Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her Bhutanese Counterpart Lyonpo Namgay Tshering jointly launch BHIM–UPI in Bhutan

Current GK ( Master) International Affairs

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.