UPI Goes Global - Chanakya Mandal Pariwar

UPI Goes Global

Context

  • Recently, The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of India and PayNow of Singapore have been integrated to allow faster remittances between the two countries.

About the UPI (Unified Payments Interface)

  • UPI is a real-time payment system that facilitates inter-bank transactions in India.
  • It was launched in 2016 by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) as a part of the Digital India campaign.
  • UPI enables users to transfer money between bank accounts instantly using their mobile phones.
  • Users can link their bank accounts to a unique virtual payment address (VPA), created by the customer
  • It eliminates the need for entering account details such as bank account number and IFSC code

Significance of the linkage

  • Singapore is the first country with which cross-border Person to Person (P2P) payment facilities have been launched.
  • According to the ministry of external affairs (MEA) report Population of Overseas Indians (2022), there are presently 6.5 lakh Indians living in Singapore, including non-resident Indians and people of Indian origin.
  • According to the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) Remittance Survey, 2021, Singapore’s portion of the total inward remittances to India in 2020–21 was 5.7%.
  • The initiative is envisioned to have a significant positive impact on the Indian diaspora, particularly migrant workers and students in Singapore.
  • It will enable quicker and more affordable money transfers between the two nations without requiring them to adopt the other payment system.

#UPSC PYQ

  1. With reference to digital payments, consider the following statements: (2018)
  • BHIM app allows the user to transfer money to anyone with a UPI-enabled bank account.
  • While a chip-pin debit card has four factors of authentication, BHIM app has only two factors of authentication.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

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