Prime Minister Narendra Modi has informed that France has agreed to use India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI). He said that soon Indian tourists will be able to make payments using UPI from the Eiffel Tower. Earlier UAE, Bhutan and Nepal have implemented this payment system.

Modi said, “An agreement has been made with France for the use of UPI. It will start with the Eiffel Tower and now Indian tourists will be able to pay in rupees through UPI.” Last year, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which provides UPI services, signed an MoU with a French payment system called Lyra. Earlier this year, an agreement was signed between UPI and PayNow of Singapore. This will allow users to do transactions in both the countries. NPCI is in talks to start this payment system in America, European countries and West Asia as well.

Recently, Microsoft’s co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, who was involved in big software companies, also praised India’s digital public infrastructure. He described it as a great, reliable and low cost. Gates said that India would be the cheapest 5G market. Gates talked about the Aadhaar used for digital identity in India, the country’s payment infrastructure and efforts to bring a large number of people into the banking system. He said, “India started digital public infrastructure, especially with the identity system. Along with this, financial access and payments have been linked in a reliable way. It is being used in many sectors.” He told that Corona has demonstrated the importance of digital payment system for payment in emergency around the world.

Gates had said, “No other country has created such a big platform. India was at the forefront of providing relief during the pandemic with identity as the basis. India can become an example for other countries. I would especially like to All countries, including developing countries, should implement these systems.”