Domestic Card Scheme Agreement between RuPay of India and AEP of UAE

India signed an agreement on 5 October 2023 to develop a Domestic Card Scheme (DCS) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) like RuPay Card to facilitate their digital payments and e-commerce.

• This agreement was signed by Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Dr Sultan Al Jaber.

Agreement between NPCI and AEP:

• NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) has entered into a strategic partnership agreement with Al Etihad Payments (AEP) for the implementation of Domestic Card Scheme (DCS) in the UAE.
• NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) is a wholly owned subsidiary of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). While AEP is an indirect subsidiary of the Central Bank of UAE (CBUAE).
• As per the agreement, NIPL and AEP will work together to design, implement and operate the UAE National Domestic Card Scheme (DCS).
• This partnership aligns perfectly with NIPL's mission to offer its knowledge and expertise to help not only India but other countries in setting up affordable and secure payment systems.

Domestic Card Scheme (DCS):

• Main objectives behind setting up DCS in UAE:
  • Facilitating the growth of e-commerce and digital transactions,
  • Promote financial inclusion,
  • Supporting the UAE's digitization agenda,
  • Increasing alternative payment options,
  • Reducing payment costs and
  • The aim is to enhance the UAE's competitiveness globally and position as a global payments leader.
• The DCS solution is based on the principles of sovereignty, speed to market, innovation, digitalization and strategic independence.
• The DCS solution provided by NIPL includes value added services like RuPay stack and fraud monitoring services and analytics.
• NIPL will also assist AEP in formulating the operational rules for their domestic card scheme.

Consensus reached on seven other agreements:

• Seven other agreements were also signed on 5 October 2023 in the presence of Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Dr. Sultan Al Jaber. Under this agreement:
  • India and UAE Renewable Energy,
  • Health,
  • Space System,
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Industry 4.0,
  • Advanced Technology and Metrology and
  • We will cooperate with each other in sectors like strengthening the supply chain.
• This will lead to economic development of both the countries and the economic relationship between the two countries will become stronger.

RuPay Card:

• RuPay is an indigenous, highly secure and widely accepted card payment network in India.
• RuPay card has debit, credit and prepaid facilities.
• There are currently more than 750 million RuPay cards in circulation.
• More than 60 percent of the total cards issued in India are RuPay cards, now every second Indian has a RuPay card.
• These cards are issued through the entire banking sector including public sector, private and small banks.

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI):

• India's world-renowned Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is driving massive change in the payments sector.
• The DPI framework includes digital identity, digital payments and digital data exchange – the combination of these three is the power behind the fintech revolution in India.
• The combination of these factors makes India the world's third largest fintech ecosystem with a rapidly emerging number of unicorns.
• India has seen a meteoric rise of 367 per cent in customers participating in digital transactions over the last five years, with an active customer base of over 340 million.

What will be the benefit of the agreement?

• The main benefit of this agreement will be that it will be easier for 35 lakh Indians living in the UAE to send money to their families living in India.
• You will be able to make payments in the UAE with RuPay card and make payments in India with DCS.
• This card can also be used for ATM, Point of Sale and e-commerce transactions of other countries.

Discussion on building trade corridor between India and UAE:

• The Government of India is fully committed to food security in the UAE.
• India-UAE Startup Bridge was also discussed along with creating a virtual trade corridor between the two countries.
• The objective of this virtual trade corridor is to further increase trade between the two countries for which both the countries will develop data exchange systems and paper process will not be adopted for trade.
• The task force meeting also reviewed the progress of the plan related to the establishment of Abu-Dhabi Investment Authority in GIFT City, Gujarat.