With the QR code, a customer no longer needs to enter the merchant's ID or phone number to make payments
Bharat QR, a quick response code jointly developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) that runs RuPay cards,Visa, MasterCard and American Express, under instructions from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is set to revolutionise electronic payments in the country.
It does away with the swipe machines as digital payments can be done without traditional swiping. It is a two-dimensional (black squares arranged in a square grid on a white background), machine-readable optical label that contains information about the item to which it is attached.
With the QR code, a customer no longer needs to enter the merchant's ID or phone number to make payments. The payment can be made by scanning the QR code and entering the transaction amount. The amount is debited from the bank account without the need of a swiping machine.
AP Hota, managing director and CEO of NPCI, said RuPay has emerged as one of the most successful "home grown card networks in the world". Bharat QR code initiative, according to Hota, is yet another "transformational step towards building a less-cash economy at an insignificant cost."
QR code-based acceptance systems are prevalent in India but they are all closed systems. E-wallets like Paytm also enable transactions through the QRcode but both the parties need to have a Paytm account to use it. Banks allow payment through mVisa, a QR code-based payment facility for Visa cardholders only. MasterCard has the Masterpass QR which was compatible with other networks.
Mastercard country corporate officer (India) and division president (South Asia) Porush Singh said the company has developed 'Masterpass QR', which was developed and created at its technology centre in Vadodara.
"It is completely 'Made in India'... We look forward to leveraging our technology backbone and partnering with the government and the industry to create a robust, safe and secure digital payments ecosystem," he added.
Besides working as a common interface for the Visa/MasterCard/RuPay platform, Bharat QR will also facilitate acceptance using Aadhaar-enabled payments and Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Now about fifteen banks are on board the Bharat QR code. This includes State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Citi Union Bank, DCB Bank Ltd, Karur Vysya Bank, HDFC Bank Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank Ltd, Punjab National Bank, RBL Bank Ltd, Vijaya Bank and Yes Bank Ltd.
Bharat QR code has a static and dynamic variant. In a static QR code, the code has to be scanned before entering the amount on your smartphone and authorized with a PIN, after which the money will get debited. In case of dynamic QR code, the merchant will generate a new QR code for every transaction. Here you don't have to enter the amount. You can just scan and enter the PIN and the payment will go through.
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