During the official three-day visit of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to the Maldives from 9-11th August 2024, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreement was signed between India and Maldives to launch Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in this island country.
UPI payment refers to the instant real-time payment system which facilitates the transactions of the participating banks through a single mobile application.
Financial inclusion in India has reached a new level with the help of UPI payment, as around 40 per cent of the real-time digital payments of the world are actually taking place in India.
With the launch of the UPI payment service in Maldives, Jaishankar is also very hopeful about creating a very positive impact in the tourism sector of Maldives, which contributes around 30 per cent of its GDP.
The partnership of India with the Maldives aims to enable an effective collaboration to emphasise each other's interests and welfare, as said by Jaishankar in the press conference.