The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is actively partnering with multiple organisations in India and abroad whose mandate is to make all the retail and digital payment transactions smoother in India. The NPCI is collaborating with many global card companies in order to make transactions smoother in abroad also.

The NPCI in March this year, in a statement, said that it has issued 64 million RuPay Global Cards. And are focussing on increasing the acceptance of global cards in India. The NPCI started issuing global cards in 2014 when the Modi government came into power for the first time.

In a bid to expand its international presence, the NPCI, which is India’s umbrella organisation for all the retail payments had collaborated on July 22, 2019 with Japan-based JCB International, a credit card company, to launch RuPay JCB Global Cards. The NPCI in the past had already partnered with Discover and had launched global cards.

“The acceptance of the global cards with the partnership of Discover has reached 41 million-plus merchants, across 190 countries and is constantly growing,” said, Praveena Rai, Chief Operating Officer, NPCI, in a release in March this year. They can be used for purchases at merchant locations and cash withdrawals on the Discover Global Network at countries like the USA, Singapore and Sri Lanka. The Discover Global Network includes Discover Network, Diners Club International, PULSE and other affiliated networks.

These cards can be used at all point of sales (POS) terminals, which accept RuPay cards. The RuPay global debit and credit cards are currently being issued by 40 banks.

This is the first time JCBI brand cards are being issued in India. In order to lure customers and in a launch campaign, NPCI and JCBI jointly offered a special cashback program where the card members can get a cashback of 15 per cent for POS transactions outside India and an additional 15 per cent (total 30 per cent) in selected popular destinations like Thailand, Singapore, and UAE, NPCI said in a statement.

The card issuing companies have collaborated with domestic banks including State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Axis Bank, Union Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Andhra Bank, City Union Bank, TJSB Bank.

Apart from the cashbacks there are many other perks for the holders of JCB Global Rupay card. The cardholder will be able to enjoy facilities like JCB Lounges in the airports of China, Japan, Hawai, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Korea.

As the volume of digital transactions registering the growth of 51% over the past year is also a result of NPCI’s remarkable work. Minister of Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad in a written reply to the parliament told the aforementioned fact.

At the 2015 Delhi Economics Conclave, PM Modi spoke about emergence of RuPay cards as an alternative to the industry dominated by Visa and Mastercard.

According to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, India’s total debit-card volume is 585 million. RuPay claims to have over 500 million cards issued by nearly 1,100 banks — giving it more than 50 per cent share in the country’s debit-card market by volume, beating Visa and Mastercard.