About 135.2 crore Aadhaar numbers have been generated as of November 2022 while 71.1 crore Aadhaar numbers have been updated, said the Economic Survey 2022-23 on January 31. This indicates how the 12-digit unique identification number, which provides a digital identity to Indian residents, is an essential tool for social delivery by the state and would act as the foundation of India’s digital integration.
As of November 2022, 8,621.2 crore authentications have been done via Aadhaar while 1,350.2 crore eKYC transactions have been executed so far.
As per the Economic Survey, 75.3 crore residents have linked their Aadhaar with ration cards to avail ration while 27.9 crore residents have linked their Aadhaar with cooking gas connections to receive LPG subsidies. About 75.4 crore bank accounts are linked with Aadhaar and 1,549.8 crore transactions have taken place via Aadhaar Enabled Payment Systems (AePS).
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has been mandated to develop the policy, procedure, and system for issuing an Aadhaar number to each resident and performing authentication. It is also responsible for taking necessary measures to ensure the information stored in the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) is secured and protected against unauthorised access or misuse.
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As many as 318 central schemes and over 720 state Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes use Aadhaar for the targeted delivery of financial services, subsidies, and benefits to citizens.
AEPS also helps individuals to do basic banking transactions such as withdrawals, cash deposits, and transfers of funds from their bank account by simply using their Aadhaar numbers. This facilitated providing doorstep banking services to people due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Multiple large central schemes, including PAHAL, and MGNREGS have paid over Rs 7,66,055.9 crore through over 1,010 crore successful transactions until November 2022, the survey said.
Aadhaar also played a key role in developing the Co-WIN platform and in the transparent administration of over 2 billion vaccine doses, the survey mentioned.
It also noted that facial recognition as an additional mode of authentication is rising, which has especially helped the elderly to get ‘Jeevan Praman’ (biometric-enabled digital life certificate) through their smartphones to avail pension.
To facilitate the rising enrollments, UIDAI has an ecosystem of 66,103 Aadhaar counters, 34,834 Child Enrolment Lite Client devices (for enrollment of kids below five years), 180 active registrars and 507 active enrolment agencies as of November 30, 2022. The authority also runs 88 Aadhaar Sewa Kendras in 72 cities, the survey mentioned.
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In addition, 15,002 village-level entrepreneurs are serving as Banking Correspondents who are permitted to undertake Aadhaar updation services while around 53,750 postmen/Grameen Dak Sewaks under India Post Payment Bank have been approved to provide mobile number updation facility. The ecosystem also includes 178 Aadhaar user agencies and 169 e-KYC user agencies as of November 30, 2022.
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