Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the RuPay card here, making the UAE the first country in the Middle East to launch the Indian indigenous system of electronic payment.

The RuPay card scheme was launched in 2012 to fulfil the Reserve Bank of India’s vision to have a domestic, open and multilateral system of payments. RuPay facilitates electronic payment at all Indian banks and financial institutions.India has already launched the RuPay card in Singapore and Bhutan.

Earlier this week, Navdeep Singh Suri, the Indian Ambassador to the UAE, said, “The UAE is the largest and most vibrant business hub in the region. It hosts the largest Indian community, receives the largest number of Indian tourists and has the largest trade with India. By becoming the first country in the region to introduce the RuPay card, we expect that each of these elements of tourism, trade and the Indian diaspora will benefit.”

The India-UAE bilateral trade touched almost USD 60 billion in 2018 with a fairly balanced profile of about USD 30 billion of exports and USD 30 billion of imports.