BHIM App - Digital Payment Transactions via Finger Print - NO CARD/CASH

[Kalyan]

BHIM App - Digital Payment Transactions via Finger Print - NO CARD/CASH

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched a UPI (United Payments Interface) based app called BHIM, short for Bharat Interface for Money. The BHIM app is a straightforward UPI app, which would allow anyone to make simple digital payments directly from their bank account, and it is now available for download.

The BHIM app is supposed to support Aadhaar-based payments, where transactions will be possible with just a fingerprint impression, but that facility is yet to start.

The UPI-based BHIM app allows anyone to pay or receive money through online banking, unlike a wallet where you have to first load the money before you can use it.

"Be it a smartphone or feature phone of Rs 1,000-1,200, BHIM app can be used. There is no need to have Internet connectivity," says PM Modi. "One only needs a thumb. There was a time when an illiterate was called 'angutha chchap'. Now, time has changed. Your thumb is your bank now. It has become your identity now."

Let's take a closer look at everything you need to know about the BHIM app.

Also seeBHIM app explained in 10 points

What is BHIM app?

With the BHIM app, anyone can send or request money through the app to make a digital payment. The app is linked to your bank account, so you don't have to load money in it unlike a wallet, and a merchant does not have to worry about transferring the money back to their bank account.

How to download BHIMP app?

Download the BHIM app by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Google Play to start using the free Android app.

How to download BHIM app for iPhone?

BHIM app is presently now available on Android and will come to iPhone 'soon'.


How exactly does the app work?

BHIM lets you choose your preferred bank, after it has verified your mobile number. You get an SMS, so it's best to use the same number as the one that's linked to the bank account. BHIM will ask you to set a 4-digit passcode. Pick something you won't forget easily because you'll need the code every time you open the app.

The app will then ask you to select your bank. If your account is UPI activated, it will reflect the relevant number. You'll see options to send and receive money, and transact via IFSC. If UPI is not activated, you can put in six digits of your debit card number, and the expiry date, after which the app will let you use it.

To send money, type in the mobile number or VPA address. BHIM will verify the payee. Type in the amount, and hit pay. If the payee doesn't have UPI, tap on the three dots above the send money option. The ACCOUNT + IFSC option will open up, where you can put in the details.

One problem currently is that you can access only one account per mobile number. So if your number is linked to two accounts, you will have to disable the selected one and go back to the bank selection option.


How do I use BHIM app?

After you download the BHIM app, you'll have to register your bank account through the app, and set a UPI PIN. Your mobile number is your payment address, and you can start transacting. Through the app, you can send or receive money to a phone number, check balance, or scan a QR code to make a payment without sharing a phone number.

Using the BHIM app, money can also be sent to non-UPI banks through IFSC, like you do with normal net banking.

Does the BHIM app work on feature phones?

Apart from the Android app, the interface behind the BHIM app can be accessed using USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) from feature phones – you will need to dial *99# to access it. With this method, an Internet connection will not be required to use the core functionality behind the BHIM app.

What banks support the BHIM app?

All the major banks are supported by the BHIM app – as long as the bank supports UPI, you will be able to access your money through the BHIM app.
The list of banks supported by the BHIM app is as follows:

Allahabad Bank
Andhra Bank
Axis Bank
Bank of Baroda
Bank of India
Bank of Maharashtra
Canara Bank
Catholic Syrian Bank
Central Bank of India
DCB Bank
Dena Bank
Federal Bank
HDFC Bank
ICICI Bank
IDBI Bank
IDFC Bank
Indian Bank
Indian Overseas Bank
IndusInd Bank
Karnataka Bank
Karur Vysya Bank
Kotak Mahindra Bank
Oriental Bank of Commerce
Punjab National Bank
RBL Bank
South Indian Bank
Standard Chartered Bank
State Bank of India
Syndicate Bank
Union Bank of India
United Bank of India
Vijaya Bank

What are the BHIM app transaction limits?

