Spanish PM Sanchez uses UPI transaction to buy Ganesh statue in Mumbai

New Delhi [India], October 29 : Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday had firsthand experience of India's digital payment transactions when he used the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transaction to buy a Ganesh statue in Mumbai.
This move highlights the growing acceptance of India's digital payment systems and cultural exchange between nations.
UPI transfers funds from one account to another through digital devices like mobile phones, POS terminals, or computers. In 2023, India accounted for 46 per cent of all digital payments in the world and UPI transactions now account for 80 per cent of all digital payments in India. It witnessed over 100 billion digital transactions occurring nationwide.
Sanchez also spoke of improving inter-university collaboration and cultural exchanges between Spain and India and assured that the Spanish team will participate in soccer matches in India soon, an official statement said.
Sanchez, accompanied by his spouse Begona Gomez spoke to Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan during a reception hosted by the latter at Raj Bhavan Mumbai on Wednesday, as per the statement.
Sanchez said Spain and India are celebrating 2026 as the Year of Culture, Tourism and AI. He said Spain will send football coaches to India while India can promote cricket in his country, as per the statement.
Talking about his meeting with Indian film producers, he said Spain wants to have a conversation with the Indian film industry to promote joint collaboration. Stating that Spanish is the second largest language spoken in the world, he said we need to explore more avenues of collaboration in promoting the languages. In this connection, Sanchez said he would love to learn Hindi, the statement said.
Prime Minister Sanchez, who is officially described as the President of the Government of Spain, said he had read the Spanish translation of Rabindranath Tagore's 'Gitanjali'.
Welcoming the Spanish Prime Minister to Maharashtra, the State Governor said football is getting increasingly popular in India. He said organizing football matches in India will improve people-to-people contacts.
The Governor said he would be happy to see increased cultural collaboration and academic exchanges between universities in Maharashtra and Spain. Stating that there are good universities in Maharashtra, the Governor told Sanchez that universities in Maharashtra are promoting Spanish in a big way.
Chairman of the Strategic Foresight Group - a Mumbai-based think tank - Sundeep Waslekar presented his book 'A World without War' to the Spanish Prime Minister on the occasion.
Governor Radhakrishnan later hosted a Banquet in honour of the visiting Spanish Prime Minister and his delegation.
Spain's Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility Oscar Puente, Minister of Industry and Tourism Jordi Hereu, Ambassador of Spain to India Juan Antonio March Pujol, Deputy Chairperson of Legislative Council Dr Neelam Gorhe, Flag Officer Commanding - Western Naval Command Vice Admiral Sanjay J Singh, Administrator of BMC Bhushan Gagrani, Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar and senior government officials were present.