Aadhaar for Governance in India: December 2014

There is a wave of aadhaar applications getting launched and it has turned to a tsunami already.

Here are some excerpts from the leading dailies of the day between Dec,1 2014 to Dec,28 2014. Its the year end and aadhaar has assumed high importance for Indians and a must have document.

Having issued 12-digit individual identification number, or Aadhaar, to over 72 crore residents in the county so far, the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) is now looking to cross 100-crore mark in the coming year 2015.

Along the way, it has become a base tool for doling out various government benefits including subsidies and is even being used for issuance of basic services like mobile numbers by private players. There are also talks about matrimonial websites insisting on Aaadhar-verification to root out fake profiles of prospective brides and grooms from such platforms.

The Indian Election Commission (EC) is in talks with the unique identification authority on a process that would link the country’s biometrics-backed ID number system with electoral rolls to delete duplicate records and prevent voter fraud.

Recently a report from panaji said the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) will start verification of fishermen by using card readers to avoid a 26/11-like situation where terrorists entered India via the sea route. It has also intensified patrolling to plunge the gap left due to non-installation of radards. Around 2.5 lakh boats are operating in Indian waters out of which nearly 80,000 boats go to sea everyday, according to ICG.

Speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the launch of a Coast Guard offshore patrol vessel at Goa Shipyard Ltd, Vasco, ICG director general, vice-admiral Anurang G Thapliyal said that physical verification of each boat is desirable but actually not possible "because if we go physically on board each of the boats and investigate, checking the papers with the crew would be a daunting task".

He said that if the identity cards fishermen have and their Aadhaar cards are integrated, then it will help conduct verification through card readers. "Card readers have been given to the Coast Guard and the Navy on a trial basis.

Market research firm Research and Markets has released a new report on the prospects for India’s biometrics market. It is titled “Biometrics Market in India 2015-2019“, the report predicts growth of 33.6 percent (CAGR) between 2014 and 2019.

The Ministry of Minority Affairs is all set to adopt a direct benefit transfer-based regime for its two key scholarship programmes, which cater to around 10 lakh students.

“We are doing it because a lot of times when the money was given to the state government, it would not reach the students or there would be a delay. That is why we will now directly transfer to the students’ account. The Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana and Digital India plans will power our plan – everybody will have bank accounts and access to the Internet. We also want to move to the DBT model for pre-matric scholarships. Obviously, it is difficult to ensure primary school students have bank accounts and so the money will be moved to their parents’ accounts,” said Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla said. Around 40 lakh students receive the pre-matric scholarships every year.

Payments banks a revolution in the waiting

Earlier, a Paytm user could only send cash to another Paytm user, and an Oxigen Wallet user was similarly limited to making payments to others who use Oxigen. This meant that an offline merchant would have to support all these different services, for wallets to be useful.

That will not be the case with Payment Banks - if you have an account with a Payment Bank, then you will be able to send money to any other Payment Bank's account, the way you can already transact between different banks right now.

You can already see smartphones and virtual wallets being used to pay for things like taxis and food delivery. Recently though, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has published guidelines for Payment Banks. This could well help bring a vast section of the previously unbanked population of the country into the financial system, through the use of technology.

According to the RBI notice, the primary objective of setting up Payment Banks is to further financial inclusion by providing small savings accounts and remittance services to migrant labour workforce, low-income households, small businesses, and other unorganised sector entities and users. Now that the RBI has released the final guidelines, companies can start to apply for licenses to create private banks, with the deadline for applications set for January 16.

Payment banks-a big chillar party

Banks that cater to small payments are a radical step that will greatly enable financial inclusion of the poor.

At a recent function of the Bombay Management Association on financial inclusion, the speaker asked the audience, "How many of you pay your household help, or driver, by cheque?" Nobody raised a hand. "How many pay directly into the driver's bank account?" Only one or two people raised their hands. This shows something about the way we transact.

The main reason could be the hassle of opening a bank account. And thereafter, the hassle of withdrawing money when you need it. Certain parts of large cities like Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru are overbanked and saturated with ATMs. But, even in these cities, there are areas which do not have conveniently located cash dispensers or bank branches. The country has many such "dark spots". This problem is a self-fulfilling one. Many people will not use electronic payment because they need ready cash to pay others who want cash, who need to pay others who want cash and so on. If everyone is willing to switch to electronic or cheque payment, much of this problem would be reduced.

