Nagpur / New Delhi, April 14: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched an Aadhaar-based money transfer mobile platform for traders along with two incentive schemes, in a push to make the economy “less-cash” and curb black money generation.
Addressing a gathering at local sport complex in Nagpur on the 126th birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar, PM Modi said that the country is reaching a time when the mobiles phones will be where financial transactions will take place.
“BHIM-App’s success will be a global case study in coming days. It’s a unique concept in the field of financial sector across the world where such app will neutralise black money and corruption,” he pointed out.
Developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the Aadhaar-linked Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) mobile app is based on the Unified Payment Interface (UPI).
After the November 8 announcement to scrap Rs 15.44 lakh crore of high value notes, the Modi government has rolled out scheme after scheme to dissuade Indians from dealing in cash and switching to digital transactions.
In December 2016, Modi launched the BHIM app for facilitating electronic payments by consumers. In March, the government launched Aadhaar Pay, a new Android-based smartphone app.
The BHIM-Aadhaar app will pave the way for making digital payments using the Aadhaar platform. This will enable every Indian citizen to pay digitally using their biometric data like a thumb imprint on a merchants’ biometric enabled device which could be smartphone connected with a biometric reader.
Any citizen without access to smartphones, internet, debit or credit cards will be able to transact digitally through the BHIM Aadhaar platform. Already, 27 major banks are now on board with three lakh merchants to facilitate payments using the BHIM Aadhaar app.
Modi also launched two new incentive schemes for the BHIM app users – Cashback and Referral bonus – with an outlay of Rs 495 crore for a period of six months.
The PM felicitated the winners of the mega draw of the two major incentive schemes to promote digital payments–the Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapaar Yojana.
The BHIM app has already created a new world record by registering 1.9 crore downloads in just four months since its launch in December, 2016. India has also seen an unprecedented increase in number of transactions made using several user-friendly digital payment methods.
Until November 2016, the volume of all digital transactions was 2,80,000 which amounted to Rs 101 crore in value terms. By March, the volume of payments using various digital payment modes saw an increase of about 23 times amounting with 63,80,000 digital transactions for a value of Rs 2,425 crore.
