Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Who are entitled to get the UID Numbers?
Answer:
UID Numbers will be issued to all
residents of India who satisfy the verification process that is in place. ‘Residents’
means an individual usually residing in a village or rural area or town or ward
or demarcated areas (demarcated by Registrar General of Citizen Registration). The
issue of an UID number does not establish citizenship rights of the resident
who has the number. It only establishes the identity of the person. It does not
entitle the resident to any rights or entitlements. Establishing citizenship is
not the mandate of the UIDAI.
Question:
What is the information that the UIDAI seeks from the resident?
Answer:
Name, Date of Birth, Gender, Address of the resident, Photograph, all
ten fingerprints and both iris scan is required. In case of minors (children
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Question:
How will the information in the database be used? What does authentication
mean and how will it work on a daily basis?
Answer:
The information in the database will be used only for authentication
purposes. Authentication user agencies can use the e-KYC service to verify
the identity of the residents seeking services from them. The Aadhaar ecosystem will power
E-KYC (Electronic- Know Your Customer), which will utilise the E-KYC APIs, to
allow citizens to avail different services without carrying any physical
identification proof. The UIDAI has partnered with 26 banks, and has also
tied-up with the NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) and Visa for
payments powered by E-KYC. It can be deployed for customer verification for
mobile connections, bank accounts, insurance, LPG connections, state
government services, train travel and any service where verification is
required.
|
Question: Will the residents be allowed to
access their own information and make corrections if necessary?
Answer:
A procedure will be evolved and established through which residents will
be able to view their complete information in the Aadhaar database and a
procedure for correcting information will be laid down.
Question: What is the
utility of Aadhaar Number?
Answer: Aadhaar
number is an enabler. Aadhaar number aims to provide a soft identity
infrastructure which can be used to re-engineer public services so that these
lead to equitable, efficient and better delivery of services. Specifically, the
utility for the residents and the Governments are briefly explained below.
For Residents: Inability to prove identity is one of
the biggest barriers preventing many residents from accessing benefits and
subsidies. The purpose of the UIDAI is
to issue a unique identification number (UID/Aadhaar) to all residents of India
that is (a) robust enough to eliminate duplicate and fake identities, and (b)
can be verified and authenticated in an easy cost effective way.
It
is envisaged that the Aadhaar will become the single source of identity
verification. Aadhaar, which identifies individuals uniquely on the basis of
their demographic and biometric information, will give residents the means to
clearly establish their identity to public and private agencies across the
country. Once residents enrol, they can use the number multiple times-they
would be spared the need to repeatedly provide supporting identity documents
each time they wish to access services such as obtaining a bank account, mobile
connection, LPG connections etc. Aadhaar will also give migrants mobility of
identity. Aadhaar, once it is linked to a bank account, can make it possible
for banking institutions to provide ubiquitous, low cost micro payments to the
residents. Aadhaar’s secure authentication model can also enable delivery of
services to residents directly via their mobile phones. This will ensure that
residents may securely access government benefits and subsidies, track their
bank accounts, send and receive money or make payments from the
anytime-anywhere convenience of their mobile phones.
Aadhaar has been recognized
as an officially valid document as PoI and PoA for opening bank accounts and
obtaining mobile telephone and LPG connections. The Ministry of Road Transport
and Highways has issued necessary instructions for recognition of Aadhaar as
PoI and PoA for obtaining a driving license and registration of vehicles. The
Department of Health and Family Welfare has also recognized Aadhaar as PoI and PoA
for extending financial assistance to patients below poverty line who are
suffering from major life threatening diseases for receiving medical treatment
at any of the super specialty Hospitals/Institutions or other Government
Hospitals under Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi. Ministry of Railways has also
recognized Aadhaar as a valid PoI for rail travel. Election Commission of India
has accepted Aadhaar as an alternative PoI and PoA at the time of polls in
absence of Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC). Some of the State/UT
Governments viz. Sikkim, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir,
Chandigarh, Nagaland, Haryana, Manipur and Rajasthan have also recognized
Aadhaar as one of the PoI and PoA for their various resident centric schemes. Recently
Ministry of External Affairs has notified Aadhaar as one of the valid
documents for proof of residence in conjunction with any of the other notified
documents.
