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India: German minister buys vegetables from roadside vendor using UPI

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

Published: Mon 21 Aug 2023, 5:43 PM

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India has, in the past few years, been able to achieve wide adoption of digital modes of payment. The country of 1.4 billion people is gradually going cashless with everyone from a small shop owner to a working professional using mobile apps and QR codes to make payments. Highlighting this cashless revolution, Germany’s Federal Minister for Digital and Transport, Volker Wissing, was recently seen using UPI (Unified Payments Interface), India’s instant payment system, to buy groceries from a roadside vegetable vendor.

A few pictures and a video were shared by the official page of the German Embassy in India on X. The embassy also called UPI “one of India’s success story is digital infrastructure”. The German minister was seen scanning a QR code at the shop using his phone and buying groceries.


“One of India’s success stories is digital infrastructure. UPI enables everybody to make transactions in seconds. Millions of Indians use it. Federal Minister for Digital and Transport Volker Wissing was able to experience the simplicity of UPI payments first hand and is very fascinated!” the text attached to the post read.

Volker Wissing was in Bengaluru, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, to attend the G20 Digital Ministers Meeting on August 19. India currently holds the G20 presidency and has been hosting multiple meetings since last year.

What is UPI?

UPI is a payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) that allows immediate and easy money transfer through a mobile device around the clock.

“Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood. It also caters to the “Peer to Peer” collect request which can be scheduled and paid as per requirement and convenience,” according to the official website of NPCI.

With UPI, users can scan QR codes at shopping centres, vegetable vendors, and small shops to transfer money or pay bills without entering card details or bank account number.

In July this year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that UPI payment service will soon be available in France, reported news agency ANI.

“In France, an agreement has been made for the use of India's UPI... It will be started from the Eiffel Tower, and now Indian tourists would be able to make payments in rupees, through UPI, in the Eiffel Tower,” the prime minister said.

India going cashless

The rise in the adoption of digital payment methods like UPI in India is evident in the numbers the country has recorded. After being launched in 2016, UPI recorded a YoY growth of 900% with over 100 million transactions worth Rs 67 billion done using UPI in 2017.

At the end of the calendar year 2022, the UPI transaction value recorded was Rs 125.95 trillion, which was nearly 86% of India’s GDP in FY22.

In 2022, India ranked first among the five countries with the most digital transactions in the year. The country accounted for 46% of the global real-time payments, beating countries like Brazil, China, Thailand, and South Korea, according to data released by MyGovIndia.

UPI in UAE

Earlier this year, the NPCI announced that Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in ten countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman will be able to use UPI to make payments with their international mobile numbers.

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