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v t e

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)

Aadhaar logo
Agency overview
Formed	January 2009
Jurisdiction	Pan India
Headquarters	New Delhi
Agency executive	Vacant, Chairman
Website	uidai.gov.in

Aadhaar is the national identification number of India in the format 1234-5678-9012, a kind of social security number that of USA. It is a 12-digit digital identity that can be verified online instantly. It acts as the primary key to interlink databases for e-governance. Aadhaar is like patenting ones identity beyond dispute. It is assigned to all residents of India (including foreigners on work visa and their dependents) for their lifetime, on voluntary basis. It is not a proof of citizenship. It only guarantees identity, not rights, benefits or entitlements.

Poor native Indians , mainly belonging to the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward castes (SC, ST. OBCs), or equivalent across religions, are the most benefited of Aadhaar because they have not been holding identity documents (KYC) required for bank loan, government sector employment etc., despite living in India for generations. They have been living faceless, nameless, landless and socially excluded life of destitute, generation by generation, in own nation for centuries despite the same color skin and same religion. Aadhaar is making these deprived people from the 'no one' to 'someone' by providing them identity. These 1 billion exploited people are mainly victims of socio-economic inequalities such as caste-based wealth distribution, caste-based land distribution, housing, education, caste-based profession, caste-based marriages, caste-based social life etc.

Transgenders / hijra in India, unlike rest of the world, were not considered as human legally (till the supreme court order of 15 April 2014); thus they had been deprived of all human rights and social security benefits. Therefore, transgenders were neither issued any identity document (driving license, passport, tax PAN etc.), nor were given social security benefits (ration card, public health, education), voting rights, government employment, bank account, property holding etc. Now, Aadhaar is their first identity document; thus the gateway to human rights, opportunities for living decent life and access to social security benefits.

Aadhaar is playing the transformational role in providing identity, bringing education, ending exploitation and eradicating socio-economic inequalities by using targeted social security benefits, eliminating ghost and ineligible beneficiaries. Thus Aadhaar helps to provide all inclusive growth of India, and no section of society will be left out from progress and denied the life of dignity.

Aadhaar is expected to play one of the most prominent roles in India reforms from 2014 onward after formation of the new central government under BJP / NDA. Aadhaar can help the Modi government to revolutionize India. All inclusive growth and development is not possible when the rampant loot, leakage and corruption continues in the absence of Aadhaar-linked social security benefits of the size of Rs. 3,600 billion (US$ 60 billion).

The Aadhaar program is operated by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), an authority of the Government of India. It was established in January 2009 under the Planning Commission of India. It has made available all its process, technical, operational and financial documents on its website to meet high degree of public scrutiny, transparency and accountability.

Overview

UIDAI is the Registrar of Identities; that is, it registers, assigns and verifies the unique identifiers. It is supposed to register two types of unique identities:

• Residents of India (called Aadhaar)
• Corporate entities (corporate UID) for companies, banks, NGOs, trusts, political parties, etc.

So far UIDAI has made progress on Aadhaar numbers (AN) only. Work on corporate UIDs is yet to be published.

However, corporate UID has been provisioned within the 12-digit UID number system. The corporate UID is supposed to produce the similar effect for corporate entities as Aadhaar does to a person, that is, identification and traceability of transactions. It is supposed to bring transparency on financial transactions and donations, and to prevent corruption, money laundering, benami transactions (i.e. under a fictitious name), allocation of natural resources like land, spectrum, mining of sand, iron ore, coal blocks, etc. A similar identifier is defined by USA and Europe in ISO 9362 (business identifier code – BIC) for international business transactions (financial and non-financial).

UIDAI stores identities in its main database server called the central identity data repository (CIDR). Aadhaar identity is like internal passport to access various services in India. Aadhaar enrollment commenced in September 2010. Corporate UID enrollment is yet to begin.

Aadhaar serves the purpose if an Aadhaar holder verbally tells the AN and it gets instantly verified online at the point of service, through KYC or E-KYC process in a paperless way, which provides high reliability of identity. Showing only a paper Aadhaar letter provides low reliability of identity, as it can be easily faked.

Aadhaar is of little use until most of the public services (loan, banking, insurance, PAN card, social pension, scholarship, subsidy on food, fertilizer, LPG etc.) are linked (seeded) with it so that the duplicate, ineligible and ghost beneficiaries are eliminated for effective planning and service delivery.

By middle of May 2014, about 52% population (630 million i.e. 63.0 crore) has been assigned Aadhaar and the daily production rate is over 1 million.

The Aadhaar program has already achieved the critical mass as of March 2014 by assigning 600 million (60 crore) AN and linking over 60 million bank accounts for direct benefit transfer for various social security benefits across many states. By 1 January 2014, half the nation (about 300 districts across various states) was covered under Aadhaar-DBT for various benefits. Over 100 agencies (e.g. banks, insurance, telecom etc.) use it for authentication services.

Reserve Bank of India has planned Aadhaar-linked bank account for all adults of India by January 2016 as its commitment of nation-wide financial inclusion.

Aadhaar program is the largest biometric database in the world. Currently it has 850 million enrolled people (8.5 billion fingerprints, 1.7 billion iris image, 850 million face photo) with 10 petabyte of data. It has been planned to reach the entire population of 1.20 billion people by December 2015 at the current rate of enrollment of 1 million per day, 15 PB of data and over 200 trillion biometric matches per day. There has been overwhelming public response for Aadhaar enrollment. Therefore, the enrollment centers and camps are generally crowded with long queues even after Aadhaar has been declared as an optional identity proof for public services by the Supreme court in March 2014.

National ID of India was first conceptualised and proposed by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) before 1998 in view of the illegal immigrants and defective distribution of social security benefits; i.e. prior to forming government at the center under NDA coalition in 1998. This topic has been discussed by the BJP leaders often since then.

The state government of Gujarat, under the chief ministership of Narendra Modi, has made tremendous progress on Aadhaar enrollment. The 80% people have been enrolled and 56% have been assigned Aadhaar in Gujarat by May 2014, which is above the national level. The prime minister Narendra Modi has enrolled himself in 2012, when he was the chief minister of Gujarat. The chief minister heads the state-level council on Aadhaar implementation. While enrolling the people for Aadhaar, the state government compulsorily seeks information, through its executive order, for KYR-plus (know your resident plus i.e. additional information required than the Aadhaar enrollment). These KYR+ information are about the public services and subsidies being availed by the people like LPG / PNG number, PAN number, ration card number, disability card number, voter card number in addition to the Aadhaar number (linked automatically later after Aadhaar is generated) in order to provide effective public services and to eliminate the duplicate, ineligible and ghost beneficiaries. Gujarat model is the best example of effective Aadhaar-seeding of public services at the enrollment time, instead of later, for eliminating the duplicate, ineligible and ghost beneficiaries. Progress on Aadhaar is similarly good in other states ruled by BJP e.g. Seemandhra (95%), Goa (92%), Puducherry (92%), Punjab (88%), Jharkhand (80%), Karnataka (73%), Madhya Pradesh (63%), Rajasthan (60%) etc. See the Aadhaar production status table of this article. By manifesto commitment and strong allies like Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the BJP / NDA is committed to providing e-governance, and Aadhaar provides the pivot for effective e-governance.

Aadhaar wins political battle

The politically motivated opposition has been put to an end on 05 July 2014 by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi together with Finance Minister Arun Jaitely and Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Bold decision was taken by the PM in the national interest. Therefore, Aadhaar program and the direct benefit transfer (DBT) through Aadhaar-based biometric identification will continue with accelerated speed now. The PM wants 1 billion (100 crore) people to be enrolled soon with the Aadhaar database.

The Aadhaar Bill will be presented in the Parliament soon.

However, attack on Aadhaar will continue naturally by the pro-corrupt forces, criminals, terrorists etc. on various pretexts due to fear of biometric identification.

Physical appearance

Aadhaar number (AN) is a 12-digit national identification number. Its format is 1234-5678-9012 where the first eleven digits are used as a sequence and the rightmost digit as an error detection check-sum.