For
Registrars & Enrollers:
The UIDAI will only enrol residents after de-duplicating records which will
help Registrars to clean out duplicates from their databases, enabling
significant efficiencies and cost saving. For Registrars focussed on cost, the
UIDAI’s verification processes will ensure lower Know Your Resident (KYR) cost,
and a reliable identification number will enable them to broaden their reach
into groups that till now have been difficult to authenticate. It is
anticipated that the strong authentication that the UID number offers will
improve services leading to better resident satisfaction.
For
Governments:
Eliminating duplicates and ghost
beneficiaries under various schemes is expected to save the government
exchequer a substantial amount. It will also provide governments with accurate
data on beneficiaries, enable direct transfer of benefits.
Question: What are the fears on the
utility of UID Number (Aadhaar Number)?
Answer:
The views of
different stakeholders on the subject are encapsulated in the Report of the
Standing Committee of Finance. The UIDAI has submitted its point-wise comments
on the report to the Planning Commission for submission to the Cabinet.
Question: What benefits and
services can be delivered to residents?
Answer:
The UIDAI cannot define the nature of
benefits and services that should be or can be delivered. It is for the State
Government’s/Ministries/Departments to decide whether delivery of the benefits
and services should be linked to Aadhaar number and the extent to which the
number should be used. The key role of the UIDAI is to give the UID number
(called Aadhaar number). The role of the Aadhaar number is that of an enabler –
a number that helps governments design better welfare programs enables
residents to access benefits and services more easily wherever they live, and
allows agencies to deliver benefits and services effectively and transparently.
The number will thus be an identity infrastructure, and the foundation over
which multiple services and applications can be built for the resident.
Question: How will the UIDAI
ensure that there is no fraud and duplicate/ghost persons who are issued UID
numbers as all databases existing today have these inconsistencies?
Answer:
Enrolment of residents with proper
verification:
Existing identity databases in India are fraught with problems of fraud and
duplicate/ghost beneficiaries. To prevent this from seeping into the UIDAI
database, the Authority has partnered with various State Government departments
and public sector Banks to enrol residents with proper verification of their demographic and biometric information.
The primary responsibility for correct enrolment vests in these Registrars at
the front-end. UIDAI has prescribed standardized processes for enrolments based
on the standards recommended by the Demographic Data Standards and Verification
Procedures Committee, and Biometrics Committees to ensure that the data
collected is clean and without
duplicates from the start of the program. Once the data is received at
the CIDR, it is duly validated and randomly assigned for manual quality check.
There is also a process of continuous Analytics to review data and in case any
inconsistency is found, allotment of Aadhaar can be reviewed.
Process to ensure no
duplicates: Registrars will
send the applicant’s data to the CIDR for de-duplication. The Central
Identification Data Repository (CIDR) will perform a search on key
demographic fields and on the biometrics for each new enrolment, to ensure that
no duplicates exist. The incentives in the UID system are aligned towards
a self-cleaning mechanism. The existing patchwork of multiple databases in
India gives individuals the incentive to provide different personal information
to different agencies. Since de-duplication in the UID system ensures that
residents have only one chance to be in the database, individuals are expected
to provide accurate data. However it needs to be borne in mind that even the
best technology cannot guarantee 100% accuracy. Some duplicates will emerge
even with all the checks and balances. UIDAI therefore proposes to periodically
review its database for such duplicates and cancel the duplicate aadhaars as
and when they come to notice.
Question: Will the UIDAI be issuing cards?
Answer:
The UIDAI will be issuing UID numbers
and not cards. The Aadhaar number will be communicated to the resident by means
of a letter delivered by India Post or any other delivery agency engaged by
UIDAI to the communication address provided at the time of enrolment. The letter has a smaller, cut away portion
that has the Aadhaar number and demographic information of the resident that
could be retained for reference. The
Registrar may issue a card for their own purpose in which they may include the
UID number. The UID can only establish unique identity if authentication is
done against the central database. Further, cards can be forged, stolen, faked
and identity process diluted. While the UID authority only guarantees online
authentication, the service providers are free to issue cards to people if it
serves their purpose.
Question: What are the
privacy protection measures in place to protect the right to privacy of the
resident?
