Hummingbird News Desk
NEW DELHI, 21 FEB: India and Singapore have launched a revolutionary Person-to-Person (P2P) payment facility that allows seamless cross-border transactions between the two countries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that India has accorded top priority to creating an appropriate environment to encourage innovation and modernisation. “Our Digital India programme has ensured ease of living and ease of doing business leading to better governance through reforms,” the PM said.
The real-time payment linkage between the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of India and PayNow of Singapore was launched with great fanfare. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das and Monetary Authority of Singapore Managing Director Ravi Menon made live cross-border transactions to each other using their respective mobile phones.
This facility is the first-of-its-kind between two countries and will help the Indian diaspora in Singapore, especially migrant workers and students. It will bring the benefits of digitalisation and FINTECH to the common man through the instantaneous and low-cost transfer of money from Singapore to India and vice-versa. Acceptance of UPI payments through QR codes is already available in selected merchant outlets in Singapore.
The virtual launch was preceded by a phone call between the two prime ministers in which they discussed subjects of mutual interest. PM Modi thanked the Singapore leader for his partnership in taking the India-Singapore relationship forward and said he looked forward to working with him under India’s G20 Presidency.
PM Modi stated that the Digital India initiative has helped governance and made possible unprecedented reforms in public service delivery. ”It is because of India’s digital infrastructure that we were able to directly transfer money to the accounts of crores of people during the Covid pandemic,” he added.
The linking of fintech services between India and Singapore will take technology to a new level,” Modi said, adding it would provide a low-cost real-time platform for remittance transfers to people in both countries. Modi said the launch of the UPI-PayNow linkage was a gift to the citizens of the two countries, which they were waiting for eagerly.
This historic partnership will help strengthen the relationship between India and Singapore while benefiting the common man through its cutting-edge technology.
Tags: #India #Singapore #PayNow #UPI #NarendraModi
