India's UPI And RuPay Cards To Be Accepted In France Soon As NPCI Signs Pact With French Payment Service Provider

India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and RuPay cards will soon be accepted in France, India's Ambassador to France Jawed Ashraf said on Thursday (16 June).

The Indian envoy to France made the remarks during the Europe's biggest start-up conference - VivaTech 2022.

"We have started the process in France by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) NPCI International and Lyra Network of France," Ambassador Ashraf was quoted by ANI as saying.

He added that talks will be held with French central bank and regulator over the issue.

"We will have to discuss this with Central Bank, Regulator as well as companies here in France. In France, there is very less use of digital payments. But it needs to be integrated and seamless. It lacks efficiency as we have in India," he added.

Asraf said that India is leading the digital technology world.

"India has grabbed the semiconductor shortage issue as an opportunity. If we talk about Vande Bharat train which is a 'Make in India' product, I'm sure that we will see the Vande Bharat train in Europe within 5-6 years," he said.

It should be noted that India has been announced as the ‘Country of the Year’ at Viva Tech 2022.

"This is a great honour for India to be recognized as the country of the year for Vivatech 2022. This is due to the contribution of the Indian start-ups to the world. This is the recognition of Indian start-ups. We have embarked on this exciting journey," Union Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday (15 June).