Answer:
The information that the UIDAI is
seeking is already available with several agencies (public and private) in the
country; the additional information being sought by the UIDAI are the finger
prints and iris scans. However, the UIDAI recognizes that the right of privacy
must be protected, and that people are sensitive to the idea of giving out
their personal information, particularly the idea of information being stored
in a central database to be used for authentication. UIDAI will protect the
right to privacy of the person seeking the unique identity number. The
information on the database will be used only to authenticate identity.
The draft bill includes clauses to
protect identity information, discourage impersonation and unauthorized access
to the UIDAI database (Chapter VI, Clauses 30 to 33).
Data protection features have been
included in the architecture of the AADHAAR project.
Data Protection Features integral to UID (Aadhaar Project)
• Do not keep data more than the
functional requirement
– Basic Demographic information
– No Profiling information
– No Transaction records
• Ensure Integrity during Data Transfer
– Encryption and Security
– Detailed Transfer Protocols
– Trained Personnel
• Data Security and Protection in CIDR
– No data flow outside – only yes or no
– All processes in place to ensure
security of data (access protocols, etc) in CIDR
– UID holder can access and update
information
– Penal consequences for unauthorized
access and tampering of data
• Guidelines to Registrars
– On best Practices in Data handling
¬ Evolving necessary protocols to ensure
data security
The
following provisions have been made in the draft Bill: (Chapter VII, Clauses 34 to 46)
Penalties
have been provided, inter alia, for impersonation at time of enrolment,
impersonation of aadhaar number holder by changing demographic information or
biometric information, disclosing identity information, unauthorised access to
the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR), tampering with data in Central
Identities Data Repository.
Data
protection, however, is not limited to the AADHAAR project and needs to be
addressed through a comprehensive legislation. The Committee of Secretaries,
after detailed deliberations has constituted a Group of Officers under the
chairpersonship of Secretary, D/o Personnel and Training consisting of
representatives of D/o Revenue, M/o Science & Technology, D/o Legal
Affairs, M/o Home Affairs, D/o Information Technology and the Cabinet Secretariat
with a view to work out the framework of the legal provisions, including
principles and elements on data protection, security and privacy.
Question: Is the Registrar/Enrolment Agency
required to follow any data protection principles? Will the Authority be
prescribing principles to be followed by the Registrar? Answer:
When Enrolment Agencies / Registrars collect data from residents, they
have to exercise a fiduciary duty of care towards this information. Therefore,
it is their responsibility to ensure they keep the data collected from
residents safe and secure (both biometric and demographic) and protected from
unauthorized access. UIDAI has issued guidelines and best practices for data
protection for all its ecosystem partners.
Question: What is the legal
basis of the UIDAI?
Answer:
The UIDAI is presently established by
the Planning Commission by an executive order. A Cabinet Committee on Unique
Identification Authority has also been established. The Unique Identification Authority of India
(UIDAI) was constituted as an attached office under the Planning Commission to
develop and implement the necessary legal, technical and institutional
infrastructure to issue unique identity to residents of India.
The National Identification Authority
of India Bill, 2010 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in December 2010 and
thereafter referred to the Standing Committee on Finance. The report of the
Committee has been received and is under consideration of the Government of
India.
Question: If the Authority is legally functioning under the Notification
issued by the Government of India, why was a Bill introduced in Parliament?
Answer: Constituting a statutory authority
would provide a legislative framework for UIDAI to perform its functions. The
legislation is considered necessary to strengthen the mandate of the authority
to undertake its responsibilities effectively. The powers and functions of the
Authority, the framework for issuing aadhaar numbers, major penalties and
matters incidental thereto are proposed to be laid down through the Bill. With
a legal/legislative framework in place, penalties for unauthorised access of
data and breach of security can also be enforced more effectively in terms of
the law.
Question: Will the database
of the UID be shared with other Registrars?
Answer:
The Registrars collecting the data can
and will keep the data for their own use.
Data can be also shared by UIDAI with Registrars wherever the consent of
the resident is available. It can also be shared in cases where there are
orders of the competent Court or any disclosure is necessitated by national
security considerations. There too, a competent authority is proposed to be
prescribed to make such requests. These are already provided in the Draft NIDAI
Bill (Chapter VI, clause 33).
Question: How will children be captured in the database?
