Govt to release app for Aadhaar-linked e-payments soon

Government will soon launch a mobile application to facilitate Aadhaar-linked digital payments and roll out a nation-wide programme to train over 1 crore people on e-payments.

"We are going to promote Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AEPS) in coordination with Finance Ministry. About 40 crore bank accounts have been linked to Aadhaar," IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters today.

He said that the government is working on a plan to connect rest of the accounts with Aadhaar numbers.

He said that there are biometric devices which can be connected to smartphones and convert a smartphone into a Point of Sale (PoS) machine.

"We are developing a UPI enabled mobile application. It will be available in 2-4 days. Customer feed Aadhaar number, scan finger on the biometric, approve the amount to be paid on the application and the payment will be transferred from his account to merchant's account," CSC SPV CEO Dinesh Tyagi said.

The customer will not need to share bank account details as the application will detect the bank account linked to the Aadhaar number with help of Unified Payment Interface (UPI).

He said that Common Service Centres across country are already carrying out AEPS transactions and the government is converting same process in to a mobile app.

Prasad said that government will conduct workshops to train 14 lakh Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLE) across 500 districts and 6500 blocks about carrying out digital transactions which will be attended by Members of Parliament as well.

As per the programme, each VLE will train 40 individuals covering 80 lakh individuals and at least 10 shopkeepers with target to cover total of 25 merchants across country.

He said that Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology will organise a two-day event at Major Dhyanchand National Stadium in Delhi to create awareness about digital payments and also help people open bank accounts and enrol for Aadhaar.

Prasad said that even migrant labours having Aadhaar will be provided help to open their bank accounts.

"27 banks will have their stalls at the venue. Private mobile wallet companies will also be there to help people in making digital payments," Prasad said.