Let us see how they can make QR code-based merchant payments. To start using UPI, simply download a preferred UPI-powered app from the App Store or Play Store. Indian citizens should activate UPI Global or UPI International on their UPI-powered apps before making QR code-based merchant payments in Mauritius. Similarly, around 30,000 Mauritian citizens travel to India in a year. Let us see how they can make QR code-based payments. Download the preferred app from the App Store or Play Store. Click the India QR Payments option and scan the QR. Enter a amount. Review and confirm with an OTP. The payment is done and they can download the payment receipt. Rupee cards issued in India will now be accepted in Mauritius. Also, banks in Mauritius will be using the Rupee Switch network to issue the rupee cards to their customers. These cards can be used to withdraw cash through ATMs and make payments at point of sale terminals in both Mauritius and India. This feature will be live with the participating members. UPI and Rupee, connecting India and Mauritius through seamless digital payments. I now invite dignitaries to witness the first UPI transaction conducted by an Indian national in Sri Lanka. We shall now witness the first UPI transaction conducted by an Indian national in Mauritius. We will now undertake the first UPI transaction in Mauritius. I now request Honourable Prime Minister of Mauritius, His Excellency Praveet Jagannath, to kindly deliver his remarks. Sri Narayan Ramu Diji, Prime Minister of the Republic of India, His Excellency Mr. Raniil Vikram Singh, President of Sri Lanka, Colleague Ministers, Members of the Diplomatic Coal, Mr. Abhisthi Gulang, Governor of the Bank of Mauritius, the Board Members of the Bank of Mauritius, Governors and Executives of Central Banks, Seniors of Banks, Distinguished Guests from Mauritius, India and Sri Lanka. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon to our dear friends in India and Sri Lanka. Allow me first of all to convey warm and fraternal greetings to His Excellency Sri Narayan Ramu Diji and His Excellency Mr. Raniil Vikram Singh, who are amongst us this morning for the e-launch of the Rupi card and UPI projects. It gives me great pleasure to join you all on this milestone occasion. The Rupi card, co-branded with our national payment switch, the MOCAS, will be designated as the domestic card in Mauritius. India and Mauritius share strong cultural, commercial and people-to-people linkages, which date back to centuries ago. And today, we are giving yet another dimension to this relationship. One of the highlights of the G20 meeting under the Indian presidency was the commitment to improve access to digital services and digital public infrastructure and leverage digital transformation opportunities to boost sustainable and inclusive growth. Mauritius has already embarked on its digital transformation journey. A key highlight of this journey is an efficient, fast and cheap payment system. The Bank of Mauritius has been at the frontier of the development of payment systems to promote orderly and balanced economic development. The Bank of Mauritius established the Port risk Clearinghouse in 1968 to facilitate clearing of checks, which was a manual process at that time. With the advent of technology in the payments domain, the bank modernized payment infrastructures through the implementation of a real-time gross settlement system, the Mauritius Automated Clearing and Settlement System in December 2009. In 2009, the Mauritius Automated Clearing and Settlement System was upgraded to a more resilient architecture, which also supports multi-currency transactions. It was the first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa. This upgrade was followed by the completion of the automation of the Port risk Clearinghouse in 2011, enabling clearing of checks through electronic images and low-value electronic transactions. These infrastructures simplified payment processes and reduced cost and time of transactions in a more secure environment. With the advent of digitalization globally, the bank had to introduce a set of regulations to provide an appropriate framework for the development of these modes of payments. The National Payments Systems Act 2018 was proclaimed in January 2019. Simultaneously, the Bank of Mauritius launched a state-of-the-art digital hub known as the Mauritius Central Automated Switch, MOCAS. A real-time payment system for routing payments among operators on a 24-7 basis for instant mobile transactions, as well as domestic card transactions. This innovative digital platform has revolutionized the payment landscape in Mauritius with a vibrant ecosystem of private bank and non-bank payment service providers, which is driving innovation and fintech development. Fintech firms are leveraging on the MOCAS platform to provide value-added services, thus allowing banks to collaborate with providers of emerging technologies. Changing customer behavior and growing demand for digital products, alongside with rapidly evolving technology, are