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MODI IN FRANCE: Top Honour; Visa Boon, UPI Deal Mark First Day

Modi’s visit was an opportunity for the two nations to move into the next phase in the India-France strategic partnership and set new ambitious goals for cultural, scientific, academic, economic cooperation and wide range of interests

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been conferred the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, France’s highest award by French President Emmanuel Macron. Modi thanked President Macron for this singular honour on behalf of the people of India.

The award ceremony took place at the Elysee Palace in Paris. India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted photographs from the award ceremony that took place at the Elysee Palace here, saying “A warm gesture embodying the spirit of partnership. PM

@narendramodi conferred with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, the highest award in France by President @EmmanuelMacron”.

Earlier, the French President and First Lady Brigitte Macron hosted a private dinner for Modi at the Elysee Palace. On Thursday evening, PM Modi addressed the Indian diaspora in Paris and announced an agreement for the use of the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in France, opening a huge new market for Indian innovation in cashless instant payment.

“In France, an agreement has been made for the use of India’s UPI. It will be started from the Eiffel Tower in the coming days, and now Indian tourists will be able to make payments in rupees, through UPI, in Eiffel Tower,” the prime minister said.

Prime Minister Modi addressed the Indian community at La Seine Musicale in Paris.

During his address, he highlighted the multi-faceted India-France Strategic Partnership, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. In a significant move, the Indian Prime Minister announced that Indian students pursuing master’s degree in France will be granted an extended five years of post-study visa. Earlier Indian students were given two-year work visas.

Prime Minister also announced the opening of a new consulate in Marseille, France. He highlighted the contribution of the Indian community in France, which form a strong foundation of the India-France partnership.

Modi also met Elisabeth Borne, Prime Minister of France on July 13, 2023. The leaders discussed furthering cooperation in various areas such as economics and trade, energy, environment, education, mobility, railways, digital public infrastructure, museology and people-to-people ties. Both sides reiterated their desire to further deepen the multifaceted cooperation between India and France.

Modi’s visit was an opportunity for the two nations to move into the next phase in the India-France strategic partnership and set new ambitious goals for cultural, scientific, academic, and economic cooperation and a wide range of interests.

India and France have a similar concept of strategic autonomy and the two are attempting to create a military-industrial complex of co-development and co-production of defence items. From 2018 to 2022, France emerged as India’s second largest arms supplier, accounting for 29 per cent of imports, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The two countries are also focusing on working to keep the Indian Ocean Region stable.

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How UPI is driving India’s e-com market

UPI.

UPI recorded the biggest year-on-year growth of 74.1 per cent in transaction volume as of January 2023…reports Asian Lite News

As unified payments interface (UPI)-based transactions continue to break all records, India’s e-commerce market is projected to grow from $83 billion in 2022 to $150 billion in 2026, as cash transactions decline further, a report showed on Thursday.

UPI recorded the biggest year-on-year growth of 74.1 per cent in transaction volume as of January 2023 and digital wallets grew from 5 per cent in 2019 to 35 per cent of POS value in 2022 stimulated by UPI, according to the ‘2023 Global Payments Report’ by global financial technology leader FIS.

With cash use declining from 71 per cent of POS transaction value in 2019 to just 27 per cent in 2022, India has emerged as a global leader in payments with the development of its next-generation real-time payments (RTP) infrastructure.

UPI has helped e-commerce account-to-account (A2A) payments grow to $12 billion, up 53 per cent from 2021 to 2022, the findings showed.

“UPI is driving consumers away from cash and helping to drive financial inclusion all at the same time, and is making India a leader in payments across not just the region, but the globe,” said Phil Pomford, General Manager APAC, Worldpay Merchant Solutions at FIS.

Strong development of e-commerce in rural areas of China.

The development of real-time payment schemes by other central banks — and, critically, the cooperation between those central banks — is also helping to fuel cross-border commerce, providing merchants with a significant opportunity for growth moving forward, he added.

While cash is still there, increasingly a majority of peer to peer transactions are done through UPI.

According to the data, cash is expected to decline by 34 per cent in transaction value by 2026 and digital wallets are expected to rise in transaction value by 88 per cent by 2026.

In the online space, the ecommerce market size is expected to grow by 82 per cent by 2026 providing a greater boost to digital payments.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das said earlier this month that payments through UPI grew exponentially in the past 12 months, with daily transactions crossing 36 crore, from 24 crore in February 2022. In value terms, these transactions were worth Rs 6.27 lakh crore.

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RBI extends UPI for inbound travellers from G20 nations

Travellers or non-resident Indians visiting India can now experience the convenience of UPI payments at over five crore merchant outlets across India, that accept QR Code-based UPI payments…reports Asian Lite News

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced on Tuesday that it had extended Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for in-bound travellers from G20 nations to make local payments using while they are in India. This facility is made available from today.

