“The service is going live just as Samsung launches its mPayment service in the country…”

Aadhaar Pay is now active in India, care of IDFC Bank.

The system operates through a mobile app on the merchant side. When a customer wishes to pay for something, she needs only to select the bank on the touchscreen, enter her Aadhaar national ID number, and scan her fingerprint on the device for confirmation. Thus, there’s no need for the customer to have a biometric smartphone or even a payment card; it’s a naked payment.

As The Hindu BusinessLine reports, the app has been launched following a three-month trial that involved 1,500 merchants across 16 states. While the UIDAI — the government authority in charge of Aadhaar — had reportedly been negotiating with various banks to roll out such a service, IDFC appears to be the first to the finish line, with Ministry of Electronics & IT Secretary Aruna Sundararajan commending the move as ‘a paradigm change in the financial inclusion journey of the country,’ as The Hindu put it.

The service is going live just as Samsung launches its mPayment service in the country, suggesting that the latter and similar platforms like Apple Pay could face a particularly challenging market in India.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine