Google Pay rolls out Aadhaar-based authentication for UPI activation

With this, Google Pay users will now be able to set their UPI PIN without a debit card.

“Aligned with the government’s vision to drive financial inclusion, this feature will further strengthen our efforts to drive deeper penetration of digital payments in India. Over the years, we are very heartened by the ready adoption of digital payments in the country, and this feature will help boost the UPI ecosystem even further,” Sharath Bulusu, director of product management at Google said in a statement.

This feature is now available to account holders of supported banks such as Kerala Gramin Bank, Punjab National Bank, Karnataka Bank, South Indian Bank, Canara Bank, Dhanlaxmi Bank, CSB Bank, IndusInd Bank, Karnataka Gramin Bank, Karur Vysya Bank, Tamilnad Mercantile Bank, Central Bank Of India, Equitas Small, AU Small Finance Bank, The Rajasthan State Co-Operative Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank, Chaitanya Godavari Grameena Bank, UCO Bank, The Cosmos Co-Operative Bank, Paytm Payments Bank, Federal Bank and Jio Payments Bank. More banks are expected to follow very soon, Google said.

Users who want to onboard UPI via Aadhaar, will need to ensure that (a) their phone number registered with UIDAI and bank are the same, and (b) their bank account is Aadhaar linked. Once they have done this, they can use the steps below for onboarding.

On Google Pay, users have the option to select between Debit card or Aadhaar based UPI onboarding. If they select Aadhaar, then users will need to enter the first six digits of their Aadhaar number to initiate the process. To complete the authentication step, users will enter OTPs received from UIDAI and their bank. Subsequently, their respective bank will complete the process and they can set their UPI PIN.

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“Customers will then be able to use Google Pay app to make transactions or check balance. Once a user enters the first six digits of an Aadhaar number, it is sent to UIDAI via NPCI for validation. This process ensures the safety of users’ Aadhaar number. Google Pay does not store the Aadhaar number and merely acts as a facilitator in sharing the Aadhaar number with the NPCI for validation,” Google added.The company said that as per the data by 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. Hence, the Aadhaar-based onboarding facility on UPI will make it available to a greater number of users and further financial inclusion.