Aadhaar letter is either color printed on a thick paper-card and sent through postal service or pdf soft copy securely downloaded from the UIDAI website and then printed on A-4 sheet. It bears (in English and local language) the name of the holder, date of birth / age, address, mobile number, face-photo, Aadhaar number, enrollment number, QR-code. In addition it has four point declaration:

• Aadhaar is a proof of identity, not of citizenship.
• To establish identity, authenticate online.
• Aadhaar is valid throughout the country.
• Aadhaar will be helpful in availing government and non-government services in future.

Therefore, it is not a proof of citizenship, hence it is assigned to all residents including the foreign nationals on valid long term visa. Aadhaar guarantees identity only; not rights, benefits or entitlements. The cut-through part can be separated and laminated to bankcard size as portable ID card.

Updation / correction of data at Aadhaar office

Existing Aadhaar-holders may want to update or correct their photograph, address and mobile number etc. It can be done in online mode at this link as well as offline mode using this update form. Children have to update their biometric data after attaining the age of 15 years for effective biometric authentication. Parents of new born children or left out people may desire to be enrolled after the current temporary camp-drive achieves the mandated benchmark of 1200 million (120 crore) enrollments. Therefore, permanent offices called Aadhaar seva kendra (ASK) are being setup at district level on the lines of passport seva kendra (PSK). Locate Aadhaar seva kendra near you at this link. Examples of such offices are:

Bangalore:

• Aadhaar seva kendra, No. 42, 46/E, beside Passport seva kendra, 2nd Floor, Lalbagh Main Road, Bangalore, Karnataka - 560027,
• Aadhaar seva kendra, No. 51/2 TKN Complex, Vanvilas Road, opp National College, Basavangudi, Bangalore, Karnataka - 560004, Mobile: +91-80505-39438
• Aadhaar seva kendra, No. 716, 1st Floor, 1st Main Road, 4th Phase Akashawani Road, Yelahnaka New Town, Karnataka - 560064, Mobile: +91-73533-29762

Delhi:

• Aadhaar seva kendra, Ground Floor, Pragati Maidan Metro Station, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi-110001.
• Aadhaar seva kendra, IGCSM Bhawan, 2nd Floor, 36B/1, Govindpuri, Kalkaji, New Delhi - 110019.

Practically useful points

1. The general purpose online services to meet many needs on daily basis is the Aadhaar kiosk. It can be used to check Aadhaar status, download e-Aadhaar, update data, book appointment and locate enrollment centers.
3. If one wants to replace the Aadhaar letter version with date of birth (DoB) instead of the year of birth (YoB) (older version issued till 2013), then it can be done by simply downloading the E-Aadhaar letter once again at the Aadhaar kiosk. It works with two options and needs either (a) Aadhaar number and registered old mobile number for OTP (one time password) sent by SMS; or (b) Enrollment number and any mobile number for OTP sent by SMS.
5. However, if someone does not hold the same registered mobile number any more, then the E-Aadhaar letter can be downloaded without OTP requirement at the authorized e-governance outlets such as the BangaloreOne in Karnataka state; Akshaya outlets in Kerala state etc. One can find the similar e-governance outlets for one's state / district through google search or other means.
7. One can get another copy of Aadhaar letter by sending email to help@uidai.gov.in or calling the helpline 1800-300-1947 (toll free).
9. If Aadhaar number is lost or forgotten then one can obtain the number from any place where it was used for e.g. KYC for mobile SIM, bank account linking, LPG linking etc. It also can be obtained by telling the demographic information and mobile number to the helpline 1800-300-1947 (toll free). Re-registration is generally rejected as it has costs and is computing intensive. Once the number is known, then Aadhaar letter can be obtained by downloading, from the e-governance outlets or through the UIDAI helpline as above.

Properties of Aadhaar

Aadhaar number (AN) is a digital identity, instantly verifiable online at the point of service (PoS), at anytime, anywhere, in a paperless way. Its format is 1234-5678-9012. It is assigned only to humans, not to corporate entities like companies or non-governmental organisations, unlike the identifier for income tax payer permanent account number (PAN) card. The government expects that it will enable under-privileged people to access basic rights and social security benefits, which they have been deprived so far due to lack of identity.

Aadhaar is assigned to residents of India for their lifetime. It is designed to enable government agencies to deliver retail public services securely based on biometric data (fingerprint, iris scan and face photo), along with demographic data (name, age, gender, address, parent/ spouse name, mobile phone number) of a person. AN is portable, free from limitations of physical presence of a person at a given place. Thus is can be used for casting vote from anywhere using mobile phone or personal computer, availing social security benefits from anywhere e.g. drawing PDS ration from any shop etc.

It acts as the primary key to interlink databases for e-governance. Aadhaar is like patenting ones identity beyond dispute. Aadhaar also works as a financial address, i.e. it works as a bank account number. This is designed to help spread low cost, ubiquitous, branchless banking services in rural areas – called micro-ATM, as part of the Financial Inclusion initiative.

Aadhaar is valid all over India as a proof of identity, age and address. It is immensely helpful to migrant workers for employment and social security benefits. In case of change of personal information (mobile number, residence), the same can be updated with proof at Aadhaar Kendra, the permanent field-office.

Aadhaar is stored in a centralised database (CIDR) and linked to the basic demographics and biometric information – photograph, ten finger-prints and both iris – of each individual. It is verifiable online with the database server (CIDR) instantaneously, at a low cost. It is portable and robust enough to identify duplicate and fake identities from government and private databases. It is a randomly generated number, is sparsely populated in the database, designed not to be guessable, with no associated intelligence, and no profiling information such as caste, creed, religion or language. Since Aadhaar uses 11-digit for sequence, therefore it has an address space of 10 (100 billion). So AN can be assigned to 100 billion residents, and is designed not to get used up in the next 500 years. Upon the death of a person, the Aadhaar database record is marked as "inactive", and is never reused nor deleted.

The de-duplication capability (uniqueness) of AN is theoretically 99.9% and practically 100% due to combination of multiple demographic and biometric attributes.

Aadhaar versus SSN (USA)

Social security number of USA is a nine-digit number in the format 123-45-6789 issued to U.S. citizens (at birth) and foreign nationals on work visa like Aadhaar. It was started almost a century ago (1935) when there were no electronic biometric technology available. SSN card does not have even face-photo of the holder unlike Aadhaar. There are few problems with SSN due to lack of biometric data and technology of the 1935: (a) some people hold more than one SSN, (b) SSN claimed by a person cannot be proven without relying upon other means of identification and documents, (c) fraudulent SSNs are not easily detectable with publicly available information, (d) SSN does not has a check digit, (e) SSN is guessable that may cause identity theft. Aadhaar does not suffer from these problems due to biometric data, processes, tools and technology of the 21st century.

Authentication of identities

The power of Aadhaar number (AN) vests with its instant, online, consent-based validation at the point of service (PoS) using demographic and biometrics attributes at anytime from anywhere in a paperless way. No other ID in India has this feature. Authenticator is the license-holder from UIDAI who can verify Aadhaar identities online, unlike only passport office that can verify passport, and only RTO that can verify driving license and none else. It has dependence on minimum 2G internet access. Authentication devices and Aadhaar-enabled PoS are available in the market. Lot of scientific research on Aadhaar authentication has been done at international level with positive outcomes.

Process

It is designed to be secure, auditable, non-repudiable, and consent-based (by biometrics or a one-time password (OTP)). OTP is sent by CIDR server to registered mobile phone number or email ID of the Aadhaar-holder. There are mainly 2 types of authentication with different combination of attributes:

• KYC: On consent, the service provider inputs the AN + Demographic data + Biometric or OTP, and receives "Yes" or "No" response from CIDR database server.
• E-KYC: On consent, the service provider inputs the AN + Biometric or OTP, and receives demographic data (photo, name, gender, address, date of birth, mobile number, email-id i.e. receives digital copy of the Aadhaar letter) from CIDR database server. Biometric data of resident is never shared by CIDR.

The authentication data requested and received use encrypted communication from machine to machine through an application programming interface (API) without human intervention. Following authentication, the received KYC data gets stored in the system of the service provider in the required data-format along with audit-track. Then this data is processed and service is provided to the customer immediately.

