The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has agreed for the development of the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) that India has developed for the digital payment system. This digital public infrastructure of India has become extremely popular for online payments. The readiness of SCO countries to develop its framework means that citizens of SCO countries will be able to make mutual payments through a single UPI. After the development of this structure, economic transactions and trade between the countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will accelerate.
Vikas Anand, Senior Research Fellow, Jawaharlal Nehru University, says that the way in India there has been a shortage of currency in daily transactions, along with the delivery of government schemes to the last person, safe transactions have increased, now Shanghai is benefiting from it. Countries of cooperation organizations will also be able to raise directly. One effect of this will be that if the countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization want to cooperate with each other’s institutions and people in special circumstances like emergency etc., they can do so directly through UPI. Till now such payments are done only through bank accounts. Bank accounts are also linked through UPI, but the process is different from the traditional payment process. Vikas Anand says that for this, the member countries of the organization will have to set conditions, so that online payment of each other’s currencies can be done.
India had put this proposal before the organization, which was approved by all the countries with consensus. It is pertinent to mention here that India has developed digital public infrastructure such as Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Aadhaar to provide online payment services easily to the common man. In fact, a meeting was held between the Digital Ministers of SCO countries on 13th May in New Delhi. In the same, this proposal of India was approved. It has been informed from the Indian side about this meeting that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries also unanimously accepted India’s proposal to implement DPI to implement digital technology in their respective countries. According to Vikas Anand, since the employment of inclusive technology and digital public infrastructure has strengthened Indian democracy. Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is a technology ecosystem created by the government to deliver critical citizen-centric services in a digital manner.
Vikas Anand further adds that DPI can also be used by SCO countries to create and enhance mutual data-sharing infrastructure. Along with this, we will be able to promote the expansion of our e-commerce industries by adopting the digital payment system. The way India has achieved success with DPI in achieving the goals of sustainable development, Shanghai cooperation countries will also be able to take advantage of that experience. Significantly, DPI can also be helpful in preserving the natural environment as compared to the traditional payment system. Through this, the member countries will be able to support the common man at the last end to ensure equality and economic justice among the people.
Significantly, the eight major countries in the SCO are China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. While four countries have been included in this organization as observers. These countries are Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia. Similarly, six countries Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey have been included in this organization as dialogue partners. Except Russia, this organization is the largest organization of Asian countries. Obviously, the acceptance of India’s proposal will not only benefit the large population of Asia, but will also benefit the mutual transactions of the member governments. It is important to remind here that the QR of BHIM UPI developed by India has been accepted in major Asian countries Singapore, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Nepal and Bhutan as well as Mauritius.
(Umesh Chaturvedi, senior Indian journalist)
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