BHIM-Aadhaar pay: Digital transaction without smartphone

Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the day of Ambedkar Jayanti on Friday launched a new Bharat Interface for Money or BHIM-Aadhaar based money transfer system for enabling digital payments.

The launch marks yet another effort by the Modi government to promote digital transaction for achieving its goal of making India a cashless economy.

However, India has already become a lesser-cash economy particularly in the aftermath of demonetisation as demand for cash at banks and ATMs has gone down despite no limits on withdrawals.

The BHIM-Aadhaar pay interface is a biometrics-based money transfer system that uses a person's Aadhaar details for allowing transaction. The new BHIM-Aadhaar paying system makes a real time bank-to-bank money transfer possible, according to The Economic Times.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi while unveiling the system said Aadhaar Pay will apply fingerprint authentication method for transaction that means a person can use his or her thumb if they don't have a smartphone for making payments. The app can be used on a feature phone worth Rs 1,000 or Rs 1,500 Modi had said.

As many as 30 banks in country have already adopted the new digital payment system that is known as Aadhaar Pay. The banks that have signed up for the scheme include State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank, and HDFC Bank.