatives of his government in transforming India’s digital payments ecosystem towards a global inclusion
“During our G20 presidency, we have created a new Fintech platform, which allows our global G20 guests to use India’s path-breaking digital payment platform UPI,” PM Modi said in his address. The UPI system is currently available in Singapore, UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. New Delhi has reporytedly signed MoUs with 13 countries that want to adopt the UPI interface for digital payments.
