With Aadhaar-based BHIM, India closer to becoming cashless economy

Mumbai: The National Payments Corporation of India today announced the launch of mobile application for Aadhaar-based payments through Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app for merchants. The service was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Nagpur today.

The new service will allow customers to make purchases using their Aadhaar number linked with their bank account. The transaction will require customer's fingerprint for authentication.

"This will directly cater to about 40 crore bank account customers spread across the country whose account is linked with Aadhaar. It is a huge opportunity for enabling digital transactions as about 99 per cent of adult population is now aadhaar enabled," NPCI managing director and CEO, A P Hota said.

Currently, over 30 banks are participating on BHIM Aadhaar and more member banks shall be on-board, NPCI said. BHIM Aadhaar would be applicable for retail merchants only and not for corporate merchants, it said.

BHIM is a smart mobile phone based app based on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) that allows simple, easy and quick payment transactions using UPI. The app is now available on google play store and iOS, NPCI said.