Improved user interface, fewer apps help boost govt’s e-governance initiative

New Delhi: Pawan Kumar is a happy man. He has just got his passport renewed using the mPassport Seva app. He says that it is easy to use, and has the facility to apply, pay and schedule an appointment. “You needn’t have access to a computer to apply for a passport now,” says Kumar.

The mPassport Seva is just one of the many apps that the government has launched to drive digital transformation and mobile governance in India.

Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) is one such app that is aimed at making Indians go cashless. BHIM lets users make simple, easy and quick transactions using the Unified Payments Interface platform. It is available in 13 vernacular languages, is live on 111 banks and has clocked 43 million app downloads until April 2019. The number of transactions on the app was at 14.9 million in March 2019, while the total value of the transactions stood at ₹6,417 crore, according to National Payments Corporation of India data.