Hence, To reduce the reliance on cash the Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), where he set a target of 75 million new bank accounts by Republic Day. This target has now been revised upward by the finance minister. That's because the PM's earlier target was reached in September itself, and that achievement was called a "roaring successs". But, as revealed by RTI, almost 74% of the 70 million accounts opened so far, have zero balance. And no transactions.

Enter payment banks. This week, the RBI announced guidelines for setting up new banks, which will predominantly cater to small savings accounts, small payments and remittances, especially by migrant workers and small businesses. These banks can issue ATM and debit cards, but not credit cards. They can also distribute products like mutual funds and insurance. This is a huge radical step towards financial inclusion. It is now possible that telecom companies like Airtel, or retailers like Flipkart and Big Bazaar, or India Post, or even the railways and oil companies will set up payments banks. All of these handle small-ticket payments and receipts.

India has 950 million cellphone subscribers, of which 90 per cent are prepaid customers who pay cash. Same is true of railway tickets as well. Suddenly the country will have a proliferation of banking "touch points", reducing one major hassle of "accessibility". If opening an account is made easier (say by using an Aadhaar card), then usage of these bank accounts will go up as well. As a greater portion of the country's nonfinancial savings get routed through the conduit of formal banking, that much more credit becomes available to investments and new projects, housing and infrastructure.

Payment banks are expected to electronify small transactions. These small-ticket transactions in payments banks can lead to a big revolution for financial inclusion. Chillar party indeed!

Read more: Mumbai Mirror-Ajith Ranade

A multiwallet solution to the aid of NSDC

Ever since its launch in 2010, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a not-for-profit public-private partnership, has been trying to re-skill young people with the help of training partners from key industrial sectors such as retail, manufacturing and automobiles in order to make them more employable. It successfully trained 1 million youths aged between 16 and 25 years last year and aims to take the number up to 3.3 million by the end of 2014. In return for training the youths, the training partners take a nominal fee—paid for by trainees from a reward amount they earn from NSDC for completing the training under the Standard Training Assessment & Reward (STAR) scheme, in partnership with the Bank of India. However, problems arose when training partners complained they had not received payments on time—and sometimes not at all. With the incentive to train drying up, NSDC had to quickly find a solution. The solution came in the form of a multi-wallet prepaid payment solution—India’s first— run by TranServ Pvt Ltd, a three-year-old electronic prepaid payments company in association with the Bank of India. This not only ensured that NSDC’s training partners got paid on time, but also helped the youths take charge of their own finances.
Under the multi-wallet solution, TranServ opens two wallets for trainees: one for payment to the training partners, which is not accessible to the trainee, and the other a general savings wallet. The fee for the training partners is automatically deducted from the token sum that the youths are paid every month. The second wallet is linked to the Bank of India account, and gives the trainee a debit card which can be used at ATMs and points of sale, and also allows them account holder privileges so they can check the balance on phone, enquire about the last few transactions, report loss of card, ask for a statement or new ATM PIN, etc. Alternatively, card holders can check the balance from usage alerts that are sent to their mobile phones after each transaction.

TranServ was also awarded the Aadhaar Governance Award instituted by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in 2012 for its work in large scale financial inclusion and direct benefits transfer (DBT) programmes, enabling real-time transactions through VISA and RuPay, which could also be authenticated by Aadhaar. According to a Reserve Bank of India report in April, only 10-15% of the 369 million debit and credit cards in the company are used for online transactions. TranServ’s Aditya Gupta believes such multi-wallet solutions could help greatly in increasing the awareness and ease of use of online transactions. Besides, this solution also helps in the government’s plans for financial inclusion by empowering millions of youths to take charge of their own finances, with their own bank accounts, said Gupta.

India planning to create 1.2 digital identities

India is planning a vast digital identity database that will store public records for each of its 1.2 billion citizens and enable them to access a range of e-government services. As if this is breaking news but wait digital identities is a broad term and does not just mean a number for everyone.

R.S. Sharma, secretary of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology told Bloomberg in an interview that the database will integrate police, court and criminal files, and that the government will also build a platform for uniform payment, property registration and social assistance systems.

Job Search made more easier for villagers

Monster.com has tied up with CSC eGovernance Services India Ltd, a governance portal by the Department of Information and Technology, to launch a new e-KYC based job portal for rural India.

Through this portal, Village level entrepreneurs (VLEs) can help job seekers who have an Aadhaar number upload their resume and access the services of the Common Services Centres (CSC) for jobs. The website can be accessed at csc.rozgarduniya.com.

