By — Shyamal Sinha
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has, vide circular no. RBI/2022- 23/176CO.DPSS.POLC.No.S–1907/02.14.006/2022-23 dated 10.02.2023, allowed access to Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to foreign nationals and NRIs visiting India by enabling them to make payments using UPI while they are in India. RBI has updated its Master Directions on Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) accordingly. This was stated by Union Minister for State for Finance Dr Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
The Minister further stated that this facility has been extended to travellers from G-20 countries at select international airports (Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi) for their merchant payments. Further, a provision has also been made by RBI to provide UPI access to NRIs who have international mobile numbers linked to their NRE / NRO accounts. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has apprised that the said facility is allowed for 10 countries namely Singapore, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, USA, Saudi Arabia, UAE and United Kingdom.
The Volume and Value-wise UPI transactions since 2018 is as under:
| Year | Volume (in Crore) | Value (in lakh Crore) |
| 2018 | 374.63 | 5.86 |
| 2019 | 1078.75 | 18.37 |
| 2020 | 1888.09 | 33.88 |
| 2021 | 3873.31 | 71.58 |
| 2022 | 7403.97 | 125.94 |
| 2023* | 5183.85 | 83.20 |
*Note- UPI data for CY-2023 spans from January 2023 to June 2023. Source:RBI
Giving more information, the Minister stated that the UPI acceptance in foreign countries started in 2022 only. Further, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is devoted for internationalisation of UPI. RBI has been facilitating engagements for the expansion of UPI in countries which have potential for collaboration, the Minister stated.
source — pib
“There is a wonderful story told of two monks who had renounced the world and taken vows of celibacy and simplicity. One monk was older and the other was relatively young. They were wandering in the forest one day and came upon a rushing river. On the edge of the river stood a beautiful young woman. Her face was marked by anxiety as she explained to the two monks that she needed to get across, but the river was rushing too fast and she was afraid. She humbly asked if one of the monks would be good enough to carry her across. The older monk immediately picked her up gallantly and carried her to the other side while the younger monk walked by his side. Upon reaching the other shore, the monk placed the woman safely on the ground, and they bid her farewell.One week later, the two monks were sitting under a tree for their morning meditations when the younger monk suddenly exclaimed, ‘Okay, I’ve been keeping this inside for the last week but I cannot keep it inside anymore. I cannot believe the way you picked up that young, beautiful woman and carried her body so close to yours! After taking vows of celibacy before God, after promising to forsake the touch of a woman, how could you wrap your arms around her body and carry her tightly in your arms? I have had such respect, even reverence for you for so many years, and now I feel so betrayed. You are not a true monk! You are not a true celibate. I must find another companion with whom I can tread a path of purity.’ The elder monk listened with a faint smile growing across his face. ‘My brother,’ he said when the younger monk had finished his tirade. ‘I carried that young woman in my arms for approximately two minutes and left her by the side of the river, after setting her down safely. She has not been with me since. You, on the other hand, have carried her in your heart for the last week. You have slept with her, eaten with her, breathed with her and even meditated with her because you cannot get her out of your mind. She is living permanently in your heart. It is your own heart you must seek to purify, not the actions of your traveling companions.’How many precious minutes of each day do we waste by judging others? Too many, I think. We barely even realize how much we do it. We analyze and judge each other’s actions, words, and even each other’s articles of clothing or choice of perfume. We assume, naturally, that if we were in their shoes we would do nearly everything better. But, like in the case of the two monks, it is really our own hearts which need to be bettered, not the actions of another.This constant judging and condemning of others pollutes our own hearts, wastes our precious time, creates boundaries and barriers between us, and steals our peace. We are so busy re-hashing everything other people did during the day, of which we did not approve, that we cannot fall asleep at night.Our constant judging of others is not only detrimental to our interpersonal relationships but it also wrecks havoc on our own mental health. The more we become focused on others and their perceived faults, the farther we stray from our own path. We may feel temporarily good when we put others down. Our egos get a natural ‘high’ when we criticize and condemn the other. Yet, we are actually sinking lower and lower on our own quest for true peace.”– H.H. Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji
“Every karma has a return, every seed will grow into a plant or tree, every boomerang will come back to the sender. If you flip the switch, the light will go on. If you plant an apple seed, you will get an apple tree (provided that you water it and care for it properly). As Isaac Newton discovered, this is the law of nature. His discovery gives us one of science and nature’s most fundamental laws: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This reaction will be there independently of our expectations or attachments. Just as the sun will rise every morning whether we expect it to or not, similarly our actions will bear fruits whether we expect the fruits or not.So, the bottom line is not that there will not be fruit of the karma. There definitely will be fruit of our karma. There definitely will be returns of our actions. The bottom line is that we should not become attached to them!What is crucial is that we do not become attached to what that fruit is or what those returns are. Bhagwan Krishna’s instruction to Arjuna on the battlefield was not that his actions wouldn’t bear fruit but that he should not have expectations or attachments regarding what that fruit will be. The motto we should all take from the Gita is, ‘Do your best and leave the rest.’ We must perform our actions to the best of our ability, with full knowledge that they will bear fruit. What fruit they will bear and when that fruit will be borne is out of our hands.”– H.H. Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji
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