The presentation took place at booth A7 on the fields of Innoprom in India. The system will allow transfers between the two countries through local partner banks in rubles and rupees, without being linked to the dollar infrastructure. The stated range of operations: payment for tuition, accommodation and treatment, payment of salaries and scholarships, personal transfers of individuals.
Fradkov justified the scale of the task with specific figures: there are about 200,000 Indian citizens in Russia, of whom more than 80,000 work, about 40,000 study at Russian universities, and the rest come as tourists.
"India is one of Russia's key and long—standing partners... Today there are about 200,000 Indian citizens in Russia alone: more than 80,000 come to work, about 40,000 study at Russian universities, and thousands visit our country as tourists. This scale of cooperation requires an appropriate financial infrastructure — modern, accessible and predictable," Fradkov said.
The next step is to develop a roadmap with technical requirements and a step—by-step implementation plan. The pilot operation is planned to be launched in Russian universities and companies where Indian citizens study and work. It is this segment that will become the first test circuit before scaling to commercial calculations.
A7 was established by PSB in 2024 and specializes in cross-border payments for Russian businesses. By August 2026, the customer base exceeded 15,000 participants in foreign economic activity, with a daily volume of more than 2,000 transactions. Our own payment infrastructure covers over 100 countries.
For importers and exporters working with India, the emergence of a specialized two-way channel in national currencies is changing settlement practices: now payments in the Indian direction often pass through third jurisdictions with additional conversion losses and compliance delays. If the system passes the pilot and goes on commercial launch, Russian companies will receive a direct ruble channel to Indian A7 partner banks - without intermediate correspondents in the dollar zone.
The timing of the commercial launch is not specified in the message: the project is at the stage of approving the roadmap.
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