Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) Google Pay is joining forces with the National Payments Corporation of India in a bid to take India’s groundbreaking mobile payment system, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), to global markets.
The collaboration between Google India Digital Services and NPCI is designed to simplify international payments for Indian travelers and also to assist in the development of UPI-like digital payment infrastructures in other nations. This initiative corresponds with NPCI’s ambition to enhance India’s position in the worldwide digital payment space and to simplify remittances by diminishing dependence on traditional money transfer systems.
CEO of NIPL, Ritesh Shukla, expressed his enthusiasm about the potential of this partnership. He stated, “UPI has demonstrated to the world the change that happens in economies with the introduction of interoperable, population-scale digital infrastructure and each economy that joins such networks will create an impact beyond the sum of parts.”
The Indian government, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, has been vigorously advocating for UPI’s international expansion. Last year, in a significant move, India and Singapore merged their systems, enabling real-time monetary transfers. Further collaborations with nations such as Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates are currently under exploration.
In November alone, UPI processed transactions worth approximately $209 billion, according to the most recent statistics from India’s central bank. This new partnership with Google Pay is projected to further extend UPI’s reach and influence in the international digital payments sphere.
