Paris: On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that his country had reached an agreement with France to implement the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in this European nation.
Modi recently announced that Indian tourists will soon be able to use UPI to make rupee payments at the Eiffel Tower, when addressing the Indian community at the La Seine Musicale, a performing arts institution on an island in the river Seine.
"An agreement to use India's UPI has been reached in France.The prime minister announced that the programme would begin at the Eiffel Tower so that Indian visitors may use the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to make payments in Indian Rupees.
UPI's parent company, India's National Payments Corporation (NPCI), inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Lyra, France's quick and secure online payment system, in 2022.
To facilitate international trade, UPI and PayNow of Singapore formed an agreement in 2023.
UPI has already been accepted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bhutan, and Nepal.
NPCI International is now in discussions to expand UPI services to additional countries in the Americas, Europe, and West Asia.
Modi also announced that during the next few weeks or months, a statue of the famous Tamil philosopher Thiruvalluvar will be built in the Cergy Prefecture, to cries of "Modi, Modi" and "Bharat Mata ki Jai."
Modi said that graduate students in France will now be eligible for five-year visas.
As India rapidly advances towards becoming a developed nation, the Prime Minister has urged the Indian community to invest heavily in the country.
“Today every rating agency is saying that India is a bright spot. You invest in India now. This is the opportune time. Those who invest early will reap benefits,” Modi said.
Modi also reflected on his personal history with France, which he said dated back at least four decades to when he became the first member of the Alliance Francaise Centre in Ahmedabad.
My love for France is very old, and I know it will never fade. The prime minister of India remarked, "Roughly forty years ago, a French cultural centre was established in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and the very first member of that centre is here with us today."
Modi has said that India is the cradle of democracy and the cradle of cultural variety.
This is one of our greatest advantages. More than one hundred languages and one thousand sub-dialects are spoken in India. The prime minister boasted that more than 32,000 newspapers were published in these languages every day. —Inputs from Agencies