RBI said in a release, “To start with, it is available to travelers from G20 countries, at select international airports (Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi).” Eligible travellers would be issued prepaid payment instruments (PPI) wallets linked to UPI for making payments at merchant outlets.

Delegates from G20 countries can also avail this facility at various meeting venues. To begin with, ICICI Bank, IDFC First Bank and two non-bank PPI issuers, Pine Labs Private Limited and Transcorp International Limited will issue UPI linked wallets.

Earlier, on February 8, the apex bank announced a facility to enable all inbound travellers visiting India to make local payments using UPI while they are in India.

Travellers or non-resident Indians visiting India can now experience the convenience of UPI payments at over five crore merchant outlets across India, that accept QR Code-based UPI payments.

Prepaid payment instruments’ examples include smart cards, online accounts, online wallets, stripe cards, paper vouchers, etc. The primary objective of these instruments is to get access to the amount already prepaid. (ANI)

Kashmir gets road upgradation before G20 meet

The Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir, Vijay Kumar Bidhuri, on Tuesday reviewed the status of the degradation work of main roads from the Srinagar Airport to Foreshore Road in the Union Territory and stressed on the officers to speed up developmental work to enhance road facade.

Addressing a meeting, the Divisional Commissioner encouraged the officers to speed up the developmental work to enhance road facade by macadamization [a type of road construction], repairing footpaths, removing debris, landscape development of road medians with green trees, and by removing wires and painting at the flyovers amongst others as an attempt of the preparation to host G20 summit. In the meeting, which was also attended by the CEO of the Srinagar Smart City Ltd, Chief Engineer SSCL, SE R&B, and other officers, Bidhuri also reviewed the beautification of IG road, redevelopment of Convent road and Residency road, besides the upgradation of Ghanta Ghar, Moulana Azad Road, Gupkar Junction and the construction of footpath from Dalgate to Nishat etc.

“On the occasion, he also directed officers to initiate the tendering process of pending undertaken projects so that the work shall be completed in a stipulated time,” an official statement said further directing the concerned R&B officers to mobilise men and machinery to continue working through the night hours to meet deadlines.

Notably, the central government’s conduct of one of the G20 meetings in J-K’s Srinagar in 2023 would advocate for the return of peace and security in the Union Territory.

India assumed the G20 presidency on December 1. During its presidency, India will host more than 200 meetings in more than 50 cities across 32 different workstreams. The G20 is an intergovernmental forum of the world’s 20 major developed and developing economies, making it the premier forum for international economic cooperation.

The top event of the G20 leader’s summit is slated to be held in the national capital on September 9 and 10, 2023, while 200 other events will take place in different parts of the country.

It is pertinent to mention that where the scheduled G20 meeting in Srinagar is a big victory for India, it is a major setback for Pakistan as G20 comprises the world’s largest advanced and emerging economies, representing about two-thirds of the world’s population, 85 per cent of global gross domestic product, 80 per cent of global investment and over 75 per cent of global trade.

Pakistan had reacted sharply to the announcement of the G20 meet in Srinagar, which was eventually ignored by the participants.

The delegates would then visit various tourists destination here, including the Dal Lake, Nishat Bagh, Shalimar Bagh, Pahalgam and Gulmarg, and would also experience the culinary delights of the Himalayan range.

The objective of the meeting is to ensure that the visiting delegates experience the “Real Kashmir” that has emerged as one of the fastest-growing regions of the country in three years.

The Higher Education Department will conduct seminars on G20 in the universities and educational institutions across Jammu & Kashmir to make the students aware of the summit’s importance. (ANI)

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Travellers from G20 can use UPI for payments at airports

New Delhi, Jan 06 (ANI): Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das speaks on South Asia's path to resilient growth at a conference organised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in New Delhi on Friday. (ANI Photo)

The governor also said to further enhance transparency, reasonableness and consumer protection, draft guidelines on levy of penal charges will be issued to obtain comments from stakeholders…reports Asian Lite News

As payment transactions through UPI continues to grow in India, the Reserve Bank on Wednesday allowed travellers arriving at select airports in India from G20 nations to use the facility for making payments during their stay.

Later, the central bank also proposes to rollout the facility to visitors from all countries.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application, merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood.

“UPI has become hugely popular for retail digital payments in India. It is now proposed to permit all inbound travellers to India to use UPI for their merchant payments (P2M) while they are in the country,” RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said while unveiling the latest monetary policy.

To begin with, the facility will be extended to travellers from G20 countries arriving at select international airports, he said.

India has assumed the presidency of G20 for one year from December 1, 2022 to 30 November, 2023.

The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum of the world’s major developed and developing economies.

It comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US, and the European Union (EU).

Payment transactions through UPI rose 1.3 per cent on-month to a high of nearly Rs 13 lakh crore in January.