Answer:
For children below 5 years, no biometrics will be
captured. Their UID will be processed on the basis of demographic information
and facial photograph linked with the UID of their parents/guardians. These
children will need to provide their biometrics comprising ten fingers, iris and
facial photograph, when they turn 5. All children will need to update their
biometrics once again when they turn 15. The instructions in the original Aadhaar
letter carry a note to this effect, wherever relevant.
Answer:
In the case of people without hands/
fingers, available biometrics (photo, iris, fingers) will be captured and
exceptions will be documented. In the
case of differently-abled and people with no fingerprints or rugged hands, the
available biometrics will be captured.
Exceptions will be documented. If all biometrics are missing, exception
management module permits enrolment of such residents. Like children, they too
will be de-duplicated based on their demographic information and photograph.
However before any such enrolment is processed, the data is manually screened
at the back-end by UIDAI to reconfirm the facts.
Question: What steps have been taken to speed up the generation of
Aadhaar Numbers to residents?
Answer:
To speed up generation of Aadhaar
numbers, UIDAI has scaled up the capacity of Biometric Automated Identity
Systems (ABIS) for the biometric de-duplication to 1 million aadhaars per day.
To minimize validation failures at the processing stage, the enrolment client
features have been enriched and a number of validation checks have been built
into the front end enrolment client. These include (i) local authentication of
operators/supervisors (ii) age and relationship authentication (iii) End of Day
(EOD) review of demographic data by supervisor (iv) periodic sync of the
enrolment machines with CIDR has been made mandatory (v) upload of data packets
within 20 days from the date of enrolment (vi) periodic report and analytics of
the data uploaded are shared with the Registrars and EAs.
Question: What is the time
period by which UIDAI will generate and issue the Aadhaar number?
Answer:
As per the process, 60 to 90 days from
the date of receipt of the enrolment packet in the Central Identities Data
Depository (CIDR) has been prescribed for delivering Aadhaar number to the
resident. However this presupposes that
the data packet will clear all validation checks prescribed by UIDAI to ensure
the authenticity of the packets and to ensure audit trail in each case. In case
any validation check fails, the packet is kept on hold till the resolution
process clears the packet or else it is rejected.
Question: What are the
reasons for delay in issuing the Aadhaar numbers?
Answer:
Residents’ data packets received in
CIDR undergoes a number of validation/quality checks to ensure that the data
received is correct & authentic; such as:
(1) Structural Validation for data integrity:
i. Authenticity
of Registrar(s) & EA code.
ii. Village,
Town, City Pin-code mapping.
iii. Certification
of operators & supervisors.
iv. Registrar
& Enrolment Agency (EA) mapping.
v. Availability
of approved encryption key
(2) Demographic De-duplication
(3) Demographic data quality check
i. Photo-gender
match
ii. Age
validation
iii. Spelling/address
validation
iv. Transliteration
check
v. Photo
quality
(4) Biometric
de-duplication.
Any resident data packet, which
fails any of the validation checks, is either rejected or goes into a ‘hold’
status till the authenticity of the data packet is confirmed from the
Registrar/enrolment agency. This can lead to delays in generation of Aadhaar
numbers. Sometimes, the delay in generation of Aadhaar is on account of delay
in upload of resident data by the enrolment agency.
Question: How many
enrolments have been completed as on 28.2.2013?
Answer:
As per the status available, 34.71 crore people have been enrolled as on 28th
Feb., 2013 and the enrolment packets have been received in CIDR for the same.
After undergoing a number of validation/quality checks that the data received
is correct and authentic, 28.78 crore Aadhaar numbers have been generated. State
wise details are available at -
Question: How many Aadhaar
letters have been dispatched as on date?
Answer:
As per the Postal
Training Centre (PTC) portal of Department of Post, 24.07 crore have been dispatched as on 28.2.2013. The
details of state-wise dispatch of Aadhaar nos. are available at -
Question: How many enrolments have been rejected?
Answer:
As on 28.2.2013 about 2.69 crore
enrolments have been rejected due to various technical and process errors.
Question: Does
UIDAI assure 100% duplicate free database? Will there be no duplicate aadhaar
numbers?
