Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday, 18 June 2026, lauded India's digital transformation journey, highlighting that UPI is now accessible in France — including at the Eiffel Tower and Paris airport — as Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the country under the #PMModiInFrance banner.

Context

Rijiju's post, shared during PM Modi's France visit, underscored India's ambition to internationalise its Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) stack. Quoting the Prime Minister, he wrote that India has built 'the world's largest digital identity system' and 'the world's largest digital payment platforms,' and that 'half of the world's real-time digital transactions happen in India today.' The UPI announcement in France marks a significant westward expansion of the payments network into a G7 economy.

The post came amid high-level bilateral engagement between India and France, two strategic partners whose cooperation spans defence, space, and technology, and has deepened since the 1990s.

Policy Backdrop

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and launched in August 2016, was designed as an interoperable, real-time inter-bank payment layer under oversight of the Reserve Bank of India. It now processes billions of transactions every month and has become a flagship product of India's Digital India programme, which was launched in July 2015.

India's Aadhaar biometric identity system, operational since 2009 and covering over 1.3 billion residents, forms the foundational identity layer that underpins much of this digital ecosystem. Together, Aadhaar and UPI are the twin pillars of India's DPI model, which successive governments have promoted as a replicable template for developing nations.

UPI's international expansion began with Nepal in 2022 and was subsequently extended to the UAE, Singapore, and Bhutan. France represents a notable entry into Western Europe, a market with high tourist footfall and a sizeable Indian diaspora.

Stakeholders and Impact

The most immediate beneficiaries are Indian tourists and the Indian diaspora in Europe, who will be able to transact at iconic French venues without relying on foreign cards or currency exchange. French merchants at high-footfall locations such as the Eiffel Tower and major airports stand to gain access to a large base of Indian travellers, who number in the hundreds of thousands annually.

For fintech companies and payment processors, UPI's entry into France signals potential for broader European Union integration, given France's role as a gateway economy within the bloc. NPCI International, the overseas arm of NPCI, is the operational entity driving these cross-border linkages.

What's Next

Observers will watch for any formal India-France digital memoranda of understanding tabled during or after PM Modi's visit, as well as announcements regarding UPI linkages with other EU member states. India has framed its DPI exports as a soft-power tool and a development-cooperation offering, particularly within G20 forums. If France serves as a beachhead, further European rollouts — potentially covering major tourist economies — could follow in the near term.