Steps Taken for Facilitating Digital Transactions

In the wake of the demonetisation, the government has taken a number of steps to facilitate and incentivize the move to a digital economy. These include:

BHIM App

• Launch of the BHIM (Bharat Interface For Money) app for smartphones. This is based on the new Unified Payments Interface (UPI) which has created inter-operability of digital transactions.
• As of January 10, there had been 10 million downloads, and over 1 million transactions had been conducted.
• The 250 million digital-haves can use their smartphone to make simple and quick payments.

BHIM USSD 2.0

Launch of BHIM USSD 2.0, a product that allows the 350 million feature phone users to take advantage of the UPI.

Aadhaar Merchant Pay

• Launch of Aadhaar Merchant Pay, aimed at the 350 million who do not have phones.
• This enables anyone with just an Aadhaar number and a bank account to make a merchant payment using his biometric identification.
• Aadhar Merchant Pay will soon be integrated into BHIM and the necessary POS devices will soon be rolled out.