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India offers UPI to the world

India offers UPI to the world

India is making a host of its e-governance tools - including the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Aadhaar identity service - available to other countries via open APIs.

Available via the India Stack website, the project is "a set of open APIs and digital public goods that aim to unlock the economic primitives of identity, data, and payments at population scale".

Says the site: "The principles, technologies, and functionality of India Stack can be applied in any country. None of the systems which comprise India Stack require any proprietary technology or intellectual property which would preclude their implementation in any other country."

In a speech during Digital India Week, prime minister Narendra Modi boasted about the success of the instant payments network, UPI, claiming: "Everyone, including the World Bank, has appreciated it as the best platform."

Launched in 2016, the UPI has now handled 99 billion transactions, recording 2200 every second in May.

Along with the RuPay card network, UPI has been central to India's efforts to use digital payments to boost financial inclusion. Modi says this has proved a huge success, noting: "Once, I found that a beggar in Bihar was begging on a platform and he was taking money digitally."

Says Modi: "Therefore, today digital products like UPI are the centre of attraction for developed countries of the world, or those countries which cannot invest in this type of technology. Our digital solutions have the reach, are secure and have democratic values."

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