India's UPI to be launched in Sri Lanka, Mauritius today

India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is set to be launched in Sri Lanka and Mauritius today, February 12, adding to the growing list of countries where the payments system is either acceptable or linked to their own fast-payments network.

The launch will see Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe, and Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth in attendance, video conferencing, at 1 PM on February 12. The respective central bank governors will also be present at the launch.

In addition to the UPI, RuPay card services will also be launched in Mauritius.

"Given India's robust cultural and people-to-people linkages with Sri Lanka and Mauritius, the launch will benefit a wide cross-section of people through a faster and seamless digital transaction experience and enhance digital connectivity between the countries," the Indian government said in a statement on February 11.

"The launch will enable availability of UPI settlement services for Indian nationals travelling to Sri Lanka and Mauritius as well as for Mauritian nationals travelling to India. The extension of RuPay card services in Mauritius will enable Mauritian banks to issue cards based on RuPay mechanism in Mauritius and facilitate usage of RuPay Card for settlements both in India and Mauritius," it added.

Over the last couple of years, Indian authorities have tried to push the use of the rupee and its payments systems globally, with the RBI announcing the setting up of a mechanism to settle global trade in rupees in July 2022. Last year in July, India signed an MoU to link the UPI with UAE's Instant Payment Platform, or IPP. That came close on the heels of Modi announcing during his visit to France that Indian tourists will be able to make rupee payments using UPI from atop the Eiffel Tower. Before that in February, India and Singapore inked a pact to link the UPI and Singapore's fast payments system PayNow. Discussions are also on with Indonesia as well as countries from Latin American and Africa.

The event will be broadcast live on RBI's Youtube channel, starting at 1 pm