UAE BARQ برق الإمارات – نبضك
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will promote a homegrown Indian payment scheme this weekend during his third official visit to the UAE.
He will launch RuPay on Saturday at Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, where he will be awarded the Order of Zayed, the UAE’s highest civilian honour.
“The bilateral visit is anchored in the award, but the Prime Minister is also keen on giving a big personal push to the RuPay card,” said Navdeep Suri, India’s ambassador to the UAE.
RuPay is little known outside India, but its surge within the country has challenged the dominance of US giants such as Visa and MasterCard.
The credit and debit cards, whose name blends the words ‘rupee’ and ‘payment’, were launched in India four years ago.
Since then, 500 million people in the country have subscribed to it, and more than half of India’s one billion debit and credit cards now go through the RuPay system.
This surge can be partially credited to Mr Modi, who encouraged use of the indigenous network by saying it serves the country – because the card’s transaction fee is spent towards building roads, schools and hospitals.
Mr Suri said Indian officials will work with UAE authorities, and companies that run point-of-sale machines, to ensure the card is accepted in the Emirates.
This will follow an agreement between payments networks in both countries that will be signed during Mr Modi’s two-day trip.
“It’s become a deep part of our financial inclusion programme in India and now there is keen interest from the Prime Minister to get it global inclusion and acceptance,” Mr Suri said.
By connecting the networks, Indian tourists will be able to use the card when visiting the UAE.
The National
