Page 137 - The Digital Financial Services (DFS) Ecosystem

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Ecosystem

Challenges with enrollment or use of the Not specified
program by other populations:
Cost/Person: 72.81 rupees ($1.15 USD – 2015) 16

Challenges with Implementation or Program: • Harmonization with other in-country systems: There are conflicting mandates
between the UIDAI and a second, competing national ID program (National Pop-
ulation Register). At times, this friction has led political parties to favor one ID
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program over the other.
• Privacy: In October, 2015, the Indian Supreme Court heard a case concerning
privacy concerns over biometric and other information embedded within the
Aadhaar ID. The court assented that Aadhaar can be used for social schemes like
the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, but restricted its application for
other uses, such as banking. Challenges are pending.
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Process for responding to implementation Not specified
challenges:
FUNCTIONAL USES OF PROGRAM

Financial Services (including Social Transfers)
• KYC: customer KYC information is recorded in a central database using the Aadhaar unique identity number. Banks and insur-
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ance companies can access the database to check and verify customer identities.
• Digital banking: 150 million bank accounts are linked to the national ID. Subsidies for various government programs are dis-
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tributed through this linked payment system. As of 2014, one in six beneficiaries of subsidies for liquid petroleum cooking gas
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receive payments through direct deposits to bank accounts tied to a national ID linked payment system.
• Mobile money: Aadhaar has been linked to a text messaging platform that enables users to transfer funds between Aad-
haar-linked bank accounts. Transferring money requires only that senders input the recipient’s unique ID number, and specify
the amount to be transferred. 22
Health Services
• Verification of coverage, and tracking services and treatment: in the state of Haryana, newborn babies are concurrently given
a UID number and a birth certificate. The UID will be used to monitor and track childhood progress, including required immu-
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nizations. Citizens covered by India’s national health insurance for the poor are issued identity cards that can contain the UID
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number. This allows patient data and hospital visits to be tracked. 25
Elections
• Monitoring: India’s Electoral Commission linked Aadhaar’s registry with its electoral photo identity card database. This synchro-
nization allows the electoral commission to pinpoint unqualified voters and eliminate them from its database. 26
Surveillance and Security
• Law enforcement: in Bombay, by law police are required to record the ID numbers of witnesses and accused criminals in first
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information reports. Additionally, law enforcement agency links to information in the central database – including stored bank
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account information – is expected to assist in efforts to curb money laundering.
Other Functions
• A Biometric Attendance System (BAS) has been implemented for federal government employees. Employees register using their
UID number. In- and out-times of 50,000 government employees across 148 organizations are tracked and recorded daily. All
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information is publically available at attendance.gov.in.
• In Kerala, UID numbers are used to track students’ educational progress. 30
• The UID is used to purchase tickets and confirm the identity of travelers on the nation’s railways. 31

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1 Gerdeman, 2012, Brindaalakshmi, 2013, The Economic Times of India, 2014, Brindaalakshmi, 2013, The Economic Times of
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India, 2014, Zelzany, 2012, Ibid, The Economic Times of India, 2015, Gelb & Mukherjee, 2015, Zelzany, 2012, Ibid, Ibid,
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12 Ibid, The Economic Times of India, 2015b, Martinsson, 2012, Dashboard Summary, 2015, The Economic Times of India,
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2014, Zelazny, 2012, Anand, 2015, ibid, Dahan & Gelb, 2015, Chen, 2014, Frisz, 2014, The Economic Times of India,
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2015a, Fan, 2013, Gelb & Clark, 2013, Jain, 2015, Hickok, 2013, Sikarwar, Deepshikha, 2015, Gelb & Raghavan, 2014,
30 Center for Internet Society, 2013, Jain, 2015.
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