The BHIM application, launched in 2016, is named after which personality?

The correct answer is B, 2008. NPCI was incorporated in 2008 as a not for profit company under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 to act as the umbrella organisation for all retail payment systems in India, and it began by taking over the National Financial Switch the following year. Option A is wrong because 2005 saw no such company; the enabling law itself came only in 2007. Option C is wrong because 2012 is the year RuPay, a product of NPCI, was launched, which candidates often mistake for the year of the company. Option D is wrong because 2016 is the year of UPI and BHIM, again products rather than the parent body. Fix the sequence in order: the Act in 2007, the company in 2008, RuPay in 2012 and UPI in 2016.

The correct answer is B, the Indian Banks Association. NPCI was set up on the initiative of the Reserve Bank of India together with the Indian Banks Association, and ten core promoter banks held its first shareholding, which is why it is owned by the banking industry rather than by the government. Option A is wrong because SEBI regulates the securities market and has no role in retail payment systems. Option C is wrong because NITI Aayog is a policy think tank created in 2015, seven years after NPCI came into being. Option D is wrong because the ministry for electronics and information technology promotes digital services and runs schemes such as Digital India, but it did not promote NPCI. Remember the pair as the central bank plus the bankers association.

The correct answer is C, 2016. UPI was launched by NPCI in 2016, and the BHIM application followed in December of the same year, which is why 2016 is the single most asked year in this topic. Option A is wrong because 2010 is the year of IMPS, the instant transfer service on which UPI was later built. Option B is wrong because 2012 belongs to RuPay, the domestic card network. Option D is wrong because 2019 is the year NEFT became available at all hours and the National Common Mobility Card was launched, not the year of UPI. A clean timeline answers a whole family of questions: the National Financial Switch taken over in 2009, IMPS in 2010, RuPay in 2012, UPI and BHIM in 2016, e-RUPI in 2021 and UPI 123PAY in 2022. Note also that UPI was launched as a pilot first and reached ordinary users through bank apps in the same year.

The correct answer is C, IMPS. The Immediate Payment Service, launched in 2010, already moved money between banks instantly at every hour, and UPI uses that rail while adding the virtual payment address, interoperable applications and single click authentication. Option A is wrong because RTGS is a large value system run by the Reserve Bank in which each transaction settles individually and a minimum of two lakh rupees applies. Option B is wrong because NEFT, also run by the Reserve Bank, settles in batches rather than instantly, so it could not have supported the instant experience of UPI. Option D is wrong because NACH is a bulk clearing system for salaries, subsidies and instalments and is not a person to person transfer rail. The point of the question is to separate the rail from the interface built over it.

The correct answer is A, the bank account number and IFSC. A virtual payment address takes the form of a name followed by a bank handle and acts as a pointer to the underlying account, so a payment can be made or collected without revealing the account number or the branch code. Option B is wrong because the Aadhaar number is the identifier used in the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System and the Aadhaar Payments Bridge, not the detail that a UPI address hides. Option C is wrong because the PAN is a tax identifier and plays no part in a UPI transaction. Option D is wrong because the mobile number is often the very thing linked to the address, and in the UPI number facility it is used to receive money. The privacy of bank details is the design idea being tested.