Indonesia looks beyond UPI, eyes India's digital blueprint

NEW DELHI: Indonesia is set to become the latest country to integrate with Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and tap deeper into India's digital public infrastructure. Unlike several other countries, such as France, Singapore and the UAE, which have adopted UPI primarily to facilitate cross-border payments for Indian travellers and businesses, Indonesia's ambitions extend much further.It is looking at using India's digital public infrastructure as a blueprint for building its own sovereign digital ecosystem. Beyond integrating UPI, it aims at developing interoperable platforms for commerce, digital identity and public services that can eventually be exported across the Asean region.The growing collaboration is expected to feature prominently during PM Narendra Modi's visit to Indonesia, starting Monday with digital cooperation emerging as one of the key pillars of the bilateral partnership."From food security and digital governance to healthcare, agriculture and defence, India's successful public policy models are becoming valuable reference points for Indonesia's own development journey," said an official.Several Indonesian delegations have visited India to study flagship public policy initiatives, including Public Distribution System (PDS), AgriStack, rice fortification, fertiliser subsidy reforms, PM POSHAN and Jan Aushadhi programme, as Jakarta looks to strengthen food security, agriculture and healthcare delivery.Indonesia's ambitious Free Nutritious Meals programme has drawn inspiration from India's Mid-Day Meal (PM POSHAN) scheme. Similarly, its Red and White Village Cooperatives initiative is exploring cooperation with India for affordable medicines through the Jan Aushadhi model, helping strengthen healthcare access in rural areas, an official said.Indonesia is also working with New Delhi on defence manufacturing, technology transfer, military training and maritime cooperation with India's experience in indigenous defence production under Atmanirbhar Bharat creating new opportunities for long-term collaboration.At the centre of the digital public infrastructure partnership is the proposed UPI-QRIS linkage, which will enable seamless cross-border payments between the two countries, benefiting businesses, tourists and merchants. For nearly 1.7 million Indian tourists who visit Indonesia annually, particularly Bali, the payments corridor is expected to simplify transactions while boosting tourism and trade.The country is also building the Indonesia Open Network (ION), an open digital commerce platform inspired by India's Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).Get the latest India news and live updates. Download the TOI App.