Answer: Biometric
matching systems or de-duplication systems are essentially based on pattern
matching and can be designed to achieve an accuracy of more than 99%. Higher
the quality of biometric capture, lesser the probability of a duplicate being
generated. However UIDAI aims for inclusiveness so that failure to enroll is
negligible. Therefore generation of duplicate aadhaar number cannot be ruled
out totally.
Question: How many Aadhaar
numbers have been cancelled till date?
Answer: 418254 aadhaar numbers have been cancelled
as on 28.2.2013 due to various technical and process errors. The details are as
under:
Sr.No.
|
UID_Status_Description
|
UID_Count
|
1
|
Aadhaar
cancelled due to Duplicate
|
34015
|
2
|
Aadhaar
cancelled for Test Cases
|
2
|
3
|
Aadhaar
cancelled due to Biometric Exception Cases
|
3,84,237
|
Grand
Total
|
418254
|
|
Question: How Many enrolments are pending for issue of Aadhaar
Numbers?
Answer:
About 3.23 crore resident
enrolment packets are at various stage of processing as on 28.2.2013.
Question: How many Registrars and enrolment Agencies are involved
in the enrolment of residents?
Answer:
Around 43 Enrolment Agencies are working under RGI’s
4 sub-Registrars in 33 States/UTs while about 94
Enrolment Agencies are working with 50 State/Non State Registrars (including
sub-Registrars) in 18 States/UTs.
Question: What are the
problems faced in setting up adequate centres?
Answer:
Availability of proper infrastructure such as access
to public buildings for enrolment, electricity, availability of Verifiers
appointed by the Registrars are some of the problems being faced during aadhaar
enrolments.
Question: Whether Govt. is facing hurdles due to defective
machines, lack of availability enrolment forms?
Answer:
The
enrolment kit can suffer breakdown because of tough working environment such as
heat/dust/fluctuating current/mishandling during operation and transportation.
Question: How is the Govt. addressing the above issues?
Answer:
Only Standard Testing Quality Control (STQC), an agency of Deptt. of
Electronics & Information Technology, certified biometric enrolment devices
are permitted to be used for aadhaar enrolment. Resident enrolment form has
been uploaded on UIDAI website for download and use by residents. As a part of
the resident enrolment process, UIDAI has prescribed availability of technical
personnel to fix on-site issue. UIDAI offers technical support to its partners
through a dedicated team at its Technology Centre at Bangalore. Further, UIDAI
offers field coaching and online training support for operators and supervisors.
Question: Is Govt. aware that people are being forced to enroll for
UID Scheme?
Answer:
UIDAI
has been mandated to generate and issue unique identification numbers (Aadhaar)
to all residents of India. Enrolment for aadhaar is voluntary and not mandatory.
It is for the implementing authorities to decide whether aadhaar is mandatory
for receiving service.
Question: How are the resident’s grievances being handled by UIDAI?
Answer:
UIDAI has set up contact centre and helpdesk at Pune
and Jamshedpur w.e.f 1.12.2013. The service is man by M/s Tata Business Support
Services. Besides, grievance cell has been set up in each of the Regional
Offices of UIDAI to attend to the complaints of residents.
To take
care of the complaints by residents of non-receipt of aadhaar letters e-aadhaar
portal has been launched and made available online. Further, to facilitate
residents to update and correct their aadhaar data, self-service portal online
and through Post have been launched in November 2012.
Question: Whether it is fact
that inclusion of all Indian residents in the Unique Identification number
scheme would present a threat to the nation’s security by giving illegal migrants rights of citizens?
Answer: Aadhaar is a unique 12 digit number
which is being issued to all residents of India as a developmental initiative.
Determination of citizenship is under the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the Rules
framed there under. Aadhaar does not
confer citizenship nor does it confer right of citizenship to illegal migrants which
will be determined by the relevant statutory and implementing authorities.
Hence, compromise of national security due to enrolments under the UID project
does not arise.
Question: How were the
States/UTs selected where non-RGI Registrars can enroll?
Answer: The Cabinet Committee on UIDAI in its
meeting held on 27.1.2012 has decided that in States where UIDAI has made good
progress or where State/UT Governments /Administrations have given commitment
for Aadhaar enrolments and are planning to integrate with various services
delivery applications, Aadhaar enrolments through non-RGI Registrars move at
full speed. Accordingly, certain States
have been specified where UIDAI can collect data. It has also been decided that the NPR
enrolment will continue as envisaged, but, if in the course of enrolment, a
person indicates that he/she is already enrolled for Aadhaar, the biometric
data will not be captured by NPR. Instead the Aadhaar number/enrolment number
will be recorded in NPR and biometric data will be given to the NPR.
