German Min’s priceless reaction to India’s UPI system goes viral

CHENNAI: Germany's Federal Minister for Digital and Transport, Volker Wissing, on August 20, used Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to make a payment at a vegetable shop in the national capital and was left “fascinated.”

His reaction went viral with Netizens thanking Wissing for being a part of India's digital economic revolution.

Wissing was in Bengaluru to attend the G20 Digital Ministers Meeting on August 19.

The German embassy in India on Sunday praised India's impressive digital infrastructure and called it one of the country's success stories.

Taking to X (formerly known as Twitter) the German embassy in India wrote, “One of India’s success story is digital infrastructure. UPI enables everybody to make transactions in seconds. Millions of Indians use it. Federal Minister for Digital and Transport @Wissing was able to experience the simplicity of UPI payments firsthand and is very fascinated!” (sic)

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a mobile-based fast payment system that facilitates customers to make round-the-clock payments instantly. It was launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in 2016. So far, Sri Lanka, UAE, France, and Singapore have partnered with India on emerging fintech and payment solutions.

Earlier in July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that India and France have agreed to use the UPI payment mechanism.

According to data from MyGovIndia, India has topped the list of five countries in digital payments with UPI playing a key role in encouraging market adoption.

UPI transactions rose manifolds between 2018 and 2022 in terms of value as well as volume, by 1,320 per cent and 1,876 per cent, respectively