UPI: It’s the digital public code of the world, and very affordable
NEW DELHI : The number of countries where the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) “is live" is set to double in the next 12 to 18 months, said Ritesh Shukla, the chief executive officer of NPCI International, the firm running India’s flagship retail payment and settlement system. European countries will be a key focus for greater collaboration and commercial partnerships, including Lyra, a French firm that will be an interoperability partner for UPI in France. In addition, India and the UAE, home to a large number of Indians, are working to operationalize cross-border remittances and personal payments.
Shukla also confirmed a conversation with Saudi Arabia on a possible UPI collaboration, reported by Mint in June. Edited excerpts: How do you think UPI has progressed in international markets? There are two things we are doing overseas. There are many countries in the world which have similar problems we had before the advent of UPI.
These are financial inclusion, supporting rural economies, fintech incubation, transparency and other things. We are looking at partnering with those countries to help them create their own versions of UPI in a very sovereign manner. And this outreach includes not only technology sharing but also sharing business know-how, which the way we operate this platform.
So that’s the first part which we also call ‘infrastructure build’. The second pillar of our strategy is connecting UPI in India with other such ecosystems to serve two use-cases. One is merchant payments—when your visitors, including tourists, businessmen or even students are going overseas, they should be able to have the option of using UPI-powered apps in different markets by scanning the QR codes.
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