India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi addressed the first meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors under India's G20 Presidency with a video message today.

Appreciating India's work towards creating the digital payment system UPI, Modi said that "examples like UPI can be templates for many other countries too,"

He further added that "We would be happy to share our experience with the world. And, the G20 can be a vehicle for this,"

Also read: Starting today, travellers from G20 countries can avail UPI facility at 3 airports

Modi also mentioned how during India's G20 Presidency India has opened up opportunity for the G20 guests a to use India's path-breaking digital payments platform, UPI.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday said all travelers from G-20 countries visiting India can make local payments using Unified Payments Interface (UPI), over five crore merchant outlets across India.

The facility was made available from February 21 for all in-bound travellers arriving at Bengaluru, Mumbai, and New Delhi airports, RBI said in a press release.

Eligible travellers would be issued Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) wallets linked to UPI for making payments at merchant outlets and delegates from G20 countries can also avail of this facility at various meeting venues, RBI said.

In his address today Modi also gave examples of covid pandemic and its after-effects on the global economy, rising geo-political tensions, disruptions in global supply chains, rising prices, food and energy security, unsustainable debt levels affecting the viability of many countries, and the erosion of trust in international financial institutions due to their inability to reform quickly.

He pointed out that it is now up to the world leaders to bring back stability, confidence and growth to the global economy.

Also read: IMF chief talks on policy priorities for G20: India uniquely positioned to bring countries together

Talking about the Indian economy, the Prime Minister highlighted the optimism of the Indian consumers and producers about the future of India’s economy and hoped that the member participants would draw inspiration while transmitting the same positive spirit to the global level.

The Prime Minister urged the members to focus their discussions on protecting the most vulnerable citizens and stressed the necessity of creating an inclusive agenda for global economic leadership to regain confidence.

“The theme of our G20 Presidency promotes this inclusive vision - One Earth, One Family, One Future”, the Prime Minister said.

Also read: G20: FM Sitharaman spotlights UPI, CoWin at power meet on digital public infrastructure

First Published:Feb 24, 2023 10:26 AM IST