New Delhi: India, home to more than a billion people, is set to see a global expansion of the Unified Payment Interface, or UPI, which is the country's most widely used payment system. Google and the National Payments Corporation of India have inked an agreement to expand the UPI system globally. Users will be able to utilize the payment interface to easily exchange currencies with people in India and other countries.
The Worldwide Launch of UPI
The Unified Payment Interface (UPI) was created by the Indian government in April 2016 to allow users to send and receive money between different bank accounts using a single app on a peer-to-peer basis. Since then, the technology has advanced to the point that even outside parties can include UPI into their own apps or payment systems, facilitating smooth payments between all parties.
Over 300 million individuals are active on UPI, and over ten billion transactions are processed each month. Its traffic volume is marginally lower than Mastercard's and around half that of Visa. The payment mechanism has already been made available in other countries and is currently incredibly popular in India.
Google India and NPCI Memorandum
Three points were outlined in a signed memorandum announced on January 17, 2024 by Google India Digital Services Limited and NPCI foreign Payments Ltd., the foreign division of the National Payments Corporation of India, which is in charge of overseeing UPI.
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Extending the period for which Indian nationals traveling abroad may make UPI payments
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Establishing in other countries digital payment networks akin to UPI
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Using the UPI system to streamline international payment transactions
Which Three Objectives Help?
The initial objective will give international retailers the ability to take UPI payments via Google Pay and other apps. This will probably encourage their willingness to use UPI for payments, much like Alipay signage does. Although outbound tourism from India is increasing, it has not yet reached the level required to achieve this aim.
The second item aligns very closely with India's strategy to involve more nations in its "Digital Public Infrastructure" code-like UPI, which provides useful digital services that can be implemented practically anywhere in the world and have been shown to function at the Indian scale. India employs a totally different diplomatic ploy than the United States and China by using digital public infrastructure and providing aid in putting it into operation in order to engage with governments worldwide.
Unveiled by an Indian official is a "plan" to create a national mobile operating system. With plans to establish a national platform, India is aiming to compete with the biggest e-commerce corporations globally. The real-time payment system in India is used by scammers to siphon off money and transfer it to China. Do you want music to go with that? A POS terminal manufactured in India has a speaker.
The National Payments Corporation and Google have established an aim of "reducing dependence on conventional money transfer channels." The last goal is especially interesting because there are a lot of blockchain-based initiatives vying to replace established money-moving services like Western Union and the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). Cross-border payments are a market that is believed to be ripe for improvement. Memoranda of Understanding have been signed, although there is currently no verified timetable for accomplishing all three objectives.
