PM Modi urges fintech sector to expand UPI's

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged India's fintech ecosystem to expand the global footprint of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). He made the call while inaugurating the Global Fintech Fest on Tuesday, stating the platform is now operational in 11 countries.

Modi said the focus should be on nations with a large Indian diaspora, high trade volumes with India, or those willing to partner with New Delhi on system connectivity. He argued this is essential for reducing remittance costs. Indians working abroad are the world's largest remitters, and a portion of their money is lost to transaction fees. UPI can help save these costs and speed up transfers to families.

UPI's current global footprint

The Prime Minister reported that UPI is now live in 11 countries. It has been connected with Singapore's local payments system, making transactions between the two countries as seamless as payments between two local neighbourhoods. Modi positioned this as a strategic alternative to global card payment systems designed elsewhere. He stated India can now set its own rules and standards and connect them with the world.

Reiterating a comment from French President Emmanuel Macron, Modi said UPI is not only a tech story but also a civilisational one.

The next chapter for Indian fintech

Modi said the industry's next goal should be moving beyond payments. After years of success with UPI, which processed 24.51 billion real-time transactions as of August, the sector should now enable access to savings products, pensions, insurance, and other financial services. He cited the PM-SVANidhi initiative for street vendors as an example. UPI enabled working capital credit, increasing beneficiaries' average annual income by 20 percent.

The Prime Minister said technology allows for curated models tailored to individual needs. The fintech sector should make non-payment transactions as easy as scanning a QR code for payment.

Future focus and safeguards

Upcoming technological developments like agentic artificial intelligence, tokenisation, and quantum tech present new possibilities, Modi said. He urged the fintech sector to set specific goals in these areas. Simultaneously, he called for top-notch cybersecurity, industry-led ethical data protection standards, and a transparent fintech consumer protection index to rate companies.

India also needs to create a strong fintech-regulator-industry-innovation ecosystem, the Prime Minister added.

Economic context and confidence

Modi framed India's economic performance against a backdrop of global conflict and supply chain pressures. He noted India's 7.8 percent real GDP growth in a challenging quarter, impacted by the West Asia conflict, gave confidence to the world. He pointed to the Japan Credit Rating Agency's recent upgrade of India to 'A-' from 'BBB ' as evidence of global confidence. This was the first such upgrade in three decades, which Modi said reflects comfort with India's growth momentum, macroeconomic stability, and structural reforms.