Ever since demonetization has hit Indian economy, there has been a great push towards digital payments. After all, who would want to stand in bank queues for hours, when technology can make payment as simple as being on your finger-tip. With applications like paytm, SBI pays already in the market doing business. 30th of December, marked yet another push to the idea of cashless economy, by Prime-minister himself rolling out application BHIM (Bharat Interface For Money), to enable fast, secure and reliable cashless payments. Developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), this basic UPI app beats all other applications in terms of simplicity.
Aadhaar Payment
Being named in the honor of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, this application also focuses on the empowerment of Dalits. It’s yet to be launched feature of Aadhaar Payment, enables a transaction with just a fingerprint impression. Thus, thumb impression, which used to symbolize illiteracy, with the help of this technology will now be seen as an instrument of personal empowerment.
UPI (Unified Payment Interface)
Talking about the actual working of the application, this uses UPI platform for a transaction, i.e., bank account number of the payee is not required to transfer funds. Rather, mobile number or virtual payment address is sufficient to pay money. Now, some may be wondering, what this UPI is after all? Well, UPI (Unified Payment Interface) allows making instant payments using mobile phones as a primary device for a transaction, through a creation of a virtual payment address, which is an alias for your bank account. On BHIM app, this would be or <userid@upi>. This used, serves as the primary address to send or request money through other ids linked to it. Transaction in BHIM app can also be made with non-UPI supported banks using IFSC (Indian Financial System Code) and MMID (Mobile Money Identity).
supporting BHIM
The list of the banks that are supporting BHIM are, Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of Maharashtra, Canara Bank, Catholic Syrian Bank, Central Bank of India, DCB Bank, Dena Bank, Federal Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, IDFC Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, IndusInd Bank, Karnataka Bank, Karur Vysya Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank, RBL Bank, South Indian Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, State Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, Union Bank of India, United Bank of India, and Vijaya Bank.
So, does it mean that it becomes yet another payment application on the store? No, its simplicity and ease of usage make it beat all the other applications. Also, since BHIM is a government authenticated application, it avoids any reliance on third party players. It also ranks high on safety by providing 3 levels of authentication (normal net banking applications have only 2 levels of authentication).
do you want to use it now?
Well, having heard about it so much, do you want to use it now? It’s simple. Go to your play store, search “BHIM” and download the application. Install and choose a language (currently option is available between English and Hindi only, but soon other regional languages are also planned to be added). Verify your phone number using SMS. Now, enter a 4-digit passcode to open this application (this is just for opening the application and users need not confuse with any bank pin). Now, to start the bank account linking process, select a bank and link a bank account with BHIM, which you want to use for the transaction. For now, only one bank account can be linked, and the flexibility to add multiple bank accounts have yet not been provided. Next, set a UPI pin for the bank account, which will be required for authentication when you would be wanting to make any payment. After setting this, you are all set to go! Select between send, request, scan/pay options and perform the required operation. But remember, transactions are possible only between verified phone numbers. And it has a limit of Rs.10,000 for one transaction, and up to Rs.25,000 within 24 hours. Currently, it is available for android users only. IOS users might have to wait until the next release.
So, what are you waiting for? Let 2016 take away the worries of going cashless. As 2017 sees a new dawn of digital India, with the launching of government approved application, “BHIM”. As said,
“Digital India takes the power, to empower!”
Good information to share written in simple text to gain first level of understanding. It will be also interesting to research more to find if BHIM is just re-branding of UPI. Since UPI was launch by RBI governor in Mid of 2016 for better P2P payments and slowly banks started jumping on the bandwagon to retain its competition with fintech players and wallet providers dominant within this space. What value add does BHIM provides riding on existing UPI infrastructure ? How BHIM is different from UPI apps? Will it be able to become a new norm/face for payments in India just like social means Facebook in today’s era.
Good information to share written in simple text to gain first level of understanding. It will be also interesting to research more to find if BHIM is just re-branding of UPI. Since UPI was launch by RBI governor in Mid of 2016 for better P2P payments and slowly banks started jumping on the bandwagon to retain its competition with fintech players and wallet providers dominant within this space. What value add does BHIM provides riding on existing UPI infrastructure ? How BHIM is different from UPI apps? Will it be able to become a new norm/face for payments in India just like social means Facebook in today’s era.