UPI Can Be A Template For Countries Looking To Deploy Digital Payments: PM Modi

Touting the homegrown digital payments ecosystem, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday (February 24) said that the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) can serve as a template for other countries to emulate.

“Our digital payments ecosystem has been developed as a free public good. This has radically transformed governance, financial inclusion, and ease of living in India…Examples like UPI can be templates for many other countries too. We would be happy to share our experience with the world. And, the G20 can be a vehicle for this,” PM Modi said during his virtual address at the inaugural meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Bengaluru.

However, Modi also said that the recent innovations in the field of digital finance may pose risks related to destabilisation and misuse. He called on the G20 delegates to explore development of standards to regulate the possible risks associated with the fintech arena, while using the technology for good. 

Saying that India has created a highly secure, highly trusted, and highly efficient public digital infrastructure over the past few years, the PM called on the G20 representatives to experience how Indian customers have ‘willingly’ adopted digital payments.

The two-day meeting of the G20 Ministers will cover issues related to leveraging digital public goods infrastructure for scaling financial inclusion; financing resilient, inclusive, and sustainable cities for tomorrow; and strengthening multilateral development banks to address issues related to sustainable development goals.

The event was also attended by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, International Monetary Fund (IMF) MD Kristalina Georgieva, Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth, Infosys cofounder and co-chair of India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure for Economic Transformation Nandan Nilekani, among others. 

Focus On Digital Public Infra

In their speeches at the event, FM Sitharaman and Governor Das focused on issues related to sustainable finance and infrastructure. 

On the other hand, Economic Affairs Secretary Seth said that digital innovations have emerged as a ‘great leveller and enabler’ of growth across the globe. 

Chiming in, Nilekani said that India has leveraged digital public infrastructure to solve societal and service delivery problems, which has subsequently led to cost savings for the government, increased transparency and accountability, and encouraged access to finance and innovations.

India has been leveraging its G20 presidency to push for state-backed and homegrown digital products like the UPI. Last month, union minister Piyush Goyal said that India is open to sharing its expertise with other countries in the field of digital public goods delivery.

The Bengaluru event is part of India’s focus on innovation, startups and digital public infrastructure ever since the country assumed the presidency of G20 earlier this year. The country plans to use the G20 platform to push for leveraging digital public infrastructure for inclusive growth and development.

Besides, the government has also set up a task force on Digital Public Infrastructure for Economic Transformation, Financial Inclusion and Development to aid in the project. 

With projects like UPI, ONDC, account aggregator network and other pieces of the IndiaStack, a host of new startups have emerged in the country while developing a clutch of new use cases for the government to offer targeted delivery of services and increasing transparency and accountability.