The service provider decides what demographic and biometric attributes it wants to use for a given service. For example, iris and multiple fingers along with demographics may be used for high value transactions. Similarly, few demographic attributes with OTP only (no biometrics) may be used for low value transactions.

UIDAI does not support authentication requests through paper letter, email or telephonic.

Users

As of March 2014, over 100 agencies use Aadhaar authentication services. Presently major users of the services are banks (e.g. Axis, ICICI, SBI etc.), passport office, income tax PAN, and telecom service providers (e.g. Vodafone, Reliance etc.).

Fee

In order to make financially self-sustainable, the UIDAI will collect volume based fee for its authentication services. Authentication service agency (ASA) / authentication user agency (AUA) enter into license agreement with the UIDAI. The authentication service is free till 30 June 2014. The fee structure is yet to be declared.

Data security

The primary data center of Aadhaar (central identities repository - CIDR) at Bangalore is protected by well designed blast-proof, fire-proof, flood-proof building premises and guarded by specialized para-military forces. Its secondary data centers (backup) at undisclosed locations in different states are equally protected.

The computer systems and data communications are protected by firewalls and latest asymmetric encryption technology of 2K-bit (2048-bit). Each Aadhaar-holder's complete data is not stored on one computer storage. Data is scrambled into parts, encrypted and scattered on different computer storage which prevents unauthorized access, stealing and decryption. There is complete isolation of systems. It is not possible to steal and decrypt data by Trojan horse or any unscrupulous employee (larceny) on pen-drive or email. No data access is done manually. All communications are only through machine-to-machine without manual intervention, encrypted and with access logs. All papers submitted for enrollment are digitized (color scan), then papers are scrambled and destroyed for privacy and safety after Aadhaar number is processed and assigned.

Much more personal data (biometric, demographic, medical, financial, references etc.) is collected for driving license, passport, property registration, employment, PAN, bank account, loan, insurance, ration card etc. However, there is no state which provides encryption safety to digital data and secure storage to paper data. In these offices, all data are available with the access to paper file and digital data with document number such as driving license number. One can get copy of these raw digital data for ready use on pen-drive and photocopies in collusion with employees (clerks and peon) of the office.

Process comparison: Aadhaar, passport, driving license and PAN

Template:India document comparison

Rationale and goals

To avail social security benefits as well as government-regulated services (e.g. bank account, insurance, mobile SIM, driving license, vehicle registration etc.); compliance to know-your-customer (KYC) conditions are mandatory. The minimum KYC consists of the three proofs:

• Identity proof (name with face photograph),
• Age proof (date of birth or estimated age),
• Residence proof (presently staying).

As per 2011 census, India has population of 1.20  billion (120 crore), has about 1 billion (100 crore) mobile phones, 640,000 villages, 75% literacy, 2.5% (30 million) income tax payer, 4% (50 million) passport, 12% (150 million) driving license, less than 20% (250 million) bank account, 33% (400 million) migrant labourers and 60% (750 million) very poor people i.e. they live under Rs. 100 ($2) per day income and starve at least one meal everyday. Over 80% (1 billion i.e. 100 crore) people do not hold identity documents to satisfy the minimum KYC criteria.

The union government spends Rs. 3,000 billion (US$50 billion) on various social security subsidies (see the table Social security budget 2013–14). In addition, various state governments also spend on specific social security programs. As per various estimates, about 40% to 85% of social security benefits have been plagued with fictitious and multiple identities due to lack of standard identity system that is verifiable instantly at the point of service.

Provide identity to weaker section

About 250 million people (20%) belong to the prosperous section. They hold, or can get, required identity documents of a modern society e.g. passport, tax PAN, driving license, arms license, vehicle registration, property holdings, bank account, LPG etc.

However, the poor native Indians , mainly belonging to the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward castes (SC, ST. OBCs), or equivalent across religions, are the most benefited of Aadhaar because they have not been holding identity documents (KYC) required for bank loan, government sector employment etc., despite living in India for generations. They have been living faceless, nameless, landless and socially excluded life of destitute, generation by generation, in own nation for centuries despite the same color skin and same religion. Aadhaar is making these deprived people from the 'no one' to 'someone' by providing them identity. These 1 billion exploited people are mainly victims of socio-economic inequalities such as caste-based wealth distribution, caste-based land distribution, housing, education, caste-based profession, caste-based marriages, caste-based social life etc.

Out of 1 billion poor natives, there are over 400 million (40 crore) migrant laborers (internal) who are poor, landless, not educated or illiterate. These migrant workers do not exist on the government's databases, despite being native Indians, having worked for years in another district of the same state or another state of India. Lack of identity prevents them from basic rights and social security benefits like ration card, public health etc.

The prime objective of Aadhaar is to provide lifetime digital identity which is verifiable instantly online at the point of service with biometrics in paperless way.

Provide identity to transgenders

Transgenders / hijra in India, unlike rest of the world, were not considered as human socially and legally. Therefore, transgenders were not counted in the census before 2011 despite estimated population of about 10 million, were not issued identity documents like passport; thus were deprived of all social security benefits and the human rights. Therefore, no welfare program of government exists for them. They have been left out to fend for themselves as a non-human, worse than animals (as they could not fit elsewhere). Transgenders have been living the life of inhuman and of indignity. Although they are born across all castes, creed and religions, yet they had been completely ostracized by the Indian society, government, human rights commission and the law. Transgender were deprived of all human rights and social security benefits (ration card, public health, education), bank account, voting rights, government employment nor any identity documents such as voter card, driving license, passport, tax PAN etc. The Supreme Court has recognized the transgenders as the 3rd gender human being by its order dated 15 April 2014.

Aadhaar has been playing a lead role in providing identity to transgenders since 2011 (soon after the census inclusion). It will help the government in planning welfare, bringing education, ending exploitation and eradicating socio-economic inequalities to the transgenders.

Since the transgenders were not considered human, therefore they were not issued any identity document by the government. Now Aadhaar is the first identity document for them, hence it forms as the base identity. Based on Aadhaar they can claim human rights (voter card, ration card, public health, bank account, property), can acquire skills (driving, vocational training, education) to earn livelihood and can get other identity documents (driving license, passport, tax PAN, voter card etc.). They can pursue good profession and live the life of dignity. Thus Aadhaar helps to provide all inclusive growth of India, and no section of society will be left out from progress and denied the life of dignity.

Eradicate socio-economic inequalities

The 1 billion exploited Indians, which is over 80% of population, are mainly victims of social and economic inequalities such as caste-based wealth distribution, caste-based land distribution, housing, education, caste-based profession, caste-based marriages, caste-based social life etc. The social inequality in India is the worst of its kind. The caste-based social problem is the denial of right to live with dignity. It is violation of basic human rights and the matter has been raised in various human rights commissions and international forums like the United Nations.

Aadhaar is expected to provide equal opportunity and options to all sections of the society. It is supposed to play a major role in ending exploitation and bringing educational and economic equality by using targeted social security benefits, eliminating ghost and ineligible beneficiaries. Educational and economic rise of the exploited people can eradicate social inequalities because it makes the level-playing ground.

Provide social security benefits

Aadhaar-platform is aimed at providing social security benefits / subsidies based on eligibility through direct benefit transfer. It provides access and options to rural and poor people. It helps bring transparency and eliminate corruption, leakage and inefficiency.

The following table shows financial size of the social security benefits / subsidies funded by the Union government of India. The table does not cover other programs operated by various State governments, see Public welfare in India. The social security benefits / subsidies offered by various state governments is estimated to be above Rs. 600 billion (US$ 10 billion). Thus total subsidies become Rs. 3,600 billion (US$ 60 billion).

Financial inclusion

Reserve Bank of India has planned Aadhaar-linked bank accounts for all adults of India by January 2016 to meet its commitment on financial inclusion. It will greatly transform India by preventing the poor people falling into debt-traps of unlawful money-lenders, cashless transactions, elimination of poverty and corruption.

