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Source: PIB
What is the News?
The Union Minister of Finance of India along with the Finance Minister of Bhutan has jointly launched BHIM–UPI in Bhutan.
Significance of this launch:
- Bhutan is now the first country to adopt UPI standards for its QR deployment. It will also be the first country in our immediate neighbourhood to accept mobile-based payments through the BHIM App.
- Further, Bhutan is also the second country after Singapore to have BHIM-UPI acceptance at merchant locations
What is BHIM?
- Bharat Interface for Money(BHIM) was developed by the National Payments Corporation of India(NPCI) in 2016.
- It is a payment app that lets you make simple, easy and quick transactions using Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
What is UPI?
- Unified Payments Interface(UPI) is an instant real-time payment system developed by NPCI facilitating inter-bank transactions.
- The interface is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India and works by instantly transferring funds between two bank accounts on a mobile platform.
About NPCI:
- NPCI is an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India.
- It is an initiative of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks Association(IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 for creating a robust Payment and Settlement Infrastructure in India.
