UPI Transaction / Once again UPI made a mark, these countries including India also adopted it

UPI Transaction: Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has changed the picture of India's digital payment revolution all over the world with its success. From January to November in the year 2023, 15,547 crore transactions worth ₹ 223 lakh crore were recorded through UPI. These figures not only reflect the tremendous growth of digital transactions, but also prove India's strong hold in financial technology (FinTech). This dominance of UPI is growing rapidly globally, and there are plans to launch it in many more countries by 2025.

UPI Expansion: Preparations beyond seven countries

Currently, UPI is available in seven countries:

Bhutan

Mauritius

Nepal

Singapore

Sri Lanka

France

Other South-East Asian countries

More than 20 apps like BHIM, PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm are supporting international transactions in these countries. Ritesh Shukla, CEO of NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), said that the scope of UPI is going to grow rapidly in the coming years.

UPI's global roadmap: Towards new countries

NPCI aims to launch UPI in South-East Asia as well as Qatar and other countries. Apart from this, UPI is being helped to establish real-time payment systems like India in countries like Peru, Namibia, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Shukla said:

"We are helping these countries to develop their domestic payment systems. When these systems are fully ready, we will connect them to India's UPI to facilitate cross-border payments between the two countries."

How will UPI expand?

NIPL is working on two main strategies for the expansion of UPI:

Bilateral efforts

Multilateral efforts

The multilateral initiative includes Project Nexus of BIS (Bank for International Settlements). This project is working with the central banks of countries like India, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand to connect their instant payment systems.

Promoting P2P and P2M payments

The international expansion of UPI is mainly focused on two types of transactions:

P2P (Peer-to-Peer): Person-to-person transactions

P2M (Peer-to-Merchant): Person-to-seller transactions

UPI aims to promote P2P and P2M transactions abroad in the same way as it is doing successfully in India.

Reason for the success of UPI

The main reason for the success of UPI is its speed, security and convenience. Features like QR code, mobile number and Virtual Payment Address (VPA) have made it extremely popular. Along with this, UPI's "24x7 instant payment" system remains a center of attraction for countries around the world.

Way forward

The process of international adoption of UPI, a symbol of India's digital payment revolution, is progressing rapidly. In the coming times, NPCI's plans can prove to be a game-changer for many countries of the world. India is not only demonstrating its technical proficiency, but is also moving towards giving a new direction to the global digital payment system.