Question: How many Printers have been deployed by UIDAI for printing of aadhaar
letters?
Answer:
Three agencies, namely 1. M/s Manipal Tech Ltd,
Manipal, 2. M/s Seshaasai Business (P) Ltd., Mumbai and 3. M/s KL High Tech
Secure Print, Hyderabad have been contracted.
Question: What is the Background of Direct Cash Transfers?
Answer:
With the rapid rollout of Aadhaar, covering more than 20 crore people and
rapidly growing to cover 60 crore, with the National Population Register doing
the other half, it was felt possible to move to a system of transferring cash
benefits directly to the poor.
In order to rollout the implementation
of a seamless electronic Aadhaar based cash transfer system for transfer of
cash benefits to beneficiaries, the Prime Minister approved the setting up of a
National Committee on Direct Cash
Transfers chaired by himself and
an Executive Committee on Direct Cash
Transfers. The goal was to rapidly rollout cash transfers across the
country for as many government schemes and benefits as possible within the next
year.
Question: What are Cash Transfers?
Answer:
Cash Transfers are programs that transfer cash directly, generally to poor
households, with or without conditions. The purpose of a cash transfer could
be:
§ To
provide a monetary benefit for a specific purpose or use - such as
for education through a scholarship, for healthcare through a medical
assistance program, etc.
§ Direct income support
– such as old age income support through a pension, unemployment assistance
through an unemployment benefit, etc. This is predicated on the assumption that
there is a need to redistribute income as a public policy objective. Often, the
purpose is to enhance private consumption levels and achieve a minimum
consumption floor.
§ To
provide a direct subsidy for
specific products – such as for food, fuel, agricultural inputs, electricity,
books, etc.
They are generally of two types –
unconditional and conditional.
Cash Transfer programs that do not
impose any conditions for making the transfers are called Unconditional Cash Transfers. Conditional Cash Transfers transfer
cash on the condition that those households make pre-specified investments in
the human capital of their children. In general, this has involved attaching
“conditions” to transfers.
Question: What is the major objective of Direct Benefits Transfer
Programme?
Answer:
This Programme envisages a switch from the present electronic transfer of
benefits to bank accounts of the beneficiary to transfer of benefits directly
to Aadhaar seeded bank accounts of the beneficiaries. The other objectives are:
·
Accurate Targeting
·
De-duplication
·
Reduction of Fraud
·
Process Re-engineering of Schemes for
simpler flow of information and funds.
·
Greater Accountability
Question: Which are the committees formed for execution of Direct
Benefits Transfer?
Answer:
the
following committees have been formed for execution of Direct Benefit Transfer.
·
The Government has constituted the National
Committee on Direct Cash Transfers (http://planningcommission.nic.in/sectors/dbt/pmo_noti.pdf),
chaired by the Prime Minister, to coordinate action on the implementation
of the DBT Program. This Committee is to be assisted by the Executive
Committee on Direct Cash Transfer (http://planningcommission.nic.in/sectors/dbt/pmo_noti.pdf),
chaired by the Principal Secretary and convened by Secretary, Planning
Commission.
·
To ensure orderly and timely
implementation, Mission Mode Committees (http://planningcommission.nic.in/sectors/dbt/pmo_1611.pdf),
namely,
Financial Inclusion Committee, Technology Committee and Implementation
Committee on Electronic Transfer of Benefits were also constituted.
·
Direct Benefit Transfer Division was
created in the Planning Commission to provide secretarial service to PMO and
act as the Nodal Agency in the implementation of DBT.
Question: What are the
Guidelines issued for execution of DBT Roll out?
Answer:
The DBT Division issued consolidated instructions to the concerned Ministries
with approval of the Executive Committee. Office Memorandum#1 (http://planningcommission.nic.in/sectors/dbt/7_DBT_guide.pdf) on Guidelines on Standardized Formats
for Collection of Basic Data to facilitate Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) in
Pilot Districts, was issued on 26.12.12. OM#2 (http://planningcommission.nic.in/sectors/dbt/6_DBT_uidai.pdf)
on Procedure for seeding Aadhar Numbers and OM#3 (http://planningcommission.nic.in/sectors/dbt/5_DBT_Banks.pdf) on Procedure for
sending Payment Advice to Banks were issued on 8.01.13.
