Narendra Modi launches BHIM Aadhaar in Nagpur

NEW DELHI (INDIA): The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi has launched BHIM Aadhaar – a cashless payment mode based on biometric identification of thumb print.

Speaking on the occasion of Dr. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar birth anniversary, Modi said he was delighted to be in Nagpur on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti. He said he was honoured to have got the opportunity to pray at Deekshabhoomi.

He said that Dr. Ambedkar did not have even a trace of bitterness or revenge in him. He added that this was Babasaheb Ambedkar's speciality.

The Prime Minister said that the BHIM App is positively impacting several lives across the nation. He said that the Digi-dhan movement is also a cleansing mission to fight the menace of corruption.

· BHIM App and QR Codes launched

· 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 haso seen an unprecedented increase in number of transactions made using several user-friendly digital payment methods viz. UPI,USSD, AePS.

· Volume of all digital transactions increased by about 23 times with 63,80,000 digital transactions for a value of Rs. 2425 crore in March 2017 compared to 2,80,000 digital transactions worth Rs.101 crore till November 2016.

· Aadhaar Enabled Payments have increased from 2.5 crore in November 2016 to over 5 crore in March 2017.

· Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) transactions have also increased from 3.6 crore to 6.7 crore during the same period.

BHIM-Aadhaar, the merchant interface of the BHIM App

· It will pave the way for making digital payments by using the Aadhaar platform.

· Any Indian citizen can pay digitally using their biometric data like their thumb imprint on a merchants’ biometric enabled device which could be smart phone having a biometric reader.

· Any citizen without access to smart phones, 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 7.15 lakh merchants so that they can start accepting payments using BHIM Aadhaar.

ONBOARDING

· Total Onboarding (including syndicate update): 7.15 lakhs , Transactions: 12.62 lakh

· Aadhar:1.75 Lakh

· BHIM/UPI 4.79 lakh

· QR Code:1.68 lakh

BHIM – Cash back and Referral Bonus Schemes

· To ensure that the culture of digital payments permeates down to the grassroots.

· Under the Referral bonus scheme both the existing user who refers BHIM and the new user who adopts BHIM would get a cash bonus credited directly to their account.

· Under the Cashback scheme the merchants will get a cash back on every transaction using BHIM. Both schemes are to be administered by MEITY and implemented by NPCI.

· Outlay of Rs. 495 crore for a period of six months.

75 Townships declared Less Cash Townships

· In order to achieve the target of 2500 crore digital transactions during the current financial year, the Prime Minister announced about 75 townships spread all over India as ‘less-cash townships’.

· A less-cash township is one where the deployment of payment acceptance infrastructure is complete, all the families in the township are covered under training programs.

· Selected townships on the basis of third party assessment by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC)

· Townships with more than 80% of the total number of transactions being done through digital modes of payments during the review period are included in this list.

· These townships are likely to generate over 1.5 lakh digital transactions every day thereby leading to about 5.5 crore digital transactions in a year.