BHIM AADHAR APP

PM Modi launches BHIM-Aadhaar app, now pay at shops using fingerprint

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched BHIM-Aadhar pay app, that will allow people to make payments without using a smartphone. Instead, the app will enable payments through the fingerprint scanner, by authenticating the biometric details of a user with Aadhaar database. The app, which will be available for download to merchants across the country, will link your Aadhaar number and biometric fingerprint to complete a transaction. This will not only make cashless payment more prevalent but also possibly more easy and hassle-free. To enable the transactions through BHIM-Aadhar, merchants will have to purchase fingerprint scanners.

With the implementation of the new system, all you will need is your fingerprint to make a payment. Using the Aadhaar number linked to your bank account, the payment for your purchase will be requested by the merchant but is finalised only when you keep your finger on the biometric machine connected to the app through the smartphone.

The app is available on both Android and iOS. But the merchants will need to keep a biometric sensor connected to the phone for authentication; apart from signing in to the app after a KYC. PM Modi has also announced incentives for merchants deploying this new system. To start with there will be no extra charges levied on the payment, as with other digital payment modes like Debit card, Credit card or e-wallets. Then, the Merchants Discount Rate or MDR that is paid to the bank by the merchant will also be waived off.           

The BHIM-Aadhaar pay app is developed only for merchants and makes use of two major platforms developed by the government -- Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) for authentication and Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) that acts as a repository. Niti Aayog says this makes the Aadhaar Pay payment system highly secure.

If multiple accounts are linked to your Aadhaar card, it may also give you an option to select which account you need to use to make the payment. So probably the app first authenticates the customer using two unique credentials - the Aadhaar ID and his fingerprint sensor and then gives out an option to select the payment bank, something similar to what the BHIM app does.