driving a shift to digital payments. The bank has transformed the domestic payment landscape into an enabling environment for new operators, new services, and new products. Leveraging on its payment ecosystem, the Bank of Mauritius has taken the modernization of the payment infrastructure to a higher level, with the collaboration of the National Payment Corporation of India and the Reserve Bank of India, and this marks a new chapter in the history of payments in Mauritius. The Bank of Mauritius has a cross-border payment strategy to enter into bilateral agreements with payment schemes of jurisdictions with which Mauritius has strong commercial relationships. The first project has been realized with the National Payment Corporation of India for retail payments through rupee cards and mobile phones by connecting the MOCAS with the Indian switch. With this arrangement, Indians visiting Mauritius can effect payments by scanning merchant UPI QR codes with their mobile apps, and likewise, Mauritians can use their mobile apps in India. Payments will not only be instantaneous, they will also be made in foreign currencies directly from payments, from payers, bank accounts denominated in their domestic currencies, and settlement will be done through direct conversion between the currencies of our two countries. This will eliminate the need for third currencies. Payments will therefore be faster, cheaper, and more secure. The partnership between MOCAS and the National Payment Corporation of India provides a platform for innovative and competitive payment instruments for the benefit of both our populations. I wish that this burgeoning collaboration in the domain of payments between India and Mauritius will continue to thrive. Thank you. Thank you, Excellency. I would now request Honorable President of Sri Lanka, His Excellency Ranil Vikram Singh, to kindly deliver his remarks on this occasion. Prime Minister Modi, Prime Minister Angad and distinguished officials who are gathered here today. It's an important occasion for us. For you, Prime Minister Modi, it's a second important occasion because I must congratulate you for the opening of the Ram Mandir just a few weeks ago. This shows our connections both economically and culturally. For thousands of years, payments have taken place between our two countries and at that time, fortunately, they have no central banks. But in fact, our museums hold a number of coins, South Indian coins of over 1000 years old, which have been found in different parts of villages of the dry zone and indication that the South Indian trading corporations were very active even in the villages. So what we are doing today is only upgrading it technologically. You no longer have coins, you have Lanka QR and the NIPL together. And certainly as more and more Indian tourists visit Sri Lanka, this will be used in every village in our country. Furthermore, the transactions that go on between Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka and Mumbai of such scale that this certainly is of valuable use to us, especially to the merchants, we have about I think 400,000 who are now engaged in this. So I look at this as an important part of the developing further connectivity between our two countries. We have as it is the vision statement that Prime Minister and I issued when I was in Delhi is being implemented. I had a discussion with Foreign Minister, Foreign Minister, Mr. Jaishankar the other day in Perth and we are satisfied with the progress that's been made. And we hope to carry on with that momentum. There were exchanges yesterday also that we hope we'll carry on with that momentum, maintain the momentum so that we can certainly identify other areas of connectivity. Also certainly reason for happiness that through this scheme we are taking part together with Mauritius in the same exercise, in the same transactions because both of us are island states and there has been historical connections between our two countries. And Sri Lanka looks forward to having closer relations with Mauritius and certainly I've discussed again with your Foreign Minister again in Perth of how we could go ahead. So I don't want to take any more of the time but I want to thank you Prime Minister for initiating this venture. Thank you. I would now request Honourable Prime Minister of India, Srinarendra Modi to kindly address this special event. Thank you very much. This is an example of our commitment for the development of our people. Through fintech connectivity, not only cross-border transactions but also cross-border connections will be strengthened. India's unified payment interface i.e. UPI and the United Nations are uniting partners with India. Friends, through the digital public infrastructure in India, a revolutionary change has come. In our small villages and small businesses, digital payments are being made. Because there are seven speeds along the way. Over the last few years, more than 100 billion transactions have been recorded through UPI. Their total is 2 lakh crore rupees i.e. 8 trillion