Piyush Goyal urges BRICS nations to link payment systems, pitches UPI; calls for cross-border trade in local currencies
At a BRICS forum held ahead of the 18th BRICS Summit, the Commerce and Industry Ministry urged member nations to link their national payment systems and pitched India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as a workable model.
The pitch was accompanied by a call for greater cross-border trade to be settled in local currencies rather than the US dollar.
Additional asks included easier market access for goods and services, more resilient and diversified supply chains, and deeper services-sector cooperation among BRICS economies.
The proposals were framed as building on India's existing digital payments infrastructure and its experience extending UPI acceptance to partner countries.
UPI as Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) — Architecture and International Linkage Models
The Unified Payments Interface is India's real-time, mobile-based interbank payment system, built and operated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) — a "digital public good" that India has actively promoted internationally as a template other countries and blocs can adapt.
Key Details
- UPI was launched by the NPCI on 11 April 2016, enabling instant, 24x7 bank-to-bank fund transfers via a single mobile application and Virtual Payment Address (VPA), without needing account or IFSC details.
- NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), incorporated in 2020 as an NPCI subsidiary, is the dedicated vehicle for exporting UPI-based payment rails abroad; as of 2026, UPI-based payment acceptance has been extended to a growing list of countries, including Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Singapore, UAE, Mauritius, France, and Cambodia.
- Two distinct international-linkage models exist: (i) "UPI Global Acceptance," which lets Indian UPI users pay at QR-enabled merchants abroad, and (ii) full bilateral "real-time payment system linkages" — such as the India–Singapore UPI-PayNow linkage (operationalised 2023) — allowing users of each country's own domestic system to transact directly with the other's.
- India's push for UPI-style linkage at BRICS is distinct from the Bank for International Settlements' Project Nexus, a separate multilateral initiative (which India's central bank participates in) to standardise how countries' instant payment systems connect with each other, rather than each pair negotiating a custom bilateral link.
The Ministry's pitch to "link payment systems" using UPI as the template is, technically, a call for BRICS states to replicate the bilateral real-time linkage model (as with Singapore) at a bloc-wide scale — a distinct proposition from a shared BRICS currency or a single unified BRICS payment platform.
Rupee Internationalisation and Local-Currency Trade Settlement
The call for BRICS trade in local currencies sits within India's own multi-year effort to increase international use of the rupee, formally guided by a dedicated RBI-appointed panel.
Key Details
- The RBI's Inter-Departmental Group (IDG) Report on Internationalisation of the Rupee was released in 2023, recommending a phased roadmap including expanding Rupee Vostro Accounts, integrating Indian payment systems (UPI, RTGS) with other countries, and including the rupee in more currency-swap and trade-settlement arrangements.
- India already operates a Rupee Trade Settlement mechanism via Special Rupee Vostro Accounts (SRVAs), introduced by the RBI in July 2022, primarily used for India-Russia energy trade.
- The rupee remains only partially convertible: it is fully convertible on the current account but only partially convertible on the capital account, a structural constraint on how far "local currency trade" can scale without deeper capital-account reform.
- India already maintains bilateral currency-swap arrangements (e.g., the SAARC Currency Swap Framework, first introduced in 2012 and renewed periodically) that pre-date the current BRICS-level push and offer a template for extending swap lines within BRICS.
The Ministry's call for "local currency trade" builds directly on this existing rupee-internationalisation roadmap rather than proposing a new instrument — the practical constraint UPSC answers should note is the rupee's incomplete capital-account convertibility.
Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Diplomacy and the G20 Legacy
India's promotion of UPI abroad is part of a broader "Digital Public Infrastructure" diplomacy strategy, formally elevated as a global agenda item during India's G20 presidency.
Key Details
- India's G20 presidency (2022-23) placed DPI — defined as interoperable, foundational digital systems for identity (Aadhar-type), payments (UPI-type), and data exchange — on the G20's permanent agenda, resulting in the "G20 Principles for Development, Deployment, and Governance of DPI" adopted at the 2023 New Delhi Summit.
- The G20 also endorsed creation of a Global DPI Repository, a shared knowledge base of DPI approaches, hosted with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
- "India Stack" is the umbrella term for India's own DPI trio — Aadhaar (digital identity), UPI (payments), and DigiLocker/Account Aggregator framework (data-sharing consent architecture) — frequently cited as the working model other countries are invited to adapt.
- BRICS, as a bloc encompassing several Global South economies also building their own digital payment rails, is a natural target audience for this DPI-export strategy, distinct from India's earlier, more limited "aid diplomacy" approaches.
Pitching UPI at a BRICS forum extends the DPI diplomacy first institutionalised at the G20 in 2023 to a new multilateral platform, positioning India's domestic digital infrastructure as an exportable governance model rather than only a domestic financial-inclusion tool.
- UPI launched by NPCI: 11 April 2016.
- NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) incorporated: 2020, as NPCI's international-expansion arm.
- India-Singapore UPI-PayNow real-time payment linkage operationalised: 2023.
- RBI Inter-Departmental Group Report on Internationalisation of the Rupee: released 2023.
- Special Rupee Vostro Account (SRVA) mechanism for rupee trade settlement: introduced July 2022 (RBI A.P. (DIR Series) circular).
- Rupee convertibility: full on current account, only partial on capital account.
- G20 Principles for DPI and Global DPI Repository: adopted at the 2023 New Delhi G20 Summit under India's presidency.