More articles by

Vandana
Vandana

GOING CASHLESS

Govt launches Bharat QR, new digital payment system

cellphone Representative image | AFP

After expanding the scope of digital transactions through BHIM, the government has launched yet another initiative in digital payments called Bharat QR—a QR code based payment system. With Bharat QR, merchants can accept digital payments even without a card swiping machine.  The customer just needs to be on the mobile app of one of the banks and will have to scan the QR code displayed at merchant outlet. The payment system has been jointly developed by Mastercard, Visa and Rupay.

Government has launched several initiatives on the cashless front post demonetisation. These include the BHIM app, Aadhar enabled payments and USSD platform for feature phones. However, a QR code based payment system was lacking, which the government is now trying to plug through this move.

Wallet provider Paytm already offers a QR code based payment system. Experts believe that Bharat QR's launch will offer competition to Paytm's product.

The interesting feature about Bharat QR is that it will support all the cards be it MasterCard, Visa or Rupay.

The merchant can either display the code, that is the static QR or he can generate a new QR code for every transaction- the dynamic QR. 

In case of a static QR code, one just needs to scan the code and enter the amount on smartphone and authorise with a PIN, after which the money gets debited. In case of a dynamic QR code, one just needs to scan and enter the PIN and the payment is done.

As of now, Bharat QR is available on mobile apps of 15 banks, but soon more banks are expected to join once it gains traction.

This browser settings will not support to add bookmarks programmatically. Please press Ctrl+D or change settings to bookmark this page.
Topics : #Digital India | #Paytm

Related Reading