Soon after the Demonetisation move, the demand for cashless transactions through e- wallets skyrocketed. The BJP led government held many Digi Dhan Melas in different urban localities to spread awareness regarding its advantages. In one such event held on the December 30 in the Talkatora stadium, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) application.
So what really is the BHIM app? It is an effort from the governments side to achieve safe and fast transactions through mobile phones. It has been developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) and uses the United Payments Interface (UPI) for its transactions. This enables us to transfer money from one bank account to another, without any sort of transaction charge. It has been dedicated to Baba Saheb Ambedkar.
It has the basic features of a UPI application. Firstly, you don’t need to register payee beforehand and the transaction takes place in a jiffy. Secondly, the money is transferred at any time of the day or month. It is also linked to 35 different public and private banks. They include State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank and Bank of Maharashtra, to name a few.
Other than these, there are features which make it even more useful. In case, any problem arises during the payment process, you can directly get in touch with your respective banks. The balance of your bank account can also be checked. It will soon be a multi-linguistic application. As of now, it can be used in both English and Hindi languages. It is available both of Apple I-store and Android’s Playstore. The app is equipped with the facility of QR code, which can be shared and scanned to make the payment.
PM Modi in an official statement announced that the BHIM app has crossed 10 million downloads and 2 million transactions have been undertaken. He said, “It is a fine example of Make in India and how technology is being effectively used to end the menace of corruption and black money”.
BHIM app definitely poses a challenge to the digital wallets. However, for it to succeed, its awareness needs to be spread to the grass roots. Just the manner Paytm and Freecharge have been able to achieve.
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