BharatQR, developed by

NPCI The National Payments Corporation of India is an umbrella organization for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India, is an initiative of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) under the provisions of ...

, Mastercard, and

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

, is an integrated

payment system A payment system is any system used to settle financial transactions through the transfer of monetary value. This includes the institutions, instruments, people, rules, procedures, standards, and technologies that make its exchange possible.Biago ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

for

mobile devices A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physical ...

. The system, which was launched in September 2016, facilitates users to transfer their money from one source to another. The money transferred through BharatQR is received directly in the user's linked bank account. It provides a common interface between

RuPay RuPay ''(portmanteau of Rupee and Payment)'' is an Indian multinational financial services and payment service system, conceived and launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on 26 March 2012. It was created to fulfil th ...

, Mastercard,

and

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...

, and is interoperable with all the banks. Currently, BharatQR is supported on both Android and

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

devices.

Overview

BharatQR was launched in September 2016 as per the directions set by the

Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible for ...

with the aim of facilitating India in transition to a less-cash society. The system helps in enabling digital payments to reduce the usage of card machines for payment. A number of banks supported BharatQR, before the system was launched, and got ready to deploy it. Although, BharatQR primarily works by scanning

QR codes A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about the ...

, it is not the only way to make payments. It allows users to pay through

Aadhaar Aadhaar ( hi, आधार, ādhār, lit=base, foundation, bn, আধার) is a 12-digit unique identity number that can be obtained voluntarily by the citizens of India and resident foreign nationals who have spent over 182 days in twelve ...

number,

UPI United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th c ...

payment address or through account number and IFSC code, thus, minimizing the need to pay using debit and credit cards which are, supposedly, less secure than BharatQR. The system also supports Dynamic QR code generation which eliminates the need to enter the amount for payment. This payment system supports

, Mastercard,

and payment systems of 14 other national banks. Multiple cards can be linked to BharatQR supported bank apps and users can select any one of them to handle transactions conveniently for bank customers, partners, and merchants. BharatQR enables faster & secure mode of transactions with Immediate Payment Service (IMPS). There is no need to share mobile number or account details, or your CVV with anyone. NPCI, Mastercard and Visa developed BharatQR with provisions for three additional fields: bank account and IFS (Indian Financial System) code, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Aadhaar. These additional fields provide banks the option to populate them as QR-based payments scale in the country. American Express is also on board to adopt these standards.

Usage

Bijlipay became the first Indian Point-of-Sale (PoS) devices-providing company to use BharatQR on the screen of PoS machines. ItzCash announced rolling-out Bharat QR code features across its retail network to scan and pay money with ItzCash's Point-of-Sale devices by presenting a

cell phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

to a reader, across its network of 75,000 outlets in 3,000 cities and towns across the India.

Samsung Pay Samsung Pay (stylized as SΛMSUNG Pay) is a mobile payment and digital wallet service by Samsung Electronics that lets users make payments using compatible phones and other Samsung-produced devices. The service supports contactless payments usin ...

, which earlier in 2017, integrated Samsung Pay mobile wallet with

Unified Payments Interface Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an instant real-time payment system developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The interface facilitates inter-bank peer-to-peer (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions. It is used o ...

, integrated BharatQR to pay at merchants supporting UPI payment system. By early 2018, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is planning to introduce BharatQR code enabled AFC gates at all stations of the Airport Express Line allowing passengers to use the system while using the Line. Two entry points at

Lal Qila metro station Lal Qila is a station on the Violet Line of Delhi Metro system. This station serves the iconic Red Fort and the nearby Chandni Chowk in Delhi. History The station Station layout Facilities Connections Bus Delhi Transport Corporation ...

and two exit points at

Jama Masjid metro station Jama Masjid is a station on the Delhi Metro system. The Heritage Line stretch of the Delhi Metro was flagged off by Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on 28-May-2017. The corridor will be operational from ...

are set by DMRC providing commuters to enter and exit using QR codes.

References

{{Portal, India, Banks, Money 2016 establishments in India Mobile payments in India Electronic funds transfer