Google announced that its mobile payment service, Google Pay, now supports Aadhaar-based authentication for UPI activation. Users can register for UPI using Aadhaar via the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and set their UPI PIN without a debit card.
This unique feature is available to bank account holders of select banks, and the company said that more banks are expected to follow soon. With UPI becoming easily accessible to more users, this new function is expected to help many more users set up UPI IDs and enable them to make digital payments.
Once a user enters the first six digits of an Aadhaar number, it is sent to UIDAI via NPCI for validation to protect the safety of users’ Aadhaar numbers.
“Aadhaar-based onboarding facility on UPI is provided to make it easily available to a greater number of users and promote financial inclusion,” Google said. According to data provided by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), over 99.9% of the adult population in India have an Aadhaar number and use it at least once a month.
“We are very excited to announce UPI activation using Aadhaar-based OTP authentication on Google Pay, bringing simplicity and ease to our users,” said Sharath Bulusu, Director of Product Management at Google.
“Aligned with the government’s vision to enhance financial inclusion, this feature will further strengthen our efforts to drive deeper penetration of digital payments in India,” Bulusu added.
The company stated that Google Pay does not store the Aadhaar number and acts as a helper in sharing the Aadhaar number with NPCI for verification.
