Bharat QR

Bharat QR is the world ’s first interoperable Quick Response (QR) code acceptance solution developed by the payments industry to expedite India’s transition to a less - cash society. It has been developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Master card and Visa.

Bharat QR was devised based on the direction set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in September 2016 and its Payments Vision 2018, which outlines innovation, interoperability, and security as the three pillars to facilitate India’s transition to a less – cash society.

Benefits

• Consumers
• The Bharat QR enables customers to transact money available in their bank accounts without having to worry about the physical availability of an active credit / debit card.
• Users will not need to scan different QR codes at the same merchant provided by the different payment networks.
• Merchants
• The requirement of a Point of Sale (PoS) terminal is not required.
• Merchants will only need to display one QR code at the storefront or through the acquiring bank’s mobile application.
• The implementation of the Bharat QR standards will be seamless and only happen at the backend, meaning merchants do not need to change their existing QR codes.
• The underlying specification for Bharat QR can be implemented in other countries to deliver a globally interoperable solution.

How to use Bharat QR code for making / receiving payments?

A Quick Response (QR) code is a machine-readable code consisting of an array of black and white squares, typically used for storing URLs or other information for reading by the camera on a smartphone.

Hence, to make payments using Bharat QR code, a user will have to have a Mobile App such as BHIM or payment apps of banks installed in his / her smart phone. These apps support the scanning of Bharat QR code at the outlet where payment is to be made.

A User to make a payment, has to first scan the QR code made available at the shop / vendor. The amount that is to be paid to the vendor is then to be entered. For authentication, the user has to enter the PIN. On completion of this process, the specified amount is debited from the user's account and credited into the vendor's account.