What is BHIM UPI?

• Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) is an initiative to enable fast, secure, reliable cashless payments through mobile phones.
• It enables to bring in Financial Inclusion to the nation and a digitally empowered society.
• BHIM is based on Unified Payment Interface (UPI) to facilitate e-payments directly through banks without the need of any e-wallets.
• It is interoperable with other Unified Payment Interface (UPI) applications, and bank accounts.
• Unified Payment Interface(UPI) is an instant payment system built over the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) infrastructure and allows users to instantly transfer money between any two bank accounts.
• BHIM is developed by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).

Features of BHIM

• Money can be sent using a Virtual Payment Address (VPA), Mobile number, Account Number & IFSC, Aadhaar Number or QR code.
• The users can link multiple bank accounts; they can check balances, make utility payments (like electricity, water, etc.,) and make commercial transactions.
• Currently BHIM is available in 13 languages, i.e., Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Odia, Kannada, Gujarati, Marathi, Assamese and Bengali.
• Smartphones and the internet are not necessary for using BHIM UPI services (not the app).
• There are no transaction charges for using BHIM UPI.

About NPCI

• National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India.
• It is an initiative of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, for creating a robust Payment & Settlement Infrastructure in India.
• It has been incorporated as a “Not for Profit” Company under the provisions of the Companies Act 1956.
• The Company is focused on bringing innovations in the retail payment systems through the use of technology for achieving greater efficiency in operations and widening the reach of payment systems.

Important products/services of NPCI

RuPay 

• RuPay is an Indigenously developed Payment System – designed to meet the expectation and needs of the Indian consumer, banks and merchant ecosystem.
• RuPay supports the issuance of debit, credit and prepaid cards by banks in India and thereby supporting the growth of retail electronic payments in India.

IMPS

• Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) provides robust & real time fund transfer which offers an instant, 24X7, interbank electronic fund transfer service that could be accessed on multiple channels like Mobile, Internet, ATM, SMS, Branch and USSD(*99#).
• IMPS is an emphatic service which allows transferring of funds instantly within banks across India which is not only safe but also economical.

NFS

• National Financial Switch (NFS) is the largest network of shared Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in India facilitating interoperable cash withdrawal, card to card funds transfer and interoperable cash deposit transactions among other value added services in the country.

NETC

• National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) program to meet the electronic tolling requirements of the Indian market.
• It provides an electronic payment facility to customer to make the payments at national, state and city toll plazas by identifying the vehicle uniquely through a FASTag.

FASTag

• FASTag are Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) stickers which are affixed on the vehicle windshield and enable the driver to make toll payments electronically while the vehicle is in motion without stopping at the Toll plazas by saving Fuel and Time.

NACH

• National Automated Clearing House (NACH) is an offline web based system for bulk push and pull transactions.
• NACH provides an electronic mandate platform to register mandates facilitating paper less collection processes for the corporates and banks.
• It provides for both account based and Aadhaar based transactions.

AePS 

• Aadhaar enabled Payment System(AePS) is a bank led model which allows online interoperable financial inclusion transactions at ‘Point of Sale’- PoS (MicroATM) through the Business Correspondent of any bank using the Aadhaar authentication.
• The only inputs required for a customer to do a transaction under this scenario are: Aadhaar Number and Fingerprint.

Why in News?

Following a report by security researchers alleging leak of personal data of millions of users of the BHIM payment application due to a website breach, the NPCI has denied the claim.