UPI: Local & global

India-Singapore link is an encouraging first step

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the real-time payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has done much to revolutionise the digital payments ecosystem in the country. Tuesday’s demonstration of a live cross-border transaction via mobile phones between Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das and Monetary Authority of Singapore Managing Director Ravi Menon indicates the level to which this indigenously developed technology built on the India Stack platform has matured.

Though the India-Singapore link marks a big step forward, it is a relatively limited exercise still, and clearly in the nature of a test case. It