India to showcase digital payment initiatives at G20 Leaders' summit

India is planning to showcase five of its digital payment initiatives at the upcoming G-20 Leaders’ Summit and is also setting up a crafts bazaar to exhibit and sell local handicrafts.

According to sources, the Reserve Bank of India will have an exhibition pavilion at the G20 Leaders’ Summit to be held in New Delhi at the Bharat Mandapam on September 9 and 10.

Live demonstrations of these five tech initiatives including the UPI One World, public tech platform for frictionless credit, Central Bank Digital Currency, RuPay on the Go and Bharat Bill Payment System will be provided. 

The move comes at a time when India is has taken up the agenda of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for development and financial inclusion as part of its G20 presidency.

“India has made considerable strides in DPI. Accordingly, the RBI is putting up these five innovations on exhibition,” said an official source.

The RBI has previously showcased its tech innovations at G20 meets in Bengaluru and Gandhinagar. "The response to these has been very positive from G20 delegates,” said sources.

A number of countries, including those from Latin America and Africa, have evinced interest in UPI. The RBI and the National Payments Corporation of India are also in talks with a number of countries for UPI.

As part of the demonstration on CBDC, delegates will also be given a token, which they can use for purchases at the crafts bazaar.

To enable foreign nationals from G20 countries to use digital payments, UPI One World was launched in February 2023. Eligible travellers are issued Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) wallets linked to UPI for making payments at merchant outlets. 

G20 delegates can also get a UPI wallet on their phone to make purchases during their stay in the country, the source explained.

The government is also hoping to popularise RuPay as an alternative to Mastercard and Visa at a global level. “RuPay, with its lower charges, can break this monopoly,’ said an official source.

Crafts bazaar 

Meanwhile, another official said that India is setting up a crafts bazaar that would have handicrafts from across the country to exhibit India’s rich heritage and culture. Delegates would also be able to purchase many items.

“We are enhancing market potential of each product. It will give a chance for market analysis on what kind of products are preferred,” said the official.

As many as 30 states and Union Territories will be setting up stalls and would include their respective products including those with GI tags and made under One District One Product.

Live demonstrations of some of the arts such as papier mache from Jammu and Kashmir and Madhubani paintings from Bihar would also be given. A special focus would be on products from the North East.