Question: How did Direct Benefits Transfer roll-out commence?
Answer:
A decision was taken in the meeting of
the National Committee on Direct Cash Transfers held by the Prime Ministers
that Direct Benefit Transfers will be rolled out from 1st January, 2013 in 43
districts (http://planningcommission.nic.in/sectors/dbt/list_43.pdf) , 26 selected Central Sector and Centrally
Sponsored Schemes (http://planningcommission.nic.in/sectors/dbt/3_schemes.pdf) in a
phase wise manner beginning with 20 districts on 1.1.2013, 11 districts from
1.2.2013 and the remaining 12 districts from 1.3.2013.
Question: What were
the criteria for selection of these schemes?
Answer:
Schemes were selected on the basis of higher incidence of beneficiaries with
bank accounts and where Flow of Funds was found to be relatively simpler.
Accordingly, most schemes are related to scholarships, benefits to women and
child labour.
Question: What were
the criteria for selection of districts?
Answer:
43 districts were identified on the basis of higher Aadhaar enrolment figures
and presence of banks.
Question: Which major
schemes have not yet been planned for Direct Benefits Transfer roll-out?
Answer:
Schemes like MGNREGA, IAY
and Pension related schemes have
not yet being planned for Direct Benefits Transfer roll-out.
Question: What is the
reason for not doing so?
Answer:
Major reasons for not including these
schemes for Direct Benefits Transfer roll-out are large no. of rural
beneficiaries, Poor coverage of banks in rural area, most beneficiaries having
accounts in post offices and decision of Post-Offices to join Core-Banking
System by Mid-June 2013 only.
However,
these schemes may be considered for Direct Benefits Transfer roll-out after post-offices
join the core-banking system.
Question: How many
Banks are on Board for Direct Benefits Transfer roll-out?
Answer:
There are 26 PSU Banks, 12 RRBs and Few Private Banks and Cooperative Banks are
on board for roll out of Direct Benefits Transfer. These banks are equipped
with Core Banking System.
Question: What are
the arrangements made for filling the gap between banking infrastructure and
customers?
Answer:
The Business Correspondents (BCs) are proposed to be introduced to reach the
unbanked population, as the credit and operational risks in the branchless
banking model does not enable banks to reach the unbanked population. This eliminates the need for a physical bank branch or ATM’s in remote
areas.
Question: Were there any
pilot projects taken into account for implementation of DBT?
Answer:
UIDAI had been conducting pilot projects and other field studies to explore the
efficacy and efficiency of Aadhaar authentication in the context of Financial
Inclusion, Public Distribution System, LPG delivery and Pensions. Apart from
that pilot projects in respect of Kerosene has been under taken in Kotkasim
Tehsil of Alwar District, Rajasthan.
Question: What were the
outcomes of these pilot projects?
Answer:
These pilot projects have shown tremendous benefits by providing effective
service delivery to the targeted beneficiaries.
o The
Financial Inclusion pilot project in Jharkhand
enabled direct cash transfer by the Jharkhand Government to the beneficiaries’
Aadhaar-linked bank accounts under various programs like MNREGS, Old Age
Pensions and Student Scholarships, to avoid leakages.
o The
pilot project initiated by Consumer Affairs, Food and Civil Supplies Department
of Andhra Pradesh utilized Aadhaar Authentication
platform to deliver services to more than 85,000 households with around 3 lakh
target beneficiaries through more than 145 fair price shops (FPS) in the Districts of East Godavari and Hyderabad.
o The
LPG pilot was initiated in the district of Mysore by the three Oil Marketing
Companies - IOCL, BPCL and HPCL in January 2012, under the aegis
of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. The objective of the pilot was to
use Aadhaar biometric authentication to minimize diversion of subsidized LPG
cylinders. The target consumer base for the pilot was around 85,000
beneficiaries, across 3 LPG distributors (gas agencies) in Mysore - one each
for IOCL, BPCL and HPCL. Subsidized LPG cylinders were delivered by delivery
boys after successful biometric authentication of any family member present in
the household. Around 50,000 successful deliveries have been made so far using
biometric authentication. The next phase
of pilot would scale up operations in the entire district. It would also
undertake transfer of subsidy amount directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries
while the LPG cylinder is delivered at market price. This would eliminate the
incentive to divert subsidized LPG cylinders.