Srinankar rupees and 1 trillion Mauritius rupees. We are delivering a last-mile delivery of 34 lakh crore rupees from this system. From this system to now, 34 lakh crore rupees i.e. more than 400 billion dollars have been collected in the bank accounts of the Indians. Through the COVID platform, the biggest vaccination program in India has been launched. The number of transactions is increasing with the use of technology. The number of transactions is rising. The number of inclusivity is increasing in the society and the government is increasing. Friends, India's policy is the Neighborhood First. Our maritime vision is the sea, the sea means security and growth for all in the region. Our goal is peace, security and development in the entire region. India does not see its development from its neighboring friends. With Sri Lanka, connectivity is being strengthened in every region. Last year, during the trip to India, we had a vision document. To increase connectivity, it had a main part. It is a matter of happiness that today we have completed this task. Even with Prime Minister Jagannath, we had a discussion last year. In the G20 summit, you were our special guest. I am sure that with the cooperation of Sri Lanka and Mauritius, both countries will benefit. The digital transformation will be fast. There will be a great change in the local means. There will be an increase in tourism among our countries. I am sure that Indian tourists will also benefit from the UPI destinations. I am happy that in Asia, Nepal, Bhutan, Singapore and Gulf, we are starting to get money from Mauritius to Africa. With Mauritius, we will be able to get money from our countries. We will be able to get money from our countries. We will be able to get money from our countries. We will be able to get money from Mauritius to Africa. With Mauritius, we will be able to get money from people from India. We will be able to buy hard currency. With the UPI and the rupee card, we will be able to get money from our countries at a real-time low cost and will be able to benefit from the UPI. In the coming times, we will be able to cross-border remittances, i.e. person-to-person, P2P payment facilities. Excellency, today's launch is the success of Global South Sayyoga. Our relationship is not just about money, it is about history. It strengthens our people-to-people relations. In the last ten years, we have shown how India stands with its neighbors in every situation. Whether it is natural, health-related, economic or international, India has been the first responder and will continue to be. We have also focused on the global south in our region of G20. To benefit from the digital public infrastructure of India, we have also shown the social impact fund. Friends, I am Rajpati, Raneel Vikram Singh and Prime Minister Pravin Jagannath Ji. I would like to thank those who have contributed to this launch. On this occasion, I would like to thank all three central banks and agencies for making this launch successful. Thank you, sir. On behalf of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, I would like to thank NIPL, Lanka Pay, State Bank of India Mauritius Limited, Bank of Baroda Mauritius and other stakeholders who extended their invaluable support for this launch. I take this opportunity to convey our deep gratitude to Honourable Prime Minister of India, Honourable President of Sri Lanka, Honourable Prime Minister of Mauritius, Ministers, the Governors of the central banks of the three countries and other dignitaries for gracing this occasion with their presence. This brings the special event to a close. Namaskar.


The UN created a 39 member advisory board to act as a bridge between various UN efforts for the international governance of AI. I noticed there's some people even in like the health space that have been included on this list, which I find interesting. And maybe they can attest to some things that we wouldn't even think about when it comes to disinformation and misinformation with AI. So I think it's an interesting mix. A lot of people look at this and say, it's the UN, it's, you know, nobody's going to do what they say, no matter what they say, because the UN can't force you to pass a law, despite what some people tend to want to try to imply. Yes, there are fears we should guard against. There are bad consequences we should guard against, but we shouldn't let that hold back the good that they can do. And in the sense of maybe they don't set regulation, but maybe they help affect the conversation. I think this is probably good.


The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, says it will blacklist political parties that are unable to conduct peaceful congresses and primaries. In a statement on Monday, INEC spokesman Fessos Okoye said the electoral body might not acknowledge the result of violent congresses if the trend continues.  Okoye added that the consequences will be that the political parties involved must replace all destroyed materials and parties may be blacklisted from receiving INEC materials in the future.