PM Modi swiped his RuPay card for buying Indian sweets.

Imran Mojib, Special Correspondent

Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi launched the RuPay card in Abu Dhabi on Saturday by swiping his RuPay card for buying Indian sweets. With this, the UAE became the first country in the Gulf to accept the RuPay card.

Simon Haslam, Chairman of Mercury Payments Services – UAE’s Domestic Scheme, and Arif Khan Pyarebhai, Chief Digital Officer of National Payments Corporation of India, exchanged an MoU on RuPay Card in presence of the Prime Minister.

RuPay is the first-of-its-kind India’s domestic debit and credit card payment network. Partnership between the two institutions has made RuPay cards also acceptable at 175,000 merchant acceptance locations and 5,000 ATM and cash access locations within the UAE. Initially the card will be issued in the UAE by the Emirates NBD, FAB1 and Bank of Baroda.

The launch of RuPay card was welcomed by stalwarts of Indian business community in the UAE who were present during the launch event and pledged to accept RuPay as a mode of payment and stated that the initiative will go a long way in bringing India and the UAE businesses closer.

Dr Azad Moopen, Chairman and Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare, said that the launch of RuPay card in the UAE will boost the financial independence and would help Indians travelling to the UAE and those based in the UAE.

“It is our privilege to accept the RuPay card for all payments in our 351 establishments comprising Aster, Medcare and Access brand of hospitals, clinics and pharmacies in all GCC countries. We already accept RuPay in our hospitals in India,” he said.

Dr Shamsheer Vayalil, Chairman and Managing Director of VPS Healthcare, said that this landmark initiative would help create seamless financial transactions. Given the lower transactional costs, both users and merchants would prefer RuPay over the more expensive existing payment networks. He also announced that the Rupay card would be accepted across all units of VPS Healthcare.

Mahmood Bangara, Chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India – Dubai chapter, said that the RuPay launch in the UAE and other GCC countries would invoke a great interest among the NRIs. He expressed confidence that the card would become one of the most subscribed around the globe.