Aadhaar-enabled bank account (AeBA) is a bank account linked to NPCI payment gateway through Aadhaar number of the holder. It can be a prepaid bank card, a normal savings account or a basic (zero-balance) savings account. AeBA is required for direct payment of social security benefits such as pensions, scholarships, NREGA wages, healthcare, subsidy for LPG, kerosene, PDS ration, fertilizers etc.

Aadhaar-enabled prepaid bankcard (that bears Aadhaar logo) is a reloadable bank account. It can be instantly activated after purchase for a nominal fee at grocery shops or bank branches by producing Aadhaar letter for fingerprint validation and KYC proof. PIN is not issued for these accounts. It is operated through fingerprint scan, in lieu of the PIN, and is aimed at those people who cannot operate through PIN like the uneducated, rural and old-age people. These bankcards are used at all Aadhaar-compliant point of sale machines for purchase as well as for cash withdrawal at ATM and micro-ATM. The RBI is making all efforts to provide ATM and PoS machines with fingerprint scanners.

Micro-ATM consists of a laptop computer or smart-phone equipped with 2G or 3G internet, fingerprint scanner, receipt-printer, speaker and power backup (solar / battery). It is human-operated by a commission agent called a banking correspondent (BC) so that illiterate customers do not face problems of ATM machine operations. BCs are educated and trained people, generally chemist shops, provision shops or mobile vans. It is similar to the commission agent model of prepaid mobile phone recharge centers.

Some banks issue photo bankcards, that are a boon to rural people and migrant workers because they work not only as bankcards but also as identity cards. RuPay card by Indian payment-bridge NPCI and Saral Money Visa are two prominent AeBA bankcards.

Once bankcards become common in rural areas, India will become a nation of cashless transactions, like USA, with high transparency and accountability. Only cash-transaction is used for bribery, corruption and unlawful activities, not non-cash-transactions like bankcards and cheques.

Once rural and poor people get the bank account, they become eligible to avail bank loans for farming and domestic purpose at 10% per year interest rate. It would be a great transformation of rural and poor India. Currently village money-lenders lend at usury rates (10% to 30% per month i.e. 120% to 360% per year) which results into many social evils. The related social evils are debt-trap, bonded-labour for generations, poor become landless, homeless destitute and children get deprived of education as they become bonded-labourer, families get shattered and many farmers commit suicide every year due to impractical, blood-sucking loan-interest burden. Thus financial inclusion will put stop to unlawful, blood-sucking money-lending business and the associated social evils.

India is not the first country to implement the banking service for rural and under-privileged. It is being implemented after studying various banking systems in the world which have been successfully operational for the past several decades. Some of these countries are Bangladesh, Philippines, Korea, South Africa, Kenya, Brazil, Mexico, Chile etc.

Aadhaar-enabled service delivery

Various financial as well as non-financial services are being made Aadhaar-enabled, called Aadhaar-enabled service delivery (AeSD) in phased manner. By 1 January 2014, half the nation (about 300 districts across various states) has been covered under direct benefit transfer (DBT i.e. money credited into bank account directly) for subsidized LPG. By August 2013, 6.3 million duplicate connections were cancelled after detection by Aadhaar-seeding. Thus government saved $1 billion on reduced import by mid-2013. Over 17 million consumers received Rs. 30 billion (Rs 3,000 crore) as cash subsidy for LPG by January 2014. In view of the Supreme Court directive of 24 March 2014, presently all Aadhaar-enabled services are optional.

See Misplaced Pages article Aadhaar-enabled service delivery for detailed modus operandi of corruption and its preventive steps through information on AeSD.

Following is the list of AeSD as of 31 January 2014.

Aadhaar DBT

Aadhaar direct benefit transfer (DBT) is an Aadhaar-enabled financial service used for direct payment of social security benefits into the bank account of the Aadhaar holder.

A pre-existing or new bank account can be enabled as AeBA by seeding (linking) it with Aadhaar number. Seeding makes mapping information stored onto NPCI payment-gateway, that facilitates the subsidy payment. The seeding helps identify the genuine and eligible beneficiary, and prevents duplicate and nonexistent (fake, dead) persons. One can link bank account as self-service option through ATM kiosk, Internet, bank website, telephone or by providing a copy of the Aadhaar letter to bank. Bank links the account with Aadhaar number after online verification through RASF (Remote Aadhaar Sharing Framework link).

Eligibility of beneficiary is applied based on rules and is cross-checked with other related databases which are also Aadhaar linked. This approach is designed to improve the audit trail, add efficiency; prevent corruption, middlemen and delayed payments; eliminate non-existent, duplicate and ineligible beneficiaries. It results in direct benefit access to the eligible people; and saves multi-billion rupee from corruption annually.

Tangible benefits become visible from 2014. A report of UBS Securities published in Jan 2014 shows that Aadhaar DBT can save 1.2% of GDP. GDP of India is $1,800 billion, thus the saving is $22 billion (Rs. 1.32 trillion), which ultimately translates to 33% savings on overall social security spending.

Finance minister informed the parliament during 'vote on account' that as of 31 January 2014, under DBT Rs. 33 billion for 21 million LPG subsidy and Rs. 6.28 billion (628 crore) have been transferred for various social programs in 5.4 million transactions.

e-governance

Aadhaar number is the pivot of e-governance from identity perspective. The objectives of Aadhaar number (AN) is to use it as an effective governance tool – to bring transparency, efficiency and weed out the bogus beneficiaries from social security programs e.g. social security pensions, scholarships, public health, NREGA, subsidy on PDS ration, kerosene, LPG etc. Thus Aadhaar is expected to save public exchequer from bogus beneficiaries up to Rs. 1.1 Trillion (Rs. 1,100,000 crore) by the year 2020 as per study report of National institute of public finance and planning.

In 1980s pointing towards the widespread corruption in social security programs in India, the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had made a famous statement in Parliament that only 15% of benefits reach the poor people; the remaining 85% are eaten-away by the corrupt officials and middlemen. Similarly, the World Bank chief said that Aadhaar will help eradicate poverty in India.

The stand-alone databases of social security services can not interact with each other due to lack of a unique identifier like AN. Thus stand-alone databases do not have ability to detect and prevent fictitious and ineligible beneficiaries. Therefore, AN is aimed at eliminating retail corruption in the public domain which has affected social security programs since independence. In India, about 750 million (60%) people starve everyday for at least one meal.

Prevention of corruption

Although Aadhaar can prevent retail-corruption to much extent, yet it is not capable of preventing wholesale-corruption like allocation of coal-blocks, 2G spectrum, mining of iron-ore, sand, onion hoarding etc. corporate UID is required to prevent such wholesale-corruptions and this provision is already inbuilt in UIDAI Number System, yet implementation is pending.

Prevention of identity fraud

Identity frauds such as identity theft (using the identity of another person, dead or alive) and identity document forgery (fake IDs created on fictitious person, also called benami) has been a common practice in India. The scan, super-imposition and color-print functions of ubiquitous printers have made paper-based and plastic card-based frauds much easy. Identity fraud is committed for financial gain or due to compulsion. Identity fraud committed for financial gains are mostly benami companies and benami bank accounts used for bribery and money laundering. Identity fraud committed on compulsions is either due to lack of a person's own ID documents, or due to the intention of not using one's own ID.

In the telecoms sector companies paid a Rs. 7 billion (Rs. 700 crore) penalty to the telecoms regulator on fake KYC IDs in 2011. The examples also can be used to other areas such as PDS ration and kerosene, subsided LPG, welfare pensions, scholarships etc.

There are 400 million workers who work in other states (internal migrant workers) in unorganised sectors like construction and farming. They need mobile phones to keep in touch with their family and employers. They do not possess minimum KYC IDs (proof of identity, proof of age, proof of residence) to procure a mobile phone SIM card. Telecommunications service providers (TSP) in India ask for minimum KYC IDs, where the proof of residence (PoR) must be the local address only. Since they normally stay in shared shanties without any valid documents, they cannot produce PoR. So they fraudulently purchase available IDs of other persons at a high price to obtain a mobile SIM. Prisoners, criminals and terrorists never procure mobile SIMs using their own IDs due to obvious reasons of getting tracked.

