India’s e-payment gateway for cashless transactions, the BHIM app, will be launched in Bhutan today. BHIM or Bharat Interface for Money is developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and is based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). The BHIM app will help Indian businesses and tourists in the country with cashless transactions and will give a flip to Bhutanese businesses as well.
Speaking at the virtual launch of BHIM-UPI in Bhutan, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said it will help Indian tourists visiting “the land of happiness”. “BHIM-UPI is one of the achievements of India in terms of fintech,” she said on the occasion. Over 200,000 tourists from India travel to Bhutan every year. Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) is India’s digital payment application (app) that works through UPI, a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application.
During the lockdown because of the Covid-19 pandemic, BHIM-UPI became an “effective mechanism” of payment, and in 2020-21, it processed 22 billion financial transactions worth ₹41 lakh crore, she said. India witnessed a 68-day hard nationwide lockdown since March 25, 2020 to contain the spread of the first wave of pandemic.