Mobile Sim to be linked with aadhaar : A discussion

The Unique Identification Number (UID) project, also known as Aadhaar number, is a government project that aims to provide a unique 12-digit number to all the citizens of India which will serve as their identity and address proof. Recently, Indian government has decided to link a person’s SIM card with the Aadhar Number. In a few months, it will mandatory to produce one’s Aadhaar number to get new mobile connection or retain the existing one.

Let’s have a look at the pros and cons of this decision:

Arguments in favour of SIM with Aadhaar card

1) Authentic and genuine traceability of people: Unique Identification Number (UID) of a person is his or her identity and address proof. Linking SIM card with it will mean that ghost users will disappear. It will become easier to trace users who misuse their mobile phones for anti-social activities.

2) Access to facilities: Earlier, the Supreme Court had suspended the decision to make Aadhaar card necessary to procure cooking gas. But, now the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has been directed to generate Aadhaar numbers for over 100 crore residents by December 2014. Till now, about 70 crore Aadhaar numbers have already been rolled out. Linking UID with SIM card will mean a strong verification factor for the government.

3) Corruption-free Society: Functioning of government departments will also become more transparent and scope of defaults will be greatly curbed.

4) Monitor activity of foreigners in India: Government has proposed to issue Aadhaar card to foreigners so that their social and financial data can be at the fingertips of the government.

Arguments against SIM with Aadhaar card

1) Threat to confidentiality of data: With all the data in the hand of the government, its storage and retrieval can be an issue. Hacking and online tampering of data may be a challenge for several corporations.

2) Telecom operator may suffer loss of subscriptions: Each telecom network operator wants to increase their subscriptions. Hence, they come up with different promotional offers, reduced prices and make SIM available with minimal number of documents. Linking SIM with Aadhaar may be a cause of concern for them.

Conclusion

SIM with Aadhaar can be a good reform and make our society corruption and crime free to a large extent, if it is used with care. The government will have to make reforms to ascertain SIM ownership and set up a wing to safeguard and timely retrieval of data.

Healthcare mission NHAM to ride on aadhaar tide

The proposal to launch National Health Assurance Mission is currently under examination. The proposal envisages that under the proposed Mission, Unique ID card could eventually become the means for establishing identity as needed by the system.

Based on decision taken, the Central Government has issued instructions on 16.10.2014 to Telecom Service providers to collect Aadhaar Numbers along with Customer Application Form while issuing mobile telephone connections and to store the same in their database along with other data.

The Health Minister, Shri J P Nadda stated this in a written reply in the RajyaSabha here today.

Officials rapped for tardy progress in linking aadhaar with property tax payments

Regional Director of Municipal Administration Muralikrishna Goud has asked the Municipal Commissioners in the district to initiate measures to link Aadhaar cards with property tax payment.

At a meeting with Municipal Commissioners and sanitary inspectors here on Friday, Mr. Goud insisted that the civic officials collect the Aadhaar card details of property tax payers.

Expressing displeasure over the failure of civic bodies to maintain the data pertaining to online property tax collection, he said officials of Pulivendula, Rajampet, Badvel, Jammalamadugu and Rayachoti municipalities had not updated the details of the same in the last 10 years.

PDS and RSBY will be linked with aadhaar during enrolment itself

Raipur: The seeding of beneficiaries in Chhattisgarh for Public Distribution System and Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna will be done during the registration for Aadhaar cards.

The details of smart card issued under Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) and ration card under Public Distribution System (PDS) would be enrolled at the time of registration of Aadhaar card in camps being organised for the purpose, an official statement here said today.

While preparing Aadhaar card, the smart card and ration card related information would be linked with the Aadhaar number of the beneficiary, it said.

E-Locker facility for citizens on the way

The Maharashtra government has started testing an Aadhaar-linked e-locker service on a pilot basis, which can store important documents such as birth certificates, passports, and educational qualifications, reports DNA.

The service called Maha Digital Locker will allow citizens to access these documents, which are frequently required for government services and applying jobs. According to the website, the service will help to pre-populate most of the fields from an XML file which is kept in the e-locker. It also includes a folder to upload your old certificates and the service will also push any certificate issued by the Maharashtra Government. The service will allow citizens to fill up government forms with a single click.

Door-to-door survey launched in Gudivada as a pilot project

The door-to-door survey to get information about driving licence and vehicle registrations for linking it with Aadhaar cards was launched as a pilot project in Gudivada municipality on Monday.

