Asia Press Agency

Tag: Digital Infrastructure

  • India Explores Collaboration with African Nations for UPI

    India Explores Collaboration with African Nations for UPI

    India is engaging in discussions with a range of African countries, such as Namibia, Mozambique, and Kenya, to support the development of its Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and foster commercial partnerships between payment platforms. This move follows the statement by Ritesh Shukla, International CEO of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), that the number of countries with live UPI systems will double in the next 12-18 months.

     

    Ritesh Shukla highlighted the common challenges faced by many countries, including financial inclusion, rural economic support, fintech incubation, and transparency. India aims to collaborate with these nations to assist them in creating their own sovereign versions of UPI.

     

    India is pursuing two strategies to expand UPI’s global presence. The first involves aiding partner countries in constructing platforms and digital infrastructure. The second entails establishing commercial partnerships and linkages with existing foreign platforms, making transactions more convenient for Indian travelers and migrants.

     

    Currently, around 30 million Indians living abroad send approximately $100 billion annually. The user experience for these remittances is fragmented based on location. India seeks to standardize this experience, enhancing efficiency and convenience.

     

    This effort aligns with India’s goal of representing the interests of developing nations on the global stage. In June, India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with several nations, sharing its Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) solutions. Moreover, India is engaging with other developing countries in regions like Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia to expand these DPI partnerships.

     

    UPI adoption has also extended to India’s neighboring countries. Nepal and Bhutan have embraced the platform, while Sri Lanka is expected to operationalize UPI in the near future. This year, India and Singapore linked their payment systems to facilitate smoother remittance flows.

  • RBI Launches Public Tech Platform for Seamless Credit

    RBI Launches Public Tech Platform for Seamless Credit

    The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made an announcement regarding the initiation of the Pilot Project for the Public Tech Platform designed to facilitate seamless credit processes, as introduced by the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the RBI. This innovative Public Tech Platform is geared towards ensuring the effortless provision of credit by establishing a smooth and uninterrupted flow of essential digital data to lending institutions, as outlined by the Reserve Bank.

     

    Scheduled for a gradual launch on August 17, 2023, the Platform will be introduced in a methodical manner, both in terms of access granted to information providers and the specific use cases it will cater to. According to the RBI’s statement, the objective is to execute this platform as a pilot initiative with meticulous planning, taking into account controlled access for information providers and a targeted range of use cases. The primary aim is to enhance the efficiency of the RBI’s lending procedures, encompassing cost reduction, expedited fund disbursement, and scalability.

     

    The RBI’s release also underscores the fact that the proposed digital platform will feature an open structure, complete with accessible Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and universally accepted standards. This approach will enable all participants within the financial sector to seamlessly connect, following a ‘plug and play’ model.

     

    The initial phase of the pilot program will concentrate on specific financial products, including Kisan Credit Card loans amounting to ₹1.6 lakh per borrower, Dairy Loans, unsecured MSME loans, Personal loans, and Home loans. These offerings will be facilitated through the involvement of participating banks.

     

    Moreover, the platform is poised to establish links with various services, such as Aadhaar e-KYC, land records sourced from select State Governments (namely Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra), Satellite data, PAN Validation, Transliteration, Aadhaar e-signatures, account aggregation facilitated by Account Aggregators (AAs), and data pertaining to milk production from designated dairy cooperatives. The platform will also include data related to house and property searches.

     

    Based on the insights garnered from the pilot phase, the scope and extent of coverage will subsequently be broadened to encompass a more comprehensive array of products, information providers, and lending institutions, as detailed in the RBI’s official release.