PM Modi for globalising Indian digital payments model, seeks bigger private sector push in fintech

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today underlined the need to further expand the scope of fintech so that the benefits of India’s economic development reaches every citizen of the country.  

“In the era of ‘Industry 4.0’ platforms developed by India are becoming models for the world”, Modi said while addressing the 10th post budget webinar on ‘Enhancing Efficiency of the Financial Services for Creating Growth Opportunities’

Pointing out the success of the country’s flagship digital platform, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) the Prime Minister added that this has become the identity of India on the global stage.

“RuPay and UPI are not just a low cost and highly secure technology, but it is our identity in the world. There is immense scope for innovation. UPI should become a means of financial inclusion and empowerment for the whole world, we have to collectively work for it. I suggest that our financial institutions should also have maximum partnership with fintechs to increase their reach”, Modi said.

India has already started taking measures to make Rupay more acceptable in other nations. Last year PM Modi along with former Nepalese PM Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the RuPay digital payment system in Nepal.

To further widen the usage of the UPI and promote digital transactions, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das has now launched a new programme “Har Payment Digital.” Das said that UPI has capacity to process one billion transactions a day.

“Currently the number of transactions done through UPI is 26 crore (260 million) per day. The system has the capacity to handle 100 crore (one billion) transactions per day. So the system is geared to onboard new customers into the UPI platform,” Das said.

Meanwhile, urging the country’s private sector to increase investments, the Prime Minister also said the mantra of ‘vocal for local’ is not is not a matter of choice but is a national responsibility and is part of the overall vision of self-reliance.

Since 2020 Modi has been stressing the need to amplify the ‘vocal for local’ dictum to combat the Covid 19 impact on the economy while maintaining supply chain network.

Modi also touched upon the big jump in the capital expenditure outlay of Rs 10 lakh crore compared to last year’s Rs 7.5 lakh crore provided for in last year’s budget. “Today, I would also call upon the private sector of the country to increase their investment just like the government so that the country gets maximum benefit from it”, he said.

The jump in capital investment is expected to have a multiplier effect, boosting productivity, employment while easing inflation structurally.

Also read: PM Modi invites private infra-sector to build fully developed India by 2047