The employees of TSPs are generally under pressure to achieve sales targets. Hence there are cases where one set of IDs submitted by a genuine customer to procure just one SIM has been reused 100 times to issue 100 SIMs fraudulently.

Some photocopy shops fraudulently scan and make extra copies of identity papers and sell them at a premium, leading to identity fraud. Some prospective employers do not destroy the papers of rejected candidates, and some times that goes into wrong hands leading to identity fraud.

Employees' Provident Fund Organisation of India frauds can be prevented after its Aadhaar linking.

Aadhaar E-KYC is designed to solve the problems of identity fraud. Telecom companies have started adopting it to avoid KYC penalties.

Ghost employees

Thousands of fictitious employees are found on payrolls of government and public sectors each year. In 2013–14, 29,000 ghost employees of Jammu and Kashmir government have been detected, 1,588 of Municipal Corporation of Delhi and 400 of Air India including some ghost pilots have been detected. It not only causes billions of rupee of monetary corruption and loss of public work but also it poses grave security threat to the nation. Corrupts take away all the monetary benefits worth billions of rupee like salary, allowances, pensions, PF etc. Such corruptions can be prevented by seeding Aadhaar with employee recruitment process, salary payment, provident fund and pension. Some private sector companies have adopted Aadhaar to avoid such problems.

Existing IDs and problem areas

Traditionally existing IDs in India have been token-based i.e. paper and plastic-based driving license, passport, PAN card, voter ID etc. None of these IDs have the feature of being lifetime digital identity that can be verified instantly at the general point of service at anytime anywhere for uniqueness and real existence. Moreover, as of 2013, only 150 million hold driving license, 50 million people hold passport and 30 million pay taxes, and these groups overlap considerably. These IDs do not qualify the generic all-purpose ID for life. These IDs expire, and need to be renewed. The identification number on these IDs changes with each renewal. Some IDs are not accepted across states, and people are asked to provide local ID. These IDs (except voter ID) are generally possessed by urban higher-income group. The rural and poor, who are largest number, do not possess it. Hence these do not serve the purpose of providing minimum KYC to a billion people. Others do have some ID yet not sufficient for minimum KYC. Women and children of well-to-do families in rural and tribal areas also generally lack KYC IDs.

Traditional IDs are not biometric based. Moreover, these plastic or paper-based IDs are relatively easily copied with modified and fake information (such as by scan, super-imposition and print functions of ubiquitous printers). Thus these easily lead to identity theft and identity fraud.

Photocopies of IDs of various people are taken fraudulently or stolen from various places (e.g. photocopy shops, employment applications), then multiple copies are made and sold to needy people at high price. Since very large number of people in India do not hold minimum KYC IDs, therefore they buy such identity-theft papers to procure mobile SIM. At least 100 million mobile SIMs in India, currently in use, have been procured on identity-theft and identity-fraud.

The driving license cannot be issued to a person below 18 years. It is not verifiable online instantly at the general point of service. Obtaining it is costly and lengthy process for the general public, and only 150 million hold it. Fake driving licenses also exist.

Obtaining a passport is costly and lengthy process, and only 50 million hold it. It is not verifiable online instantly at the general point of service. Fake passports also exist.

Although PAN is issued for the holder's lifetime, it is designed specially for income tax payers - natural and legal persons (companies, trusts, NGOs etc.). It is not verifiable online instantly at the general point of service. Although there are 200 million PAN-holders as of March 2014, only 30 million holders pay income tax. Obtaining PAN is a costly and lengthy process, multiple PANs are held by single holder against law for tax evasion, millions of PAN cards are suspected to have a fake user, fake holder or fake card due to lack of biometrics and instant verification at the general point of service. Hence the Finance Ministry has started linking PAN with Aadhaar to eliminate fake users and fake cards, to reduce income tax-evasion.

Ration card is issued one per family, though not every family holds one. It is not verifiable online instantly at the general point of service. It does not help migrant workers when they move to another location. Millions of ration cards are either fake or defunct, yet these are used as ID.

Voter ID cannot be issued to a person below 18 years. It is not verifiable online instantly at the general point of service. Names get deleted from the voter-list from time to time for various reasons. Voter ID becomes invalid once the name of that serial number is deleted. Photo and other data on voter ID is generally not clear and jumbled. Millions of fake and bogus voter IDs exist. It is not unique because some persons have multiple. It can be misused after death of the holder.

Therefore, there has been a need to provide instantly verifiable identity at the general point of service to all residents of India.

Enrollment

There has been overwhelming public response for Aadhaar enrollment. Therefore, the enrollment centers and camps are generally crowded with long queues even after Aadhaar has been declared as an optional identity proof for availing public services by the Supreme court in March 2014.

Process

Process is almost similar to obtaining a fresh passport. Enrollment is voluntary and free of cost. When a person desires to obtain Aadhaar identity, he or she has to submit a prescribed enrolment form attached with minimum KYC documents (i.e. proof of identity, age, residence) to a UIDAI appointed registrar. If, for example, a person from a village does not have KYC IDs, then a recognised Introducer (generally a village head) can introduce and certify his or her PoI, PoA and PoR. Introducers are appointed by UIDAI based on certain criteria and conditions.

On completion of paper formalities, the biometric scanning (2 iris, 10 fingers, facial photo) is done by the operator and a printed acknowledgement is given to the applicant. Then scanned data, along with the application form, is sent to appropriate authorities for verification and final processing. It takes about three months to get an Aadhaar number on successful processing.

As self-service, it is faster to download the "E-Aadhaar" letter (pdf copy) from the UIDAI portal after 3 months than await the postal delivery of Aadhaar letter, which may take 6 to 9 months presently.

UIDAI versus NPR

The UIDAI was initially mandated to enroll 600 million people in its assigned territory. Similarly, the census operations group (Registrar General of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs) was initially mandated to enroll the remaining 600 million people in its assigned territory under the National Population Register (NPR) program. Although an enrolment of 600 million is done by census operations, the collected data is given to the UIDAI for generation of Aadhaar numbers. Thus UIDAI generates Aadhaar numbers for the whole of India.

UIDAI has no role to play in management of NPR enrolment centres.

• The UIDAI territories for enrolment are Delhi, Himachal, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra, Pondichery, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim and Tripura, etc.
• The NPR territories for enrolment are Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttara Khand, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Assam, etc.

As of October 2013, a large volume of biometric data have been rejected by UIDAI due to poor quality of scanning, thus causing delays and inconvenience to the public.

Due to extremely slow pace of enrollment in populous states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttara Khand and Chhattisgarh, the cabinet committee on Unique Identification Authority of India (CC UIDAI) has reallocated these four states to UIDAI in February 2014.

Status of Aadhaar production

The total number of Aadhaar enrollment as of July 2014 is about 70% of population (850 million i.e. 85.0 crore). The total number of Aadhaar processed and assigned as of the 2nd week of July 2014 is over 642 million (64.2 crore) and the national percentage level of over 53%. The maximum enrollment participation is done by the age group of 16 to 30 years (31%), followed by the age group of 31 to 45 years (25%).

The 'Other' in the list of states / union territory refers to foreign national people on long term stay / work visa and their dependents. It also refers to Tibetan refugees. His Highness Dalai Lama, the head of Tibet government in-exile, has registered with Aadhaar database. Aadhaar helps government to make welfare plans and track illegal migrants. As of May 2014, over 1.26 million foreign nationals are registered in the Aadhaar database.

The following table and the chart display the status of Aadhaar production (state-wise). The up-to-date information is available on the official website of UIDAI.

Acceptance and applications

Delhi is the first state to achieve 100% AN enrolment in September 2013. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made Aadhaar and E-KYC as a standard proof of identity and residence for banking. Axis Bank is the first bank to make all its branches Aadhaar and E-KYC compliant from October 2013. Without producing any paper-based identity document, an Aadhaar-holder can open bank account, by just providing Aadhaar number and validating with fingerprint through E-KYC process.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) accepts Aadhaar to identify candidates in its civil services exams like IAS, IPS etc.

LPG companies use AN for KYC, to pay subsidy and eliminate fake beneficiaries. In 2013 it saved one billion dollar from fake beneficiaries.

