PM Narendra Modi’s big announcement for the day was the BHIM app, short for Bharat Interface for Money. The app, available only for Android users for now, will allow people to make digital payments and was unveiled during the Digi-Dhan Mela in Delhi on Friday.
The app is actually just a rechristened version of the government’s UPI app, which was officially introduced back in August this year. This app has been developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) and supports Android version 2.3 Gingerbread and upwards. Users will require an Aadhaar-linked bank account to use BHIM.
The Quint tried out the app soon after its launch. During the brief time we spent with it, we did not face any major difficulties. This bodes well for users. The process to register on the app requires you to enter for a 4-digit UPI PIN, which you get immediately. The PIN cannot be used before it is verified by your bank, which hints at strong security measures.
However, we did not get a notification from the bank, informing us whether the process was underway or the verification was successful. But as we tried out the app just hours after its roll-out, it’s too early to pass any judgement.
In terms of privacy, it might be too early to say what information this app will ask you to share with it. But going by our initial ‘test drive’, things don’t look very convincing for now.
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