The governor also announced that the Reserve Bank will launch a pilot project on QR Code based Coin Vending Machine (QCVM) in 12 cities.

These vending machines will dispense coins against debit to the customer’s account using UPI instead of physical tendering of bank notes.

“This will enhance the ease of accessibility to coins,” Das said and added that based on the learnings from the pilot, guidelines will be issued to banks to promote distribution of coins using these machines.

The governor also said to further enhance transparency, reasonableness and consumer protection, draft guidelines on levy of penal charges will be issued to obtain comments from stakeholders.

At present, regulated entities are required to have a policy for levy of penal interest on advances. They, however, follow divergent practices on levying of such charges.

In certain cases, these charges are found to be excessive, the governor said.

The central bank also proposes expanding the scope of TReDs by providing insurance facility for invoice financing; permitting all entities/institutions undertaking factoring business to participate as financiers in TReDS; and permitting rediscounting of invoices.

For the benefit of MSMEs, the RBI had introduce a framework in 2014 to facilitate financing of MSMEs’ receivables through Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS).

Meanwhile, as part of RBI’s gradual move towards normalising liquidity and market operations, the central bank has decided to restore market hours for the Government Securities market to the pre-pandemic timing of 9 am to 5 pm.

“Moreover, as part of our ongoing endeavour to further develop the government securities market, we propose to permit lending and borrowing of G-secs,” Das said.

This, the governor added will provide investors with an avenue to deploy their idle securities, enhance portfolio returns and facilitate wider participation. This measure will also add depth and liquidity to the G-sec market; aid efficient price discovery; and work towards a smooth completion of the market borrowing programme of the Centre and states.

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UPI payment apps may impose transaction limit

UPI.

There is currently no volume cap, and Google Pay and PhonePe account for roughly 80 per cent of the market…reports Asian Lite News

UPI payment apps like Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, and others may soon impose a limit on the transaction.

Soon users may not be able to make unlimited payments via UPI payment apps.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which operates the UPI digital pipeline, is in discussions with the Reserve Bank about implementing its proposed December 31 deadline for limiting player volume to 30 per cent.

There is currently no volume cap, and Google Pay and PhonePe account for roughly 80 per cent of the market.

In order to avoid concentration risk in November 2022, NPCI proposed a 30 per cent volume cap for third-party app providers (TPAP).

A meeting has already taken place to comprehensively look at all aspects. Besides NPCI officials, senior officials of the finance ministry and RBI also participated in this meeting.

Currently, no final decision has been made to extend the December 31 deadline because the NPCI is evaluating all options.

However, the NPCI is expected to make a decision on UPI market cap implementation by the end of this month.

In 2020, NPCI issued a directive capping the share of transactions that a third-party application provider could process at 30 per cent of the volume of transactions handled on UPI, effective January 1, 2021, to be calculated based on the volume of transactions processed in the previous three months.

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76% Indians now prefer UPI as payment mode for online checkouts

UPI.

About 72 per cent of those surveyed said they now consider discounts and offers as the major driver of their buying behaviour on social media apps…reports Asian Lite News

Nearly 76 per cent Indians now prefer using UPI (unified payments interface) during online checkouts while more millennials (84 per cent) are now using UPI when shopping online, a report showed on Tuesday.

As the physical, digital and virtual worlds are converging, Indians are willing to explore and purchase within apps/browsers as well from the social media platforms, according to new research from financial services technology provider FIS.

The UPI in August saw 6.57 billion transactions, amounting to Rs 10.72 trillion.

According to the data by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the volume of transactions rose 85 per cent and value 67.85 per cent year-on-year (YoY).

About 72 per cent of those surveyed said they now consider discounts and offers as the major driver of their buying behaviour on social media apps.

While 78 per cent Indians say they are likely to purchase fashion products such as clothing, shoes and accessories, 70 per cent would shop for groceries within social media apps.

About 63 per cent will purchase in-app/in-browser gift vouchers, 55 per cent would buy insurance and investment products in the next 12 months, the report mentioned.

“Embedded finance has a great potential to transform customer payment experience offered by banks and financial institutions and drive new avenues of growth for partnering merchants,” said Harish Prasad, MD, Banking Solutions, India, FIS.

Apart from a hassle-free customer experience, Indians seek instant gratification and incentives during online purchases.

“Although Indians reflect readiness to embrace embedded financial services, brands need to ensure transparency and safety to win the trust of customers,” the report said.

Indians are also keen to embrace the emerging metaverse space as they show interest in buying real-world products virtually in the future.

“About 68 per cent of Indians would like to explore shopping in the metaverse and 57 per cent of Indians would prefer to access the metaverse for banking services in the next 12 months,” the findings showed.

Men (60 per cent) are more interested in trying socialising, dating and virtual events in the metaverse as compared to women (48 per cent).

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