Economy · Financial Inclusion & Digital Payments (UPI, JAM)
The concept being tested: UPI internationalization — cross-border merchant payment acceptance.
Consider the following countries: I. United Arab Emirates II. France III. Germany IV. Singapore V. Bangladesh How many countries amongst the above are there other than India where international merchant payments are accepted under UPI?
NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) has extended UPI acceptance abroad in two distinct ways: person-to-person remittance links, and actual merchant QR acceptance where a UPI app can pay a local shopkeeper directly. Only the second kind counts here. By 2025, UPI merchant payment acceptance is live in the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and France — France notably through the Lyra Network tie-up that began with the Eiffel Tower pilot in 2023 and has since widened to other French merchants. Germany has no such merchant-side UPI arrangement, and Bangladesh's UPI-linked discussions have stayed at the remittance and interoperability stage without merchant rollout. That gives exactly three countries other than India — UAE, Singapore and France — where international merchant payments are accepted under UPI, making Only three the correct count.
What UPSC was testing
The stem's real test is the distinction between UPI remittance tie-ups and actual merchant QR acceptance abroad — many aspirants conflate India's various cross-border payment MoUs with the narrower list of countries where UPI can be used to pay a shopkeeper directly.
How often this comes up
This concept has appeared 10 times in UPSC Prelims General Studies Paper I between 2015 and 2025 — in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2023 and 2025.
The option-by-option autopsy for this question — why each of the other three is wrong, and which neighbouring concept each one was built from — is in the app.
Other past-year questions touching Financial Inclusion & Digital Payments (UPI, JAM).