PM Narendra Modi has launched the BHIM-Aadhaar digital payments platform to boost the digital payments revolution on the occasion of the 126th birth anniversary of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar.
BHIM-Aadhaar, the merchant interface of the BHIM App will pave the way for digital payments by using the Aadhaar platform enabling each Indian to pay digitally, using their biometric data on a merchant's biometric-enabled device like a smartphone with a biometric reader.
Any Indian without access to smartphones, internet, debit or credit cards, will be able to transact digitally through this platform.
Already, 27 major banks are now on board this platform, with 3,00,000 merchants to start accepting digital payments.
With a view of achieving 2,500 crore digital transactions during the current fiscal, Modi announced 75 townships across as ‘less-cash townships’.
A ‘less-cash township’ is one where the deployment of payment acceptance infrastructure is complete, and all the families there are covered under training programs.
These townships have been assessed independently by PWC, and only those with more than 80 percent of the total number of transactions conducted through digital modes during the review period have been selected.
These townships are likely to generate over 1.50 lakh digital transactions daily, or around 5.50 crore per annum.
PM Modi also launched two new incentive schemes for the BHIM-Cashback and Referral Bonus, with an outlay of Rs 495 crore for a six-month period, to ensure permeating digital payments culture to the grassroots. Under the Referral Bonus Scheme, both the existing user who refers BHIM, and the new user who adopts it, would get a cash bonus credited directly to their accounts.
Under the cashback scheme, the merchants will get a cashback on every transaction using BHIM.
Notching over 1.90 crore downloads in past four months, the BHIM App has already created a world record, besides an unprecedented increase in number of transactions made using several user-friendly digital payment methods.
Till November 2016, the volume of all digital transactions was 2,80,000 or worth Rs 101 crore, which zoomed 23 times to 63,80,000 digital transactions valued at Rs 2,425 crore.
Similarly, Aadhaar Enable Payments have doubled from 2.5 crore in November 2016, to over five crore in March 2017, and Immediate Payment Service transactions jumped from 3.6 to 6.7 during the same period.
The two incentive schemes – Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana –ended after a rigorous 100-day campaign by NITI Aayog, with Rs 258 crore won as prizes by 1.60 million winners.
Modi also felicitated some of the winners of the Mega Draw at the event, a testimony to the spread of digital payments revolutionising the country.
The 100-day campaign in 100 cities saw over 15,000 institutions going cashless in 27 states, and seven union territories and lakhs of people opening new bank accounts and getting new Aadhaar Cards.
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