Creating a record of more than 1.1 billion card holders and their unique biometric information, Aadhaar is predominately the biggest storehouse of data in the world, said Prashant Singh, Assistant Deputy General, Technology of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
Speaking during the Data Centre & Cloud Summit held in March, organised by Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd, Singh from UIDAI said, “Aadhaar’s journey started in 2010 and so far 1.1 billion people are registered under it. Majority of the adult population have been covered under Aadhaar and the remaining uncovered population falls between 0-5 years and 5-18 years of the age group.”
Explaining the significance of the identity card, he said: “We have a storehouse of unique information that has been collected with the help of Aadhaar. As far as biometric information is concerned we are already one of the biggest in the world.”
With the passage of time, reach of Aadhaar and its significance grew and it became the pivotal part of the “Digital India” campaign initiated by the Central Government.
It maybe mentioned that Financial inclusion is expected to be a key application of Aadhaar authentication. Adoption of Aadhaar and its authentication in the Indian banking system is expected to change the financial landscape of country.
UIDAI has partnered with various stakeholders including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the Indian Banks Association (IBA) and banks to develop two key platforms:
Aadhaar Payments Bridge (APB) – A system that facilitates seamless transfer of all welfare scheme payments to beneficiary residents’ Aadhaar Enabled Bank Account (AEBA)
Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) – A system that leverages Aadhaar online authentication and enables AEBAs to be operated in anytime-anywhere banking mode by the marginalised financially excluded segments of society through microATMs
Aadhaar has been mandatorily linked to PAN Card, Income Tax filling, Know Your Customer (KYC) and various other basic citizen-related functions.
Recently, some airports like Hyderabad and Bengaluru have already implemented Aadhaar-enabled entry, while some others like Baroda and Vijayawada airports are set to start soon.
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