Question: What were the steps taken for execution of
the LPG pilot project?
Answer:
For this pilot, the consumer data base was seeded with the Aadhaar number and
each consumer was asked to provide UID number of his family members as well as
one neighbour, who were authorized to receive the LPG cylinder on his behalf.
Further, the three participating companies got a common application developed
that provided the UID authentication and delivery management overlay and data
exchange with their native cylinder booking and delivery module. A PoS device
was used for authentication of the receiver as well as recording of delivery of
LPG cylinder.
Question: When
Direct Benefits Transfer roll out for LPG is to be launched?
Answer:
With regard to direct transfer of subsidies for LPG, Ministry of Petroleum and
Natural Gas has stated that the Government intends to link cash subsidy to Aadhaar
card of LPG customer in three phases. In the first phase, it is proposed that
51 districts will be covered and only in districts where the penetration of
Aadhaar exceeds 80 %.
It will begin in the district of
Mysore, where the pilot programme had been run successfully. The Aadhaar
enrolment of the consumer has reached more than 80% and more than 50% digitized
database of consumer has been seeded with Aadhaar number.
Question: What steps have been taken by the
government for providing Direct Cash to the Subsidy for food? Does government
mean to dismantle the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS)?
Answer:
As far as direct transfer of subsidies for food is concerned, Ministry of
Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has stated that there is no
proposal under consideration at present in the Department for disbursement of
food subsidy in cash instead of foodgrains to beneficiaries under Targeted
Public Distribution System (TPDS).
However, the Department proposes to
introduce a pilot scheme in selected Union Territories (UTs) for
direct transfer of food subsidy under TPDS, wherein foodgrains will be issued
by Food Corporation of India at economic cost.
The proposal does not involve dismantling the TPDS. Ministry has pointed
out that the proposed pilot scheme will test the feasibility of the launch of
the scheme in other States/UTs.
Question: How the cash subsidy of food will be
disbursed to the beneficiaries?
Answer:
As per the information furnished by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, the cash
subsidy equal to the difference in the economic cost and the prevailing issue
price will be credited to the bank account of the beneficiary in advance to
enable the beneficiary to purchase the foodgrains at this cost. The scheme is expected to check
leakages/diversion of foodgrains under TPDS. The details of the schemes will be
worked out in consultation with UTs etc.
Question: Has the
government run any pilot for Pension Schemes?
Answer:
Pension’s pilot in Aurangabad District in Maharashtra was initiated with the
objective of directly transferring monetary benefit into the bank account of
pensioners using the Aadhaar Payments Bridge. Aadhaar number was linked to the
list of beneficiaries to eliminate fake beneficiaries. Aadhaar Enabled Payment
System was used by Banking Correspondents to disburse funds through micro-ATM.
Question: What is Aadhaar Payment Bridge System?
Answer:
Aadhaar Payment Bridge is the new payment service offered by the National
Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) using the Aadhaar number issued by the
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), known as Aadhaar Payment
Bridge System and is referred as “APBS”. APBS will be used for credit
transactions for Government/ Government agency disbursements
APBS has the following objectives.
·
To sub-serve the goal of
Government of India (GOI) and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in furthering
Financial Inclusion by way of processing government disbursement using Aadhaar
number.
·
To promote
electronification of retail payments.
Question: What is the Implementation Status of
Direct Benefits Transfer roll-out?
Answer:
A DBT MIS system has been created for compiling information on DBT roll out
status in the districts. The 8 concerned
Ministries/Departments are required to collect, verify and upload this data onto
the DBT MIS System. Maintenance of this
information on the DBT MIS will facilitate availability of data on real time
basis. This will prove essential in ensuring successful implementation of
DBT. Summary record of status of implementation
has been compiled and is available at –
The information regarding amount of
funds transferred to the beneficiaries is available at (http://planningcommission.nic.in/sectors/dbt/scheme_43.pdf)
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