Aadhaar Enabled Payment System AePS API
Why is it necessary to understand the concept of financial inclusion and financial involvement?
Financial inclusion is the notion that everyone in our society has the right to have the ability to be involved and properly participate in the financial mechanisms of the country. There are many poor households, especially in the rural areas of India that do not have any access to the country's financial services. Many people are not aware of financial management, banks, their benefits, and their functions. Even if they know about the existence of banks, many people do not have the required access to avail services from these banks.
What led to bringing about the AePS system?
The financial exclusion of a vast number of people is a major problem that has been ongoing for many decades. With the advent of technology, the Government of India has taken many steps to bring access and awareness of financial services to the people. One of the main reasons for bringing about this facility was the low literacy rates in rural India.
Detailed studies reveal that literacy rates in rural areas were shown at 71%, compared to 86% in urban areas. The proportion of people who have graduated from a higher level of education was more in the urban areas than in the rural areas. This survey on 'Social Consumption: Education' was conducted across India by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). This highlights a big gap in India in the context of average literacy rates.
Along with the issue of accessibility of banking services, there is a huge need to bring the large segments of the country’s population into the banking system. This helps people make use of available resources that are regulated, like taking a loan. Such a move would stop the monetary exploitation of people by unscrupulous and dubious persons. It also opens them to a whole new world of banking abilities and amenities. However, everyone agrees that it is very difficult to accomplish such a goal due to a vast majority of the Indian population staying in rural or remote areas. So, this is precisely why such an initiative was launched under the Financial Inclusion goal. What is an API?
Before you learn everything about the AePS system, you need to first understand the meaning of an API. API stands for Application Programming Interface. They are a set of functions and procedures that allows an application to access data and features of other applications, services, or operating systems.
Let's take an example - you want to order food from a restaurant. You visit the establishment and have decided what you want. All you need to do is to communicate your order to the kitchen staff. This is handled by a waiter who passes your order to the chef. After your meal is prepared and ready, the waiter brings it to you.
In this scenario, the kitchen is the back-end software system and the waiter is the API. Basically, APIs help two different types of software to communicate and exchange data with each other. Now that you know what an API is, let us move on to the revolutionary Aadhaar Enabled Payment System or AePS. What is an AePS API?
Aadhaar Enabled Payment System, also known as AePS, is a payment system that is helmed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). You can avail banking services such as cash deposit and cash withdrawal, inter-banking and intra-banking money transfer, eKYC, and balance enquiry. To start availing these facilities using AePS, the individual must be an Indian citizen and have their Aadhar card linked to their bank account. Once linked, to avail of the services, it only requires the submission of the Aadhaar number along with the biometric verification of the individual. The benefits of the AePS Payment System:
Although recently launched, there are many benefits that people can take advantage of by using the AePS payment system. AePS paves the way for account holders to successfully complete banking and non-banking transactions with just their Aadhaar number and biometrics for verification. The use of biometrics to authenticate every transaction makes the entire system safer to use and makes it hard to defraud.
There is no need for account holders to maintain their passbooks or details of banking transactions. Instead, their banking transactions can be viewed at the click of a button. This also greatly helps individuals who find it difficult to read, understand and maintain their account information. Most importantly, the AePS system gives a good boost for the financial inclusion goals that empower hundreds of thousands of people.