In it's bid to bring convergence with digitization of financial services across India, after Unified Payment Inreface (UPI), The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given approval to the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS). This new centralized payment system for the residents of India allows them to pay their bills and other common services from a single-interface online or offline. As a customer, you can now pay for utility bills such as electricity or telephone and common services like education institution fee, Insurance etc. through the BBPS.

What is the BBPS?

The primary purpose of the BBPS is to convert India into a less cash society and move towards an electronic bill payment. It is an interoperable bill payment system that uses both online and offline types of billing.

The BBPS will be run by a network of agents and it will be accessible online too. The customers will be able to pay all of their bills ranging from electricity to telephone to school fees to government payments and more. There are multiple payment channels and payment modes available to choose from.

Customers will have the option to pay their bills by connecting directly to the online system. In this case, all the communication will take place in real-time and this online system will work just like the traditional internet banking.

Those who cannot access the BBPS online, they can head to a local agent and pay their bills. These are the same agents that used to collect bills but as of now, they operate in isolation. The BBPS will create a network of these agents and they all will be connected to the BBPS.

At the end of the day, you as the customer will be able to pay all of your bills from a single location safely and securely. The BBPS is an approved system so it is absolutely safe to deal with it.

The Narendra Modi government in India is taking nessecary steps to make digital techology a core strategy to deliver happiness to it's citizen. We covered FASTag RFID Automated Toll Collection system earlier, and today we will write about the "Unified Payments Interface (UPI)" - a system which is slowly taking shape to change the landscape of how people make financial transaction in India.

The online industry has been booming at a rapid pace in the recent times, so much so that most of top brands in Fortune 500 list are online brands. From social media platforms to online shopping websites, there is no dearth of online players in the industry. However, the one thing that is universal across all online platforms is online payment system. Today, every website accepts Paypal, Bitcoin, Credit/Debit Card and Netbanking. However, there is no denying the fact that it is a hassle to enter all your details every time you have to make a payment online. While all websites offer saving these details for easy future payments, however, they are not considered safe and are at the risk of getting stolen. To address this issue, Reserve Bank of India launched a new smartphone based service called Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in the country. UPI is being touted as the future of online banking and here is why?

What is UPI?

You can think of UPI as the advanced version of the existing Immediate Payment Service (IMPS). Some people are also calling it a virtual debit card as it does all the functions of a debit card or netbanking. However, UPI happens to be safer and more secure alternative. If you opt to make payment through the UPI method, the transfer of money takes place without using any conventional method of payment. All it takes is an app on your smartphone and support of the banks in transaction. 29 banks have already agreed to provide UPI service and as many as 21 banks have already registered as payment service providers under UPI. This is a good initiative as it only takes a couple of click and payment would be directly transferred from your bank account to the merchant's bank account.

After payment reversals and blocking withdrawals in past for Indian users, PayPal has once again some worrying news for Indian users - citing RBI (Reserve Bank of India) guidelines PayPal has amended it's user agreement for India effectively blocking them from sending money in their PayPal account balance which can only be withdrawn to an Indian bank account now, and has also limited received payments to US$500 per transaction for any export-related goods or services.

Few months ago PayPal started having issues with Indian regulations and blocked withdrawls for Indian users but the matter was resolved soon, it seems their are still some regulatory hurdles left as PayPal has now stopped electronic withdrawals to Indian banks for the time-being. The bank emailed all users informing about the decision stating that until the matter is taken care of users can withdraw money via Cheques and they will refund the $5 USD cheque withdrawal fee for any cheque withdrawals made on July 29, 2010 onwards.

Paypal can be called the eCurrency fueling the online commerce allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet, powered by 73 million active users it operates in 190 markets allowing customers to send, receive, and hold funds in 19 currencies worldwide including India. However, for some unknown reasons Paypal has now blocked personal payments to be sent to or from India - add to that they are reversing transactions made during past two days sending back the money to senders automatically.