- India and Canada moved to ease cross-border payments for more than 400,000 Indian students in Toronto.
- Officials discussed student remittances and UPI, plus merchant payments and wider financial links between the countries.
- Champagne said each student may send around 45,000 Canadian dollars, making the issue economically significant.
India and Canada moved on August 27 to make cross-border payments easier for more than 400,000 Indian students in Canada, turning a student remittance problem into a wider payment agenda.
The talks took place in Toronto during a financial dialogue. They were public.
Free toolCanada Express Entry Points Calculator
Canada’s finance minister said the student flow alone is large enough to matter.
“We’re looking to facilitate payments, for example, for students,” François-Philippe Champagne said. “We know we have 400,000 Indian students. We know that the remittance could be around 45,000 Canadian dollars per student.”
Champagne also said both governments were committed “to facilitate that” for student remittances. He called it “a great benefit to the Indian students that are living in Canada.”
Nirmala Sitharaman framed the same push around digital tools.
“We have had conversations on how digital technologies can help each other,” she said. “We are talking; our teams are going to be talking further, and adopting everything which helps in easier payment, cross-border remittances, and also within the country, multiple choices for digital payments so that citizens can benefit from it.”
The talks went beyond tuition transfers. Officials also discussed broader financial cooperation, including cross-border remittances, merchant payments and wider use of UPI in Canada.
Student transfers came first, but not last
The student piece sits at the center of the discussion. It is also the easiest to measure.
Families routinely send money for tuition, living expenses and other education costs. Those payments can move slowly and cost more than senders want.
The two governments are trying to lower that friction. They are also trying to widen the pipes.
Champagne described financial services as one of the “biggest growth opportunities” in the bilateral relationship. That description pushed the discussion well beyond one narrow payment corridor.
The payment talks reached into broader finance
The agenda included more than remittances. It also touched on merchant payments and the possible expansion of payment links.
That broader frame matters because the same dialogue linked financial services with deeper economic ties between the two countries. It also included encouragement for more financial institutions to operate in India.
The ministers cast the effort as a work in progress. Sitharaman said the teams would keep talking, and Champagne said the two sides were committed to easier student payments.
The Toronto meeting on August 27 remains the clearest public development so far. It also shows where the next step may come from.
The governments are not finished talking.
