BHIM

BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) is an Indian mobile payment App developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Named after B. R. Ambedkar and launched on 30 December 2016,[4] it is intended to facilitate e-payments directly through banks as part of the 2016 Indian banknote demonetisation and drive towards cashless transactions.[5]

For other uses, see Bhim (disambiguation).

BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money)
Bharat Interface for Money
Developer(s)NPCI
Initial releaseDecember 2016 (2016-12)
Written inNormal
Operating system
Platform
Size16.52 MB
Available in16 languages
List of languages
Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, English, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Assamese, Urdu, Konkani Bhojpuri,Haryanvi[1][2][3]
TypeMobile App
Websitewww.bhimupi.org.in

The app supports all Indian banks which use UPI, which is built over the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) infrastructure and allows the user to instantly transfer money between bank accounts of any two parties.[6] It can be used on all mobile devices.[7]

Benefits

BHIM allow users to send or receive money to or from UPI payment addresses, or to non-UPI based accounts (by scanning a QR code with account number and IFSC code or MMID (Mobile Money Identifier) Code).[8]

Unlike mobile wallets (PayTM, MobiKwik, mPesa, Airtel Money, etc.) which hold money,[9] the BHIM app is only a mechanism which transfers money between different bank accounts. Transactions on BHIM are nearly instantaneous and can be done 24/7 including weekends and bank holidays.

BHIM also allows users to check the current balance in their bank accounts and to choose which account to use for conducting transactions, although only one can be active at any time.[10]

Users can create their own QR code for a fixed amount of money, which is helpful in merchant-seller-buyer transactions.[11][12] Users can also have more than one payment address.

If the 12-digit Aadhaar number is listed as a payment ID, the BHIM app will not require any biometric authentication or prior registration with the bank or UPI.[13]

Version 1.3 allows users to use mobile numbers from their contact book to send money and also save payment addresses for future use without needing to type the address again. User can also check the transaction history, which only shows transactions through BHIM.

The company rolled out new feature called BHIM Aadhaar Pay allowing users to send or receive digital payments through Aadhaar authentication.[14]

Transaction fees and limits

Currently, there is no charge for transactions from ₹1 to ₹100,000.[15][16] Some banks might, however, levy a nominal fee for UPI or IMPS transfers.

The minimum transaction amount is ₹1, and the maximum number of transactions per day is 10. If the 10-transactions-per-day limit has been reached, the user needs to wait for 24 hours from the last transaction before making another transaction.

Currently, the fund transfer limit has been set to a maximum of ₹20,000 per transaction and a maximum of ₹40,000 in a 24-hour period.[17]

Indian banks have proposed transaction charges on UPI transactions,[18] but there is no information on whether transactions through BHIM will also be charged.

Language support

BHIM app currently supports 20 languages (including English), though there are 22 scheduled languages of India (excluding English) under 8th Schedule of Constitution of India. In the near future, BHIM is expected to support all 22 official languages of India along with other regional languages which are spoken widely along with the scheduled languages.

Reception

During the 2017 Union budget of India, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that BHIM is currently being used by over 12.5 million Indian citizens.[19] He said that the government will launch two new schemes to promote the use of the BHIM app. One will be referral payments for individuals, and the other will be cashback for merchants who accept payments from BHIM.[20]

Security

In May 2020, VPNMentor, a cyber security firm disclosed that BHIM app has suffered a huge data breach leaking approx 7.26 Million Indian users personal and financial data, such as name, contact details, Aadhaar card, PAN card, Caste Certificate, fingerprint scans, educational certificates and more. The 4.09 GB files were leaked from a CSC operated website because of misconfigured AWS S3 bucket, and not the official BHIM website. But CSC explicitly mentions that it is working with BHIM and NCPI in partnership. VPNMentor and other cybersecurity experts confirm the data to be authentic, but BHIM and NCPI claim that the breach never took place. The issue has now been fixed.[21]

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See also

References
  1. Moray, Deepali (24 January 2017). "BHIM app to add support for 7 regional languages by the end of this week: Report". BGR India. Archived from the original on 30 August 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  2. "BHIM app gets support for new languages and other features - Latest News - Gadgets Now". m.gadgetsnow.com. 14 April 2017.
  3. "New BHIM App version rolled out". The Hindu. 11 November 2017.
  4. S, Arun (30 December 2016). "Modi launches mobile payment app" – via www.thehindu.com.
  5. "People can now bank with thumb using BHIM app: PM Modi at Digi Dhan Mela". The Indian Express. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
  6. "About Bharat Interface for Money".
  7. "Modi launches app named after Ambedkar, says your thumb will act as your bank | india-news". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
  8. "BHIM UPI Official website". National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). 12 January 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  9. "How is BHIM app different from mobile wallets- Business News". www.businesstoday.in. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  10. "BHIM app explained: Here's what this new UPI-based app does". The Indian Express. 3 January 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  11. Desk, The Hindu Net. "A step-by-step guide on how to use BHIM app". The Hindu. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  12. "BHIM App QR Code - How To Generate It For Payments". MyBhimApp.in. 9 January 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  13. Agarwal, Surabhi (17 January 2017). "Govt to integrate BHIM app with Aadhaar for transactions". The Times of India. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  14. "How to transfer money using Aadhaar number via BHIM App: Follow steps". India Today. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  15. "National Payments Corporation of India". www.npci.org.in. Archived from the original on 17 May 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
  16. "IRCTC to launch new app for faster booking of tickets". Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  17. Pareek, Lokesh. "BHIM features".
  18. "Banks to start charging for P2P payments on UPI". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  19. "Budget 2017: Jaitley says BHIM app now has 125 lakh downloads". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  20. "Union Budget 2017: Govt announces two new incentives to promote BHIM app". The Indian Express. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  21. "BHIM Data Leak Exposes 7M Indian Users Data: Risk of Fraud & Theft". Hack Reports. 3 June 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
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