Various state governments use it for public welfare programs such as pensions and scholarships, which has been saving millions from fake beneficiaries.

The government estimates that Aadhaar will save it 1.1 trillion by 2020.

Private sector company Trident uses Aadhaar for employee recruitment and salary payment to check fraud and reduce cost.

Future applications of Aadhaar can be to cast vote from anywhere, avail social security benefits from anywhere e.g. drawing PDS ration from any shop etc.

Visa of USA, Canada and Israel

The USA, Canada and Israel have expressed interest to use Aadhaar biometrics for visa to Indian nationals as a fool-proof identity. It will be easy and faster way to issue visa as it can be verified online instantly. Currently the biometric data and identity is captured by these embassies separately.

As of October 2013, below is the partial list of acceptance of Aadhaar letter as KYC and e-KYC:

Effects

As the public databases are getting inter-linked one by one through Aadhaar Number (AN) in various states (particularly Delhi, Kerala, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh), middlemen and officials in those regions now find difficult to continue with corruption in social security programs like pensions, scholarships, health, NREGA, PDS Ration, subsidised kerosene and LPG.

Ineligible, duplicate and fictitious beneficiaries are getting eliminated from social security programs.

Corrupt people are finding difficult to buy and sell benami land and building (i.e.under fictitious name), to open and operate benami companies for money-laundering. They are also finding difficult to open and operate benami bank accounts for keeping criminal proceeds. Tax-evaders are finding difficult to evade taxes, and impersonation and proxy are getting difficult to commit due to online biometric validation.

Criminals and terrorists are getting detected and tracked through inter-linked databases of mobile phone numbers, bank account numbers and travel documents. Illegal immigrants are similarly detected and tracked through these databases. Records are becoming accessible to police from any state of India. It is getting difficult to obtain new driving licenses and arms license from another state, once it is impounded.

Ghost employees are being detected in thousands and billions of rupees are being saved on their salary, benefits, pensions and PF.

Village money-lenders are losing their business of high interest rates (240% to 360% per annum) causing debt-traps to poor as the Aadhaar-enabled financial inclusion is taking place slowly.

Impedance

Unfounded fears

Some people oppose Aadhaar due to unfounded fears and ignorance. In the absence of Aadhaar, police, tax and surveillance officers (bureaucrats) have been accessing and tracking all private data of the target person / family for decades. These private data are biometric, demographic, medical, property, shares, securities, communications done through phone and internet, data generally given for banking, mortgage, loan, insurance, tax PAN, passport, voter card, driving license, property registration etc. Police / bureaucrats just start with any one publicly available information on display of the target person / any family member e.g. vehicle registration number, house number or phone number, and then access all and every information as a linked list. They access all identity documents, properties and transactions of the target person / family as the linked list.

The PAN number of any person can be obtained, unauthorizedly without the knowledge or consent of the holder, from this official website of the income tax department. One has to just know or guess the name and date of birth of the target to get to the PAN number, without his or her consent. Websites of various public services such as voter card, ration card, property tax etc. publicly display name, date of birth / age, address, parents name etc. Then all financial and other information can be accessed and tracked as the linked list.

Consumer goods shops and international tourism companies provide instant loan by instantly accessing CIBIL report either through PAN number or just the mobile phone number of the buyer. Thus one can find out the entire credit history, property holdings, credit card and bank transactions just by using the mobile number of the target.

Much more personal data (biometric, demographic, medical, financial, references etc.) is collected for driving license, passport, property registration, employment, PAN, bank account, mortgage, loan, insurance, ration card etc. Peruse this comparison table of various identities. However, there is no state which provides encryption safety to digital data and secure storage to paper data. In these offices, all data are available with the access to paper file and digital data with document number such as driving license number. One can get copy of these unencrypted digital data for ready use on pen-drive and paper photocopies in collusion with employees of the office or through illegal data sale market. That is how, people in India receive phone calls, SMS and emails everyday for sale of personal loans, mortgages, insurance, investment plans, holiday packages, real estate etc. The caller holds enough information of the called person such as name, age, income group, cars owned, houses owned etc.

Fear of corruption tracking

Corrupt people will keep opposing Aadhaar, although corruptions have been tracked in the absence of Aadhaar, too. Since Aadhaar provides higher accuracy as a tracking tool in retail-corruption, compared to other identities, therefore there is fear among the corrupt officials, middlemen, businessmen, politicians across all political parties (including the ruling party members of the incumbent UPA coalition). The fear is of corruption getting tracked, exposed and convicted in the areas of bribery, disproportionate assets, money laundering, tax evasion, benami land deals, benami bank accounts, multiple PAN cards, fake, ineligible and multiple ration cards, multiple subsidized LPG etc. Exorbitantly high interest rate (20% to 30% per month) money-lenders will not be able to carryout such illegal lending and recovery by coercion due to Aadhaar-enabled financial inclusion of the farmers and the poor laborers.

Politically-motivated opposition

Some politically motivated people have been opposing Aadhaar. These people ignore the socio-economic benefits brought by the technological marvels of instant and accurate verification of identity. They seem to oppose it just for the sake of electoral benefits and political score rather than public welfare concern, better governance and development of the Indian society. Politically motivated opposition will end soon after the parliamentary general elections of May 2014. Although the same set of politicians in parliament have passed the UIDAI annual budget five times in five years (March 2009 to March 2014) and they also introduced the UIDAI-2010 bill in the parliament, yet some politicians across the political parties oppose it due to vested interest. It is also natural that the beneficiaries of corruption will continue to oppose it due to its anti-corruption properties.

Politically-motivated attacks on Aadhaar has stopped literally after parliamentary general elections of April 2014. Attacks by pro-corruption forces will continue sporadically.

Pending bill

The text of the bill is here . It has been introduced in the Parliament (Rajya Sabha) as bill # LXXV of 2010 by the UPA-2 government in January 2014. However, there was evident lack of will power and half-hearted approach on the part of the UPA-2 government to push the passage of the Bill during its full 5 years of tenure. The main reasons have been the fear among some politicians (of UPA-2 as well as that of the opposition parties) - about the power of Aadhaar as a corruption tracking tool.

Till the bill is passed, UIDAI will continue to function under the executive order, Aadhaar enrollment will continue as planned and optional use of Aadhaar number will continue for various services. Once the bill is passed, the incumbent government can make Aadhaar mandatory for various services particularly the subsidy payout to prevent corruption and leakage.

The parliament has passed the UIDAI budget five times in five years between 2009 and 2014. There are plenty of support to Aadhaar from all quarters of the society with highlighted benefits.

Now the onus of passing the Bill is that of the new union government formed in May 2014 under BJP / NDA as part of its commitment to process-oriented anti-corruption drive and effective e-governance.

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of India had passed an Interim Order on 23 September 2013 that no public services such as LPG be denied to public due to mandatory use of Aadhaar. Optional use of Aadhaar is permitted.

However, the government maintained that it does not deny public services such as LPG at market rate (i.e. non-subsidized). However, Aadhaar will continue to be mandatory for receiving social security benefits like subsidy on LPG. Those who do not want social security benefits can continue without Aadhaar. The Supreme Court made no such statement that Aadhaar or UIDAI is illegal and invalid.

On 24 March 2014, the SC made its ruling on optional versus mandatory. The SC said that Aadhaar will not be mandatory for any public service including subsidy payouts. SC did not say that Aadhaar enrollment, its optional use and UIDAI are illegal, therefore enrollments and optional use will continue as planned. Optional use of Aadhaar as ID proof, age proof and address proof for various public services will continue as usual e.g. passport, driving license, PAN, bank account, insurance etc. This restriction of SC on mandatory use of Aadhaar for public services has drawn mixed reactions from various quarters. Some say that Aadhaar is required to stop leakage and corruption. Others say that governance and policy making is not the work of judiciary but that of the Executive. Thus the judiciary has overstepped.

The central / state government will now have to pass bill in the Parliament / state legislative assembly when it wants to make mandatory use of Aadhaar for any public service to nullify the SC order constitutionally.

