India is truly on the path of becoming digital. After range of initiatives launched by the government of India such as digital locker, unified payment interface (UPI), and others the new addition is the “Aadhaar Payment App” which would be launched on 25th December 2016.

What is Aadhaar Payment App?

Ever heard of making payment without cash/card/mobile phone/cheque? Aadhaar payment app is the answer which would work on biometric technology. It is basically another payment method i.e. Aadhaar linked digital payment. Until now, Indians used to make payments via cash/credit or debit card/mobile wallets/cheque and others. But through this app, individual i.e. buyers would just need Aadhaar number to make payment. Just refresh your memory by remembering the SMS notifications you have been receiving lately by the bank – to link Aadhaar with your bank account. The launch of this app should have been the reason for those alerts.

Development of this app was done by IDFC bank along with UIDAI and National Payments Corporation of India.

What are the benefits to Indian consumers using this app?

• The biggest advantage of Aadhaar payment app is that there won’t be any service charge on the transactions. So it would be completely affordable by every Indian – poor to rich.
• The biggest beneficiaries would be people from rural India who could not afford card/mobile wallets due to the various charges involved.
• Currently if you make any transactions via Visa or mastercard, there is a service charge involved along with convenience fee.
• Also consumer needs just an Aadhaar number which is linked to his/her bank account to make payment.
• There won’t be any need of credit/debit card, cash or cheque, mobile wallets, etc.
• No need to download any app when making purchase in-store.
• Most importantly you won’t even need mobile phone to make payment.
• No more worry of remembering long passwords, PIN details, wait for OTPs, etc.
• Dependence on installing multiple payment apps on smartphone will reduce.
• This will reduce point of sales (PoS) machines.
• More secured compared to cash/card/digital wallets. If any of this gets lost/stolen, it becomes troublesome and financially risky. Even if your Aadhaar number gets shared with anyone, he/she cannot misuse it and make payment. Because for making payment using this Aadhaar app, the person should be physically available.

Do you know RuPay card, India’s answer to Visa and Mastercard. Read more on RuPay card benefits and comparison to visa and mastercard.

How to make transactions or pay using this app?

1. Once purchase is made, only detail required would be your 12 digit Aadhaar number.
2. Merchant will use a biometric scanner and take thumb scan. It is similar to what you did when registering for Aadhaar card.
3. Once scanning is done, all the linked bank accounts of the consumer will be displayed. And you will have to select from which bank account payment has to be made. Once bank is selected and fingerprint is successfully authenticated, money will be automatically debited from your chosen bank account.

Requirements for making payment via Aadhaar payment app:

Both the entities i.e. consumer and merchant will require the following:

Three basic requirements from consumer:

• You need to have Aadhaar number. And of course remember it:)
• And this number should be linked to your bank account.
• At the time of payment, person should be present.

Requirements at the merchant’s end:

• He/she should have android phone and fingerprint biometric scanner.
• Aadhaar payment app has to be installed on his/her smartphone with scanner connected to it.
• This app has to be linked with the account number of the merchant

It is now our duty to educate as many people possible to make use of this outstanding digital technology and make India digitally super powered. Hope this reduces the critics blaming the cashless India dream. Truly it’s a Christmas Gift to India by our honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. Read more on currency ban and the effects of demonetisation.

Here’s what government of India is planning to spread awareness of this payment app:

• Workshop on digital transaction will be conducted to train 14, 00,000 village level entrepreneurs (VLE).
• This training would be conducted in over 500 districts and 6500 blocks.
• Each VLE will then train 40 individuals and 10 shopkeepers
• More people will be encouraged to open bank account and enroll for Aadhaar.
• New smartphones are on the way to launch supporting Aadhaar authentication using the iris scanner on the device.
• More devices will be launched to support Aadhaar based biometric authentication in the coming months.

What if you want to make payment for the stuffs purchased online?

For this consumer needs to have the consumer app, another form of mobile wallet which is again linked to the Aadhaar number. More on this feature would be updated soon.

How to get this app?

Individuals can download the app from android store from this link from 25th December 2016. Link would be updated in this article once it is available.