Six mobile manufacturers planning to pre-install BHIM app

Six mobile manufacturers are planning to preinstall government's application BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) on their mobile phones, a part of government's plan to drive adoption of digital payment services.

The amount of transactions through BHIM app has increased to Rs 70.58 billion in October this year from Rs 34.11 billion in July this year in terms of the value of transactions. In the number of transactions, it went up to 76.96 million in October from 11.63 million in July this year, according to data from the ministry of electronics and IT.

A senior official from the ministry of electronics and IT said six manufacturers have agreed while many have shown interest and will soon preload BHIM app on their phones.

The development comes few months after the ministry asked mobile handset manufacturers to do so.

BHIM works on a Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform and has been developed by NPCI. BHIM is available in 13 languages. The only prerequisite is to link the mobile number to the bank account and the SIM card of the mobile number linked to the bank account should be used in the mobile handset while transacting. According to estimates, there have been over 20 million downloads of BHIM app till now.

Besides, there is a plan to make BHIM a single point for all mobile payments via Bharat QR code which will be accepted across all merchants across platforms including mobile wallets. NPCI is the process of integrating Bharat QR code with BHIM app.

Through BHIM app, one can transfer money from one bank account to other from his smartphone using UPI platform. BHIM is similar to UPI and the main difference is that there is no need to download multiple mobile applications of various banks as this app come work for all banks. As many as 59 banks are already live with this app.

Digital India is one of the focus areas for the government as it looks to provide government services through an online medium. The government is in the process of launching next phase of Digital India 2.0 soon as it moves ahead to a target of $1-trillion digital economy by 2022. Digital India programme focuses on providing broadband highways, universal access to mobile connectivity, public Internet access, e-governance through technology and electronic delivery of services, among others.

STILL COUNTING

• The amount of transactions through BHIM app has increased to Rs 70.58 billion in October this year from Rs 34.11 billion in July
   
• In the number of transactions, it went up to 76.96 mn in October from 11.63 mn in July