Prime Minister Modi, Ranil Wickremesinghe of Sri Lanka and Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth of Mauritius to witness the launch of UPI services in Sri Lanka and Mauritius.
Launch Of UPI Services: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe, and Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth will witness the launch of Unified Payment Interface (UPI) services in Sri Lanka and Mauritius, and RuPay card services in Mauritius, on Monday 12 February, 2024 at 1 PM via video conferencing, said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a release.
India has emerged as a leader in Fintech innovation and Digital Public Infrastructure. The Prime Minister has placed a strong emphasis on sharing our development experiences and innovation with partner countries. Given India’s robust cultural and people-to-people linkages with Sri Lanka and Mauritius, the launch will benefit a wide cross-section of people through a faster and seamless digital transaction experience and enhance digital connectivity between the countries, said the MEA release.
The launch will enable the availability of UPI settlement services for Indian nationals travelling to Sri Lanka and Mauritius as well as for Mauritian nationals travelling to India. The extension of RuPay card services in Mauritius will enable Mauritian banks to issue cards based on the RuPay mechanism in Mauritius and facilitate usage of RuPay Card for settlements both in India and Mauritius.
Notably, during Wickremesinghe’s New Delhi visit in July 2023, India and Sri Lanka inked an agreement of UPI acceptance in Sri Lanka while in February 2023, PhonePe, an Indian digital payments and financial technology company launched support for cross-border UPI payments under UPI International, allowing the app users to use their Indian bank accounts to pay at merchant outlets in the UAE, Singapore, Mauritius, Nepal and Bhutan, reported The Bhutan Live.
With this, PhonePe became the first in its category to integrate UPI International. UPI International, introduced by the cross-border arm of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI International Payments Limited), facilitates UPI transactions for the Indian diaspora abroad.
Rahul Chari, CTO and co-founder of PhonePe, as quoted by The Bhutan Live, said, “UPI International is the first major step in letting the rest of the world experience UPI too. I am sure this launch will prove to be a game-changer and will completely transform the way Indians travelling overseas pay at merchant outlets abroad.”
PhonePe is India’s largest UPI app by market size as it raised USD 350 million in funding as part of its USD 1 billion fundraising ahead of an initial public offering (IPO).
The UPI payment system has become hugely popular for retail digital payments in India, and its adoption is increasing at a rapid pace. It is India’s mobile-based fast payment system, which facilitates customers to make round-the-clock payments instantly using a virtual payment address (VPA) created by the customer.
(With ANI inputs)