UPI services Launched in Sri Lanka And Mauritius

The scope of Unified Payment Interface (UPI) has increased rapidly in the last few years in the country. It is also being expanded abroad. In this series, UPI service was launched in Sri Lanka and Mauritius on Monday. Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mauritius Prime Minister Praveen Jugnauth also participated in this virtual event along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India's bilateral economic relations with these two countries are strengthening. RuPay card service has also been launched in Mauritius. This will make UPI service available to Indians traveling to Sri Lanka and Mauritius. Prime Minister Modi has described it as connecting historical relations with modern digital technology. He expressed hope that new fintech services will help both the countries. Modi said that UPI has taken up the new responsibility of uniting allies with India. Modi said, “This is a special occasion for three friendly countries in the Indian Ocean region as our historical relations are being linked with modern digital technology.”

In the last few months, the scope of digital rupee has also increased in the country. This has made it easier for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to meet its target of 10 lakh transactions per day by the end of last year. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or e-Rupee has been created through distributed ledger technology as a digital alternative to cash. The trial of e-rupee was started by RBI. However, after this, by October last year, these transactions had reached about 25,000 per day. Its use case was also expanded and it was linked to the widely used Unified Payment Interface (UPI).

UPI provides the facility to send money through mobile apps. At the end of last year, some big government and private banks had transferred the amount related to employee benefit schemes to the CBDC wallets of employees. These included HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, Canara Bank and IDFC First Bank. Due to this, these transactions have increased rapidly. RBI expects that some non-financial firms may also use this method. This will enable these transactions to be expedited.