India and the UAE have consented to use local currencies for cross-border transactions, an initiative by Indian PM Modi to globalize the rupee, positioning India as an alternative manufacturing hub to China. The nations intend to develop a rupee-dirham transaction framework and interlink their payment and card systems. Despite this, rupee globalization has seen limited success with a modest local currency trade volume, representing a fraction of India’s total USD 1.2 tln goods trade. The UAE remains crucial for India’s overseas employment, accounting for 18% of remittances in 2020-21.