August 23, 2015 Last Updated at 22:43 IST
Guru Malladi, partner & leader-advisory services (government & public sector) at EY, tells Joydeep Ghoshthat the success of payments banks will depend on the extent and usage of Aadhaar authentication. The legal environment could undergo a change as enrollment increases
From a consumer's perspective, what are the key things an Aadhaar card should be able to deliver?
First, we have to recognise that it is a platform designed to deliver various services. The entire social and financial inclusion has been the broader theme of the programme, in a non-invasive manner. It, therefore, does not seek too many details. It seeks bare minimum data and uses biometrics. A number of applications are already using it. For example, the whole genesis of payments banks and their success is based on the fact that Aadhaar is going to be fundamentally used for transactions. Even the success of the Jan Dhan Yojana is linked to it. On the social side, a lot of pension money is being delivered through Aadhaar-based bank accounts. A number of scholarships given out are based on Aadhaar, in addition the success in the LPG distribution is self-evident in the success of Aadhaar.
The government is aggressively spread the tentacles of Aadhaar. Is it a good move?
As someone who was involved with the concept, the single largest benefit of Aadhaar is that it can subsume every other identity required today. Of course, it requires full interoperability and Aadhaar seeding. For example, if it is integrated with regional transport offices, one will not be required to carry a driving licence. Even if the police want to authenticate you, it simply requires a biometric reader.
Many financial instruments still cannot be bought using it. What steps are required to make it more user-friendly?
The reason is the fear factor. And, the amount of back-end integration these departments have is also important. Departments seeking more documents are clearly not integrated at the back-end because even as an address proof, Aadhaar has the ability to keep up with a dynamic change after a due process of updation.
The Supreme Court still isn't convinced that Aadhaar should be made mandatory. What can be done?
Last time, when the courts said Aadhar is not mandatory, we had only 500 million accounts. In other words, 60 per cent of the population had not been covered. In such a situation, making it mandatory would have certainly made things difficult. What the government can do is increase adaption at a much faster pace. Things have been happening at a rapid pace and now we stand at 900 million. We need to demonstrate near-complete coverage (90 per cent) to the court of law for it to make it mandatory.