The Aadhaar card is back in business.

The scheme launched by the UPA government did not find support with the succeeding NDA regime, but during the last few weeks, the Union as well as the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments, have been asking for Aadhaar cards for various facilities, schemes and subsidies ranging from pensions to property registrations.

Word is around that Aadhaar cards might also be required for passports in the near future.

Street kids to be identified using aadhaar

Hyderabad: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday said that his department is currently working on a project to create a website which will help track missing children in the country.

"We see many children from poor families go missing in this country. Rich people can find their children if they go missing. Poor people are not able to do so due to poverty. So we decided to make a portal for lost and found children," said Prasad.

"If you see some poor children on the streets wandering, please take a picture of them and upload that photograph. We will put that in the portal. That picture will be verified on an all India-basis. I have told my officers to work on this project," the Minister for Communications and IT said in his address at a program organised by NGO Tech for Seva (TFS) here.

Tragedy linked to Uber taxi hailing service

The tragedy linked to the Uber taxi hailing service and the government's subsequent ban is a good example of just how much democratic India's governance is not for the people.

NFSA implementation only in selected states

The ambitious initiative to provide subsidized foodgrains to a vast swath of India’s population is struggling as states go slow on identifying beneficiaries, digitizing records and taking steps for doorstep delivery, forcing the Centre to threaten coercive action to get the ambitious plan rolling. After a review meeting with food secretaries of states and union territories, Union food minister Ram Vilas Paswan said many states have requested extending the deadline to implement the National Food Security Act (NFSA), which was enacted last year. “Even after extending the deadline twice, states have failed to complete formalities. Unless they finish identification and digitization of beneficiary list and Aadhaar seeding with ration cards, in future, we will ensure that food subsidy is availed of by only those who complete the procedures,” Paswan said. “We will not allow states to avail of subsidies under the above-poverty-line (APL) category if they do not complete procedures under NFSA by April 2015,” he added. As of now, only 11 states including Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are implementing NFSA. Others have not yet identified beneficiaries entitled to wheat at Rs.2 per kg and rice at Rs.3 per kg guaranteed under the Act. NFSA entitles 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population to five kilos of food grain per person per month at subsidised rates. When the law was enacted in July 2013, states were asked to finish implementation procedures by June 2014. The deadline was later extended by six months and has been further extended to 5 April. “Today, Jharkhand informed that they will be ready to implement NFSA by June next year while Odisha said they will take till August 2015,” Paswan said.

Reimbursement based subsidy or DBTL for LPG

The Union Government has fixed the deadline for LPG cylinder consumers to avail the Reimbursement-based subsidy (RBS) was December 31 with a grace period for another three months till the end of March 2015 for those who failed to registered their LPG ID numbers provided to them under the PAHAL (DBTL) scheme.

Deputy Commissioner Vipul Bansal who briefed the presspersons about the procedures followed in registering for the LPG ID numbers for availing the RBS in Kalaburagi on Wednesday said that from January 1, 2015 the shift to the new regime of RBS would take place throughout the country and those who have registered their LPG ID numbers under the scheme would get the reimbursement of the subsidy directly to their bank accounts.

Mr. Bansal said that the LPG consumers who have not registered their ID numbers with the dealers under the DBTL scheme either with their Aadhaar Numbers or the Bank Account numbers would not be eligible to get the subsidy from April 1, 2015 but would be given another opportunity to register their names till June 31.

Hackathon on aadhaar

Khosla Labs was setup by Vinod Khosla and Srikanth Nadhamuni in 2012 as an innovation lab to focus on solving large scale problems driven by technology and entrepreneurial zeal. At a press meet yesterday, Vinod Khosla announced the the Aadhaar hackathon which is scheduled for 10th-11th January at the Khosla Labs office in Bangalore. The hackathon is aimed at creating awareness amongst developers about digital identity and how to build solutions on top of Aadhaar.

SIT proposes aadhaar and PAN everytime you buy for more than 1 lakh

NEW DELHI: The government on Friday said it had so far detected nearly Rs 4,500 crore deposited by Indians in HSBC's Geneva branch and brought around Rs 3,000 crore of it under the tax net, the finance ministry said in a statement.

The latter amount involves 79 assessees. Penalty proceedings have been initiated against 46 while penalty has been levied against three. Prosecution for "wilful attempt to evade tax" has been initiated in six cases. Show-cause notices for filing prosecution ..

Aadhaar for Governance in India

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Giant Tsunami of Aadhaar Applications

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