Illegal immigrants

There are media reports that some illegal immigrants have obtained Aadhaar based on fake or genuinely issued 3 documents - proof of identity, proof of age / DoB and proof of address. It is good to register illegal immigrants with Aadhaar system for deterrence, detection, tracking and deportation as explained below.

Aadhaar is not a nationality document like the income tax PAN card and driving license; and is issued to all legal residents including the legal immigrants/ foreign nationals. If an Aadhaar-holder is found to be illegal immigrant then the person is arrested and deported; and Aadhaar data is accordingly updated as 'illegal immigrant'. If the person re-enters India illegally, then he/she cannot remain hidden, is instantly detected while availing any public service due to online authentication, identified, arrested and appropriate action is taken by law. Therefore, illegal immigrants cannot use any public service due to fear of detection that is Aadhaar-enabled such as employment, bank account, passport, PAN, driving license, voter card, PDS ration, land registration etc. In the absence of benefits of public service such as employment, bank account etc., there is no reason for people to take immense risk to enter India as illegal immigrants. Thus Aadhaar also serves as a tool of deterrence, detection, tracking and deportation.

There are a few points that need thoughts and correction in law, system and attitude:

• How illegal immigrants have been obtaining genuine Indian passport, voter card, ration card, PAN card and even contesting elections before existence of Aadhaar?
• Why are the borders of India not sufficiently guarded despite huge spending on over 2 million army and para-military forces, or there is corruption at the border?
• How do the illegal immigrants obtain other base documents before obtaining Aadhaar - passport, PAN card, driving license, voter card etc.?
• Why no action has been seen on the irresponsible gazetted officers and law makers - MPs and MLAs who have issued identity proof to illegal immigrants?
• Why people do not inform the police about the Aadhaar-holder illegal immigrants they claim to know; so that Aadhaar database can be marked and deportation can happen?

Privacy concerns

To obtain Indian passport, one has to provide biometric data (face-photo, 10 fingerprint, identification mark on body, but no iris image) as well as demographic data (proof of identity, age, residence, education level, 2 references from neighbourhood, pending criminal cases) with fee. Passport is issued with an embedded electronic chip for contactless communication and tracking whereas Aadhaar letter is issued on simple paper and pdf soft-copy. Similarly, driving license of almost all states requires biometric data, education certificate and medical test report (blood group, disease details, vision, height, weight etc.). Driving license is also issued on chip-based smart card. See the comparison table 'Process comparison: Aadhaar, passport, driving license and PAN' in the above paragraph.

Aadhaar registration collects biometric data (face-photo, 10 fingerprint, 2 iris image, but no identification mark on body) and bare minimum demographic data (proof of identity, age, residence) through enrolment form and documentary proof. Peruse the enrollment-form with data fields on page-1 and instructions on page-2. Blood group and profiling information like religion, caste, income, property-holding, education etc. are not collected. Thus Aadhaar collects lesser demographic data and one different biometric data (iris-image in lieu of body identification mark) in comparison to passport.

India has a law called Information Technology Act 2000 that protects, together with other laws, all types of information including the Aadhaar data from theft and misuse.

Privacy issues and risks equally apply to information and data (with or without biometrics) provided by people to census office, tax office, passport office, driving license, vehicle registration, land and building registration, registration of birth, marriage and death, employers (current, past and prospective), banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, telephone service provider, television service provider, internet service provider, internet services (email, video, social media, search engine, chat, voice, file-storage and transfer etc.), registration at school/college, post-office and courier services, hospital registration and medical records, visa of US and UK etc. Various visa to Indians of US, UK and other countries need much more data – blood group, fingerprint, height, weight, medical exam, income details, property-holding, parents date of birth and many other details

In India, government departments, public and private sectors have been using biometrics (fingerprints and face photo) for years, decades and centuries in some or all offices. Examples of fingerprints usage are: Land and building registration (since British era), Defense departments (fingerprints as service record of civilian as well as service personnel since British era till now, now also used for access and attendance), Planning Commission of India (for access and attendance), census office (for compulsory NPR), passport, road transport office (for driving license), insurance companies, information technology, BPO and healthcare companies (for access and attendance), visa of US and UK etc.

Government also knows the movements of people through the traffic cameras on roads, vehicle number plate, face recognition etc. Use of electronic devices such as mobile phones, emails, internet, TV, bank cards provide no privacy. At any moment the Govt. knows of geographical location of people, what talk is going on phone with whom, what one is reading, writing or watching on internet, and what TV channel one watches when and for how long (it is the source of TRP data) through the service provider. All it is done through device identifiers like IMEI, IP address, GPS under electronic surveillance. For this reason, Indian Embassies in London & elsewhere have switched over to mechanical type-writers in 2013. See the article Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present) that puts more light on it.

There is public private partnership (PPP) model in most services for economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the world. All 200 Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) in India are fully operated by the private company (contractor: Tata Consultancy Services) for processing of passport applications, collecting and verifying personal important documents like proof of ID, age, address and education, collecting biometric data (face-photo and 10 finger-prints) and initiating the police verification. Thus private contractor collects our biometric data and confidential personal documents. Similar arrangements are made with private contractors for income tax identifier PAN card (e.g. Bajaj Capitals, Karvy Consultancy and 100 others for collecting ID, address and age documents), for driving license for collecting biometric data (e.g. RTO in Karnataka and other states), ration card (e.g. Ration office in Karnataka and other states for collecting biometric data, ID, address and age documents and processing), voter card (e.g. Bangalore municipal corporation in Karnataka and other states for collecting ID, address and age documents and processing), speed-post delivery of the India Post that delivers our passport, PAN and other important and confidential documents.

The technology and process of PAN may be called as privacy violator because the data access is not consent-based. The PAN number of any person can be obtained unauthorizedly without the knowledge or consent of the holder from this official website of the income tax department. One has to just know or guess the name and date of birth of the target to get to the PAN number, without his or her consent. Websites of various public services such as voter card, ration card, property tax etc. publicly display name, date of birth / age, address, parents name etc. Once the PAN number is obtained, then any public or private agency, finance company, bank, insurance can access various details of the PAN-holder including the credit-history from CIBIL, because from technological, process or legal perspective, no consent is required to do so unlike Aadhaar. Thus it is not safe and secure; and leads to unauthorized access to various financial data which are supposed to be confidential. Therefore, such PAN based data access are violation of right to privacy. Whereas for Aadhaar authentication, holder's biometric consent (finger-print) is required from technological and process perspective to access the Aadhaar demographic data. Consumer electronics shops provide instant loan by instantly accessing CIBIL report either through PAN number or just the mobile phone number of the buyer. Thus one can find out the entire credit history, property holdings, credit card and bank transactions just by using the mobile number of the target.

Much more personal data (biometric, demographic, medical, financial, references etc.) is collected for driving license, passport, property registration, employment, PAN, bank account, loan, insurance, ration card etc. However, there is no state which provides encryption safety to digital data and secure storage to paper data. In these offices, all data are available with the access to paper file and digital data with document number such as driving license number. One can get copy of these raw digital data for ready use on pen-drive and photocopies in collusion with employees (clerks and peon) of the office.

Police and other government departments conduct surveillance and crack crimes through mobile phones of individuals in all countries of the world. Location of mobile phone holder is known and call detail records (CDR) is available to government. Therefore, perhaps mobile phone is the largest violator of privacy. However, the privacy champions do not abandon the use of mobile phones and internet despite this knowledge.

UIDAI had gone to the Supreme Court in February 2014 against the Bombay High Court order saying that it does not want to provide access to Aadhaar database for crime investigations to police or any agency without written consent of the Aadhaar-holder. Supreme Court passed the order on 24 March 2014 fully vindicating the UIDAI stand on data privacy.

Therefore, like passport, income tax PAN and driving license, Aadhaar does not violate any privacy or fundamental right.

Slow production since March-2014

Nandan Nilekani was the first chairman of the UIDAI (July-2009 to March-2014). Under the leadership of Nandan, Aadhaar production rose exponentially from a few thousands per day in September 2010 to 1.2 million per day in January 2014 (total 36 million in January). Nandan resigned from his job after achieving the key result area (KRA) of 600 million Aadhaar production by 2014, set by his reporting manager i.e. the prime minister of India. He vacated the office in middle of March 2014 in order to contest the parliamentary election from Bangalore South constituency on Congress party ticket.

