Mumbai, Nov 17 (IANS): NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), the international arm of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said on Wednesday that it has collaborated with fintech firm PPRO, a global provider of local payments infrastructure, to expand growth of India's digital payments ecosystem.

The agreement aims at expanding RuPay card and UPI acceptance across PPRO's global clients such as payment service providers (PSPs) and global merchant acquirers, the NIPL said in a statement.

More than a third of the 777 million Indian online consumers shop across borders, with nearly a half of all transactions taking place with online shops in the US and China.

"We believe this strategic collaboration with PPRO will result in a significant increase in online acceptance of RuPay Cards and UPI-powered apps, which in turn will empower Indian consumers to continue using their preferred payment modes hassle-free across the globe, said Ritesh Shukla, CEO, NIPL.

RuPay is a global card payment network from India with over 635 million cards issued to date.

In 2020, UPI-enabled commerce touched $457 billion, which is equivalent to approximately 15 per cent of India's GDP.

This partnership will drive NIPL's continued expansion into foreign markets and will add India to PPRO's Local Payment Method (LPM) coverage map, the company said.

"Expansion into India's e-commerce market presents a huge growth opportunity for PPRO. The country's e-commerce landscape is worth $52.6 billion, predicted to increase to $120 billion in 2025," said Stefan Merz, Chief Strategy and Growth Officer at PPRO.