Page 57 - Mann Ki Baat - English, February,2023
P. 57

P. Kumaran
                       High Commissioner of India to Singapore
          Cross-Border Financial Inclusion with UPI-PayNow

               India and Singapore are      expanded by the end of this month
          linked by cultural, trade, and    to include more consumers and
          people-to-people     relations,   more use-cases, to cover larger
          spanning many centuries. Today,   sections of the population. Once
          we are strategic partners with    fully implemented,  it  will allow
          a   vibrant,  multi-dimensional   low-cost and real-time transfer
          relationship that has expanded    of money from Singapore to India
          to  many  areas of politics,      and vice-versa, between bank
          economics,    and     security.   accounts or e-wallets on the two
          The last few years have seen      sides. As the Prime Minister noted,
          the relationship scaling new      this will greatly help the Indian
          heights, in new and emerging      diaspora in Singapore, especially
          areas such as Fintech, digital    migrant workers, students, and
          connectivity, Green Economy, skill   also tourists, and bring the
          development, and SMART cities.    benefit of digitization and Fintech
              One recent example of such    to the common man.
          bilateral cooperation for the        India’s    progress     in
          benefit of the common man was     digitalization   and   financial
          highlighted by Prime Minister     inclusion    is     becoming
          Narendra Modi in his ‘Mann ki     increasingly well-known outside
                             th
          Baat’ address of 26  February,    the country. The India-Singapore
          2023. India’s UPI and Singapore’s   UPI-PayNow link will provide a
          PayNow have now been linked       useful template  for  linking UPI
          together. Our Prime Minister,     with  payment systems  of  other
          along with Prime Minister of      countries,  to  achieve  more
          Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong,       such   cross-border   financial
          witnessed   the   commercial      connectivity,  regionally  and
          launch of this pathbreaking       globally.
          initiative to link the two systems.
              In   the   first   stage,   we
          understand  that this  facility will
                                            Scan the QR code to know
          be available on a pilot basis
                                            P.  Kumaran's  views  on  the
          to individuals onboarded to
                                            benefits of UPI-PayNow.
          the programme. It will then be
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