Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the inauguration of the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2026, at the Jio World Centre in Mumbai
| Photo Credit:
pti
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called for the next phase of India’s UPI expansion to go beyond making the payment system available overseas and focus on linking UPI with domestic payment systems in other countries, saying such interoperability could make cross-border transactions as seamless as domestic payments.Speaking at the inaugural session of the Global Fintech Fest 2026 in Mumbai, PM said UPI was already live in 11 countries, but India needed to deepen these connections, particularly in markets where large numbers of Indians live and where India has significant trade. “Today, our UPI has reached many countries. However, this is the first step. Our next target should be to connect with the payment systems in those countries. We have done this with Singapore and so transactions between both the countries are happening the way it happens between two localities of same city,” he said.“This connection we need to build in other markets and countries. Wherever Indians live in large numbers, wherever India trades on a large scale and whichever country is ready to walk alongside us, we will have to connect with every such country,” he added. Modi said deeper integration of payment systems could also help reduce the cost and time involved in remittances sent by Indians working overseas.
