Travellers or non-resident Indians visiting India can now experience the convenience of UPI payments at over five crore merchant outlets across India, that accept QR Code-based UPI payments…reports Asian Lite News
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced on Tuesday that it had extended Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for in-bound travellers from G20 nations to make local payments using while they are in India. This facility is made available from today.
RBI said in a release, “To start with, it is available to travelers from G20 countries, at select international airports (Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi).” Eligible travellers would be issued prepaid payment instruments (PPI) wallets linked to UPI for making payments at merchant outlets.
Delegates from G20 countries can also avail this facility at various meeting venues. To begin with, ICICI Bank, IDFC First Bank and two non-bank PPI issuers, Pine Labs Private Limited and Transcorp International Limited will issue UPI linked wallets.
Earlier, on February 8, the apex bank announced a facility to enable all inbound travellers visiting India to make local payments using UPI while they are in India.
Travellers or non-resident Indians visiting India can now experience the convenience of UPI payments at over five crore merchant outlets across India, that accept QR Code-based UPI payments.
Prepaid payment instruments’ examples include smart cards, online accounts, online wallets, stripe cards, paper vouchers, etc. The primary objective of these instruments is to get access to the amount already prepaid. (ANI)
Kashmir gets road upgradation before G20 meet
The Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir, Vijay Kumar Bidhuri, on Tuesday reviewed the status of the degradation work of main roads from the Srinagar Airport to Foreshore Road in the Union Territory and stressed on the officers to speed up developmental work to enhance road facade.
Addressing a meeting, the Divisional Commissioner encouraged the officers to speed up the developmental work to enhance road facade by macadamization [a type of road construction], repairing footpaths, removing debris, landscape development of road medians with green trees, and by removing wires and painting at the flyovers amongst others as an attempt of the preparation to host G20 summit. In the meeting, which was also attended by the CEO of the Srinagar Smart City Ltd, Chief Engineer SSCL, SE R&B, and other officers, Bidhuri also reviewed the beautification of IG road, redevelopment of Convent road and Residency road, besides the upgradation of Ghanta Ghar, Moulana Azad Road, Gupkar Junction and the construction of footpath from Dalgate to Nishat etc.
“On the occasion, he also directed officers to initiate the tendering process of pending undertaken projects so that the work shall be completed in a stipulated time,” an official statement said further directing the concerned R&B officers to mobilise men and machinery to continue working through the night hours to meet deadlines.
Notably, the central government’s conduct of one of the G20 meetings in J-K’s Srinagar in 2023 would advocate for the return of peace and security in the Union Territory.
India assumed the G20 presidency on December 1. During its presidency, India will host more than 200 meetings in more than 50 cities across 32 different workstreams. The G20 is an intergovernmental forum of the world’s 20 major developed and developing economies, making it the premier forum for international economic cooperation.
The top event of the G20 leader’s summit is slated to be held in the national capital on September 9 and 10, 2023, while 200 other events will take place in different parts of the country.
It is pertinent to mention that where the scheduled G20 meeting in Srinagar is a big victory for India, it is a major setback for Pakistan as G20 comprises the world’s largest advanced and emerging economies, representing about two-thirds of the world’s population, 85 per cent of global gross domestic product, 80 per cent of global investment and over 75 per cent of global trade.
Pakistan had reacted sharply to the announcement of the G20 meet in Srinagar, which was eventually ignored by the participants.
The delegates would then visit various tourists destination here, including the Dal Lake, Nishat Bagh, Shalimar Bagh, Pahalgam and Gulmarg, and would also experience the culinary delights of the Himalayan range.
The objective of the meeting is to ensure that the visiting delegates experience the “Real Kashmir” that has emerged as one of the fastest-growing regions of the country in three years.
The Higher Education Department will conduct seminars on G20 in the universities and educational institutions across Jammu & Kashmir to make the students aware of the summit’s importance. (ANI)
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