Pariksha SaathiUPI acceptance enabled for online bookings at 'At the Top, Burj Khalifa' and Resorts World Sentosa under NPCI International's partnerships
Indian visitors to the UAE and Singapore can now book experiences and make online payments using their preferred Unified Payments Interface (UPI) apps, the Ministry of Finance said on 30 October 2026. NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), the international arm of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), announced its strategic partnerships with the UAE and Singapore on 29 July 2026 and 9 September 2026 respectively, to enable UPI for online bookings. For the UAE, UPI acceptance is enabled for At the Top, Burj Khalifa in partnership with NEOPAY and Emaar Entertainment, marking the first UAE attraction to implement UPI for e-commerce. For Singapore, UPI acceptance is expanded to Resorts World Sentosa, whose attractions include Universal Studios Singapore, the Singapore Oceanarium and Adventure Cove Waterpark, in collaboration with FOMO Pay, a leading payment institution; the release notes that the Singapore market welcomed 1.2 million Indian visitors in 2025. The release recalls that the ticketing facility for the Eiffel Tower via UPI was launched on 26 January 2024, and says UPI is accepted in ten countries - Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, France, Mauritius, Nepal, Bhutan, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Greece - with Uzbekistan set to become the 11th, following a commercial agreement announced on 30 August 2026 during the Prime Minister's visit to Uzbekistan.
Drafted with AI assistance from the official PIB release linked above and checked against it by a second AI pass. Not line-edited by a human.
Learning context
On 30 August 2026 NIPL entered into a commercial agreement with the National Interbank Processing Centre JSC (NIPC), operator of Uzbekistan's national payment system, HUMO; the announcement was made during the Prime Minister's bilateral visit to Uzbekistan. The partnership enables Indian travellers to scan Uzbekistan's national interoperable QR code, UZQR, with their UPI-enabled apps to make instant merchant payments across the country. The agreement followed formal approvals from financial regulators, including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Central Bank of Uzbekistan (CBU), which designated HUMO as NIPL's authorised partner for cross-border merchant acceptance. Indian tourists, business travellers and students can make direct person-to-merchant (P2M) payments from their Indian bank accounts, reducing reliance on international cards or cash.
Check yourself: with which organisation did NIPL sign the commercial agreement of 30 August 2026, and what is Uzbekistan's national interoperable QR code called?
The National Interbank Processing Centre JSC (NIPC), operator of the HUMO payment system; UZQR.
Revision task: from this release, note the NPCI arm behind the partnerships, the two attractions and the partners named for each country, the dates of the partnership announcements, the first UAE attraction to implement UPI for e-commerce, the ten countries that accept UPI and the country set to become the 11th; from the note, the date and partner of the Uzbekistan agreement, the name of Uzbekistan's QR code and the regulators whose approval preceded it.
Test yourself
According to the Ministry of Finance, which attraction is the first in the UAE to implement UPI for e-commerce?
Show the answer
Answer: At the Top, Burj Khalifa
NIPL, the international arm of NPCI, announced its strategic partnership with the UAE on 29 July 2026 to enable UPI for online bookings; in partnership with NEOPAY and Emaar Entertainment, UPI acceptance is enabled for At the Top, Burj Khalifa, marking the first UAE attraction to implement UPI for e-commerce. In Singapore, UPI acceptance is expanded to Resorts World Sentosa in collaboration with FOMO Pay.
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