Govt plans to expand UPI's reach overseas: financial services secretary M. Nagaraju

The government is working to expand the reach of the homegrown Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to more countries, especially in East Asia, financial services secretary M. Nagaraju said on Tuesday.

UPI transactions are currently accepted in eight countries—Bhutan, Singapore, Qatar, Mauritius, Nepal, United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, and France.

Speaking at the Global Inclusive Finance India Summit in New Delhi, Nagaraju said digital payments in the country have grown significantly due to UPI, and now the interface is being prepared to facilitate payments in additional overseas markets.

“We have already expanded UPI services to a few countries, and more will be added soon, especially in East Asia,” Nagaraju said.

UPI transactions crossed 21 billion in December 2025, according to the finance ministry, on the back of an increased adoption of PM Jan Dhan Yojana accounts.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which operates India’s retail payments and settlement systems, runs the interface.

Financial inclusion

As part of plans to further deepen the government’s financial inclusion initiatives, Nagaraju said the scope of the Stand Up India scheme is also being expanded to provide larger loans to more people, particularly Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) beneficiaries.

He noted that women’s participation in the scheme was higher, including among SC and ST borrowers.

Stand Up India aims to promote entrepreneurship among women and SC and ST communities by facilitating bank loans ranging from ₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore to set up greenfield enterprises in manufacturing, services, trading, or allied sectors. Since April 2016, 275,000 loans worth ₹62,000 crore have been sanctioned under the scheme, according to data cited by Nagaraju.

The financial services secretary also said the department is working to provide fintech companies with access to global markets through trade deals.

He said the government is working to ensure banking touchpoints reach every corner of the country as part of its financial inclusion plan, adding that 99.9% of villages are now covered, with the remaining gaps in difficult terrain—such as parts of Arunachal Pradesh—to be addressed with banking touchpoints within a five-kilometre radius.

Summing up, the secretary said financial inclusion is key to economic growth and poverty alleviation, creating a multiplier effect that benefits a larger segment of the economy.

“India now needs a financial architecture that can handle volatility while encouraging innovation. The government’s focus should shift from purely expanding credit access to improving the quality, resilience, and intelligence of the credit and savings ecosystem,” said Vivek Iyer, partner and financial services risk leader, Grant Thornton Bharat, commenting on expectations for the Budget 2026.