NEW DELHI: India's revolutionary Unified Payment Interface (UPI) services were officially rolled out in Sri Lanka and Mauritius during a virtual ceremony attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counterparts Mauritian PM Pravind Jugnauth and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Monday (Feb 12) afternoon. 

The launch of the digital payment network ensures that both countries can access the ease of using UPI to settle real-time transactions. Additionally, Indian nationals traveling to the two countries will not have to rely on other means of payment which are often cumbersome.  

"Today is a special day for three friendly countries in the Indian Ocean region. Today we are connecting our historical relations in a modern digital way. This is proof of our commitment to the development of our people," said PM Modi during the ceremony. 

"Through Fintech connectivity, not only cross-border transactions but also cross-border connections will be strengthened. India's Unified Payments Interface i.e. UPI is now performing a new responsibility - Uniting Partners with India," he added.

Apart from UPI, the expansion of RuPay card services in Mauritius would allow Mauritian banks to issue cards using the RuPay system. The Indian government introduced RuPay cards in 2012 to break the duopoly of Visa and Mastercard. 

The launch of UPI in the two Indian Ocean nations comes days after the service became officially available at the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.  

It was in 2016 that the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) introduced the revolutionary UPI system. The interface facilitates inter-bank peer-to-peer (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions. It is used on mobile devices to instantly transfer funds between two bank accounts.

PhonePe and PayTM were some of the first platforms to integrate UPI into its system. A year later, several competitors followed suit and since then, UPI has transformed into a behemoth that even foreign nations are looking to get their hands on.

One of the biggest selling point of UPI is its open architecture which allows seamless integration. Users can link their bank accounts directly and initiate transactions effortlessly.