BHIM UPI

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). Launched on 30 December 2016, it is intended to facilitate e-payments directly through banks and encourage cashless transactions. It was named after the father of Indian constitution Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar. 

 The application 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 170 member banks of any two parties. It can be used on all mobile devices. 

Operation

BHIM allows 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 IFS code or MMID code). Unlike mobile wallets (Paytm, MobiKwik, M-Pesa, Airtel Money, etc.) which hold money, the BHIM app is only a mechanism which transfers money between different bank accounts. Transactions on BHIM are nearly instantaneous and can be done at any time, including weekends and bank holidays. BHIM now also allows users to send or receive digital payments through Aadhaar authentication.

On-device wallet

On September 20, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das officially launched on-device wallet called UPI Lite at Global Fintech Fest 2022. As per NPCI, some of the early use cases involve FASTag recharges, insurance payments, and EMI collections offline. Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, Indian Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, Union Bank of India and Utkarsh Small Finance Bank enabled UPI Lite feature on BHIM.