MUMBAI, July 23 (Reuters) - Payments firm PayPal ( PYPL )

has partnered with the operator of India's popular

unified payments interface and others to launch a global

platform through which consumers can make cross-border payments

to businesses.

The platform, PayPal World, will enable interoperability

between local payment platforms and PayPal ( PYPL ), the firm said in a

statement on Wednesday.

Its partners for the platform include National Payments

Corporation of India - India's payments authority that operates

UPI, Brazil's Mercado Pago, Tencent Holdings' ( TCTZF ) Tenpay

Global and Venmo.

UPI dominates digital payments in India, accounting for

about 85% of the total volume of retail digital payments, per

regulatory data.

"The integration of UPI on PayPal World's platform will mark

a significant step in expanding UPI's global footprint," said

Ritesh Shukla, managing director and CEO of NPCI International

Payments Limited.

India has been in talks with countries in Africa and South

America to help them build a digital payments system using UPI

as a blueprint.

PayPal's ( PYPL ) platform is expected to go live later this year.

The firm intends to add more partners going forward.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Kalra; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)