Since then, the Aadhaar production has come down drastically - from 1.2 million per day to 300,000 per day. Production in April 2014 was 10 million only, thus daily average was 333,000 only. The production is slow despite ample enrollment data being available in buffer for processing. There is no shortage of budget nor the mandate. Reasons for slow production, hence the performance slack of UIDAI, is not yet published by the Planning Commission of India. It is important to publish this information because the public is the stake-holder and bears the cost of UIDAI operation. At this production rate, the target to produce 1200 million Aadhaar by March 2016 will get missed unless accelerated soon. The plan dependence of Reserve Bank of India to achieve 100% financial inclusion of adults based on Aadhaar by January 2016 will also get impacted accordingly.

Budget, cost and benefits

About Rs. 38 billion (Rs. 3800 crore) has been spent totally on Aadhaar program from inception (28 January 2009) till 31 December 2013 with enrollment of over 600 million (60 crore) persons. This cumulative expenditure is projected to be Rs. 40 billion (Rs.4,000 crore) by 31 March 2014. It includes operating costs as well as capital expenditure (infrastructure of land, building, machinery). Government informed Parliament in August 2013 that the total sanctioned cost of UIDAI (including cost of permanent infrastructure like land, buildings, computers, software etc.) is Rs. 123 billion (Rs. 12,300 crore) for assigning 1.25 billion Aadhaar numbers. Thus at the end the unit cost will be about Rs. 100 per Aadhaar.

The projected cost and benefit analysis report by National Institute of Public Finance and Policy shows that Aadhaar-enabled public welfare programs will be able to save Rs. 1.1 trillion (Rs. 110,000 crore) by the year 2020.

Tangible benefits become visible from 2014. A report of UBS Securities published in Jan 2014 shows that Aadhaar-DBT can save up to 1.2% of GDP. GDP of India is $1,800 billion, thus the saving is $22 billion (Rs. 1.32 trillion), which ultimately translates to 33% savings on overall social security spending.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that Aadhaar-DBT will save 0.5% of GDP from corruption.

Aadhaar-enabled LPG subsidy payment has saved US$1 billion till August 2013 due to reduction of bogus connections. It is expected to save more than US$2 billion once LPG subsidy through Aadhaar becomes applicable to entire country. Similarly, 2/3rd of subsidised Kerosene has been saved from bogus beneficiaries in one block in Rajasthan.

Gallery

• Data collection (demographic and biometric)
• Iris image collection
• Finger-print collection
• Outside an enrolment centre
• Inside an enrolment centre
• Aadhaar assigned April-2014 trend

Technology

Aadhaar Number (AN) is 12-digit in the format of 1234-5678-9012 where the 11-digits are used as a sequence and the rightmost 1-digit as an error detection checksum. Verhoeff algorithm is used for check-sum; it only detects data-entry error and it does not correct the error for security reasons. It is supposed to be assigned to the current population of 1.20 billion and also the future growth for centuries. Since Aadhaar uses 11-digit for sequence, therefore it has an address space of 10 (100 billion). So AN can be assigned to 100 billion residents, and is designed not to get used up in the next 500 years.

Requirement

All online data communication is encrypted and secure. System is scalable to handle the registration and authentication of identities in the largest biometric database of the world. It is English and Indian multilingual (Hindi, Punjabi, Kannada etc.).

Enrollment volume is 1 million person per day, over 200 trillion matches per day, 5MB per resident goes to database size of 15 Peta Byte @ 2Kbit encryption, 30 TB of input-output per day, over 5TB of incremental data everyday. Lifecycle updates and new enrolments will continue forever.

Authentication volume is 4KB packet of each authentications request of 100 million requests per day, should handle high variance on peak-time and average, instant validation (under 10 second), guaranteed audits. All changes needs to be propagated from enrolment office to all authentication systems. 1 billion audit records in 10 days (30+ billion a year), 4 TB encrypted audit logs in 10 days, audit write must be guaranteed.

Design and tools

It is scalable system architecture based on distributed computing. Various tools and systems have been used like J2EE, MySql, Hadoop, HBase, MongoDB, Solr, Mule, Rabbit etc. All system communications are only through API. When everything fails i.e. hardware, software, network, storage then the System must recover, retry transactions and do self-heal.

High degree of security, privacy and scalability is built-in from start. It is open-source, multi-product, multi-vendor system with linear growth.

Development and tools

Various tools and systems have been used like J2EE, MySql, Hadoop, HBase, MongoDB, Solr, Mule, Rabbit etc. All system communications are only through API.

Testing

Aadhaar System development and testing has been done at the UIDAI technology centre at Bangalore. Pilot field testing have been done in Jharkhand state for authentication and payment of wages and social security benefits through Aadhaar-enabled bank account (AeBA).

Problem areas

Although enrolling 1.25 billion people with biometrics is the largest ever ID project in the world with lot of challenges, yet some reported problems have been compiled. Problems have been reported from the viewpoint of enrolment and delivery of the Aadhaar letter and the acceptance of Aadhaar number.

There have been reports of impolite staff, and unsatsfied queries. Most of the centres are queue based, only few centres are appointment-based. Information on camps are not published one week in advance in the locality.

E-kyc authentication not followed

E-KYC was not used for linking with LPG at dealer's office for DBT. Beneficiaries were asked to submit paper-based photocopy of Aadhaar letter, bank account and linking-form in traditional style against the spirit of e-kyc for which Aadhaar platform has been designed. Linking through online self-service to bank account is not available. The ideal case would be that beneficiary goes to LPG dealer's office, produces Aadhaar number and authenticates through finger-print. Similarly, bank account is linked through e-kyc authentication.

Acceptance

Office staff ask for original Aadhaar letter to be produced for verification when presented with printout of e-Aadhaar letter. They are not aware that Aadhaar is just a number, not a card which needs online verification with Aadhaar-database-server.

Staff of some departments are not yet aware that Aadhaar can be accepted as a minimum KYC. Presently RTO accepts Aadhaar letter only as additional ID, not sole ID.

Some politicians and middlemen have been vehemently opposing adoption of Aadhaar for the PDS Ration, therefore, corruption in PDS continues in those states.

Enrollment

People of some states, such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are not aware that NPR (under the Ministry of Home Affairs) is responsible for Aadhaar enrolment in those areas.

Aadhaar letter delivery problems

The public is generally not aware of E-Aadhaar download (self-service to download pdf copy). Aadhaar letter is not delivered by India Post after 3 months, it takes 6 to 9 months after enrolment. Intimation of the assigned Aadhaar is not given to applicants by SMS or email so that people can download their e-Aadhaar letter, without waiting for 6 to 9 months for postal delivery.

News and events

• Every second Indian (60 crore people) holds Aadhaar Number as of 9 March 2014.
• Trident (a private sector company) uses AN for Employee recruitment and salary payment.
• Aadhaar to play most prominent role in India Reforms.
• Indian information technology industry body Nasscom and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) together launched a project called 'Aadhaar Ecosystem Diffusion' at Bangalore in October 2013. It is aimed to encourage start-up companies to develop various applications economy around the Aadhaar platform.
• Millions of fake old-age pensioners cause billions of rupees loss to public money
• Millions of fake PDS ration cards cause billions of rupees loss to public money.
• Aadhaar is compulsory to access every service of State Government of Delhi wef 1 January 2013.

See also

• Social security number (SSN) of USA
• National identification number
• Aadhaar-enabled service delivery
• Aadhaar-enabled payment system
• National Population Register
• International identifiers (for corporate entities i.e. companies)
• Business Identifier Code (BIC/ISO 9362, identifier for corporate entities i.e. companies, trade, banking (SWIFT code, international Bank code, Bank International Code) etc.)

External links

• Official website of UIDAI
• Dashboard of Aadhaar progress
• Website featuring Aadhaar myths and facts
• ISO 9362:2009
• Official SWIFT search tool for bank names and Bank Identifier Codes
• Swift Codes BIC, IBAN, SWIFT codes Reference
• how to get aadhar card

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