Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her Bhutanese Counterpart Lyonpo Namgay Tshering jointly launch BHIM–UPI in Bhutan
- Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman and her counterpart, Finance Minister of Bhutan, Lyonpo Namgay Tshering, jointly launched BHIM–UPI in Bhutan on July 13, 2021 in a virtual ceremony.
- India and Bhutan have already enabled inter-operability in acceptance of Rupay cards in each other’s countries in two phases, i.e. acceptance of Rupay cards issued in India at Bhutan-based terminals in the first phase, and vice versa in the second phase.
- Now with BHIM-UPI, Bhutan has become the first country to adopt Unified Payment Interface (UPI) standards of India for its quick response (QR) code.
- Apart from this, Bhutan is also the first immediate neighbouring country of India to accept mobile-based payments through the BHIM App.