India in talks with 30 countries regarding UPI: MeitY minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

India is in talks with 30 countries regarding Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and three countries have already signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) in this regard, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Ashwini Vaishnaw said on July 4.

Vaishnaw, who was addressing the audience during the inauguration of Digital India Week 2022, said, “PM Modi asked us to make UPI available for the rest of the world. So, we are in discussions with 30 countries regarding UPI, and have already signed MoUs with three countries – France, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore.”

Vaishnaw said this while giving an overview of India's public digital platforms, and said these platforms have avoided the creation of monopolies in the digital services sector -- the kind, he said, that are present in developed countries.

Vaishnaw also said that in May and June this year, India recorded above 10 lakh crore transactions over UPI.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi who inaugurated the event,  said, “Entire world is attracted by UPI and in fact, it has been appreciated by everyone, including the World Bank.”

Modi said that 1,30,000 UPI transactions are recorded every minute in the country. He also said that 40% of the world’s digital transactions happen in India. “Our digital solutions are scalable, secure and democratic,” he added.

Meanwhile, Vaishnav also appreciates the startup ecosystem in the country saying that there are 7 lakh startups in the country as of now and that they have created 7 lakh jobs. startups have created 7 lakh jobs, and 70,000 startups

Vaishnaw also informed that there are 5 lakh jobs in the electronics manufacturing sector, which the government is aiming to take to 80 lakhs in the next few years.

Apart from that, the Prime Minister launched IndiaStack.Global, a platform where open and interoperable digital solutions from the country can be accessed by other countries.

Modi also launched MyScheme, a scheme discovery platform; a portal called National Single Sign-On - Meri Pehchan, which is a platform for accessing services such MyGov, Cowin, Umang, and so on.

He also launched Digital India Bhashini, a platform that aims at providing access to the Internet to citizens in their own languages; Genesis for promoting startups in tier 2 and tier 3 cities and Chips to Startups, a scheme that aims at promoting the furthering of the semiconductor industry in the country.

The scheme aims to generate 175 semiconductor chips and 85,000 chip designers with the help of 100 institutions. As of now, 13 institutions will be supported under this program.