There is a maximum of Rs. 10,000 per transaction permitted, and Rs. 20,000 within 24 hours.

What's so special about BHIM then?

BHIM also has options to transfer via IFSC and MMID as well for non-UPI banks. It indicates the government has decided to go with one app that will enable digital payments via UPI. Of course, for BHIM to be of use to a majority of people, everyone must start accepting and activating UPI as a payment method.

As of now, iOS users are out of this system — and Apple devices are used by affluent users who are often likely to do a lot of digital transactions. From an infrastructure point of view, there's a long way to go before BHIM becomes India's default payments app. The Internet is spotty or non-existent across vast swathes of the land. And the Aadhaar-based payments part for BHIM is yet to be rolled out fully

[Sudhakar]

Amazing share kalyan, good to know about thumb impression based money circulation within Indian merchants by Indian Government

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How Team Lucideus spent sleepless nights to make BHIM invincible

BHIM is initially available only on Android devices. By Monday evening, BHIM made it to the 'top free apps' chart of Google Play Store in India.

NEW DELHI: For about two months till the launch of the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), more than a dozen people at a New Delhi company slogged it out, spending sleepless nights to ensure that the app was safe and that the security loopholes were plugged before it went live.

This dedicated team comprised employees of Lucideus Tech, one of the cybersecurity companies that provided security for the app developed by the National Payment Corporation of India and launched by the Prime Minister on Friday.

"We literally worked all night for the last few weeks on the app. Over a dozen people at Lucideus were working exclusively on this," said Saket Modi, chief executive of the company. Lucideus has in the past worked with organisations such as ICICI Bank, Standard Chartered, IndiGo and KFC.

BHIM, the mobile app based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), is initially available only on Android devices. By Monday evening, BHIM made it to the 'top free apps' chart of Google Play Store in India, beating popular apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Facebook Messenger.

Lucideus, said Modi, was a natural choice to work on the security side of the app, given that it also worked on the cybersecurity assessment for the UPI common library, which is given to all banks to be embedded into their net banking apps.

The new app has three levels of security. Firstly, when a user opens BHIM for the first time, it gets bound to their device ID and phone number. The user also has to provide a PIN to unlock and enter the app.

Secondly, an authentication takes place between the bank and the user's mobile number registered with the bank. The third is the UPI PIN, set by the user, which will be required for every transaction through the app and its authorisation happens via UPI servers.

"In case someone replicates your SIM or steals your phone and places the SIM in a new phone, they would still not be able to do the transactions as they wouldn't have your UPI pin," said Modi.

Apart from over a hundred technical controls that the Lucideus team looked at, it also considered multiple scenarios where a potential breach could happen. For example, if you get a call during a transaction on BHIM, and hand over the phone to another person for the call, you will have to re-enter the app PIN after you disconnect the call.

Cybersecurity professionals aim to simulate all known vulnerabilities across different points of a possible breach. "However, there is nothing that can be 100% secured — there is always an unknown element, the known unknowns. But what can be done is to ensure that all known controls are tested for and to have an incident response strategy ready in case of a breach," Modi said.

Post November 8, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, digital payments have been on the rise. The use of mobile wallets has also gone up. BHIM could, however, change that soon.

"BHIM is superior from a technology standpoint along with a convenience perspective in comparison to mobile wallets. The requirement of a third party (a wallet app in this case) is completely eliminated as users can now transact directly using their bank account without the need to upload or recharge money into an external wallet and without compromising on their bank account's security in any way," said Modi.

According to him, spending on cybersecurity has seen an "exponential rise" in the recent past owing to the large number of sophisticated hacks in the world. India also witnessed the hacking of Twitter and email accounts of prominent public figures last year, putting the need to be secure online at the forefront.

Source : http://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/how-team-lucideus-spent-sleepless-nights-to-make-bhim-invincible/56305167

[Sudhakar]

Dear Team,

Any update on BHIM App now.