Facts In News

International Relations

Syllabus: GS 2/United Nations, its Bodies & Agencies

Context

Every year, International Day for South-South Cooperation is celebrated globally on September 12.

About International Day for South-South Cooperation

It is an initiative for the economic, social and political developments of the countries in the Southern region.
- Basically, South-South cooperation refers to the technical cooperation among developing countries in the Global South.
It is a manifestation of solidarity among peoples and countries of the South that contributes to their national well-being, their national and collective self-reliance and the attainment of internationally agreed development goals, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
This day also commemorates the adoption of the “Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA) in 1978 for promoting and implementing technical cooperation among developing countries by 138 member states.

Relevance
- The South-South collaboration helps developing nations to share knowledge, skills, expertise and resources to meet their development goals through concerted efforts.

Objectives
- To enhance self-reliance among developing countries and to work out creative solutions to their development problems.
- Recognising and responding to the problems and requirements of the least developed countries and enabling them to achieve a greater degree of participation in international economic activities

Source: Times now

Syllabus: GS 3/Indian Economy & Related Issues

In News

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced a project to link their respective fast payment systems — Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and PayNow.

About

The UPI-PayNow linkage will enable users of each of the two fast payment systems to make instant, low-cost fund transfers on a reciprocal basis without a need to get on boarded onto the other payment system.
The linkage builds upon the earlier efforts of NPCI International Private Ltd (NIPL) and Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS) to foster cross-border interoperability of payments using cards and QR codes, between India and Singapore and will further anchor trade, travel and remittance flow between the two countries.
It closely aligns with the G20’s financial inclusion priorities of driving faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border payments.
It is also in line with RBI’s vision of reviewing corridors and charges for inbound cross-border remittances outlined in the Payment Systems Vision Document 2019-21.
The linkage is targeted to be operationalised by July 2022.
Significance:
- It is a significant milestone in the development of infrastructure for cross-border payments between India and Singapore.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI)

UPI is India’s mobile-based, ‘fast payment’ system that facilitates customers to make round the clock payments instantly using a Virtual Payment Address (VPA) created by the customer.
- This eliminates the risk of sharing bank account details by the remitter.
UPI supports both Person to Person (P2P) and Person to Merchant (P2M) payments as also it enables a user to send or receive money.
It is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood.
It also caters to the “Peer to Peer” collect request which can be scheduled and paid as per requirement and convenience.

PayNow

It is the fast payment system of Singapore that enables peer-to-peer funds transfer service, available to retail customers through participating banks and Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NFIs) in Singapore.
It enables users to send and receive instant funds from one bank or e-wallet account to another in Singapore by using just their mobile number, Singapore NRIC/FIN, or VPA.

Source: TH

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