Aadhaar, the most sophisticated ID programme in the world has been in discussion since the day it was made mandatory for various governmental documents and programs. Government of India asked the Aadhaar holders to link their Aadhaar with PAN, ration card, mobile number and what not. It is a 12-digit unique-identity number issued to all Indian citizens. With Aadhar card, one can avail oneself of the benefits under the different government schemes. However, recently the Supreme Court has made it clear that Aadhaar card is not mandatory for receiving these services any more. Being an Indian citizen or an Aadhaar holder, you need to know every detail about it.
Aadhaar Card
Aadhaar, a 12-digit unique identification number which is received by registering the biometric and demographic data. The biometric data requires for Aadhaar includes the photograph, prints of the fingers and a scan of the irises. All these informations get stored in a centralised database. Aadhar is the official proof and relevant all over the country. It can be produced as an identification document everywhere.
Aadhaar was announced by the government as a source to provide the citizens of india a unique identity which will help in verification process at different stages and organisations as it was reported that people often fail to produce a valid id proof anf due to which they have to go through a long of identification and aadhaar card was aimed to provie all the required of a citizen at one place .
Background Of Aadhaar
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) issues Aadhaar to the residents of India. The government felt the need issue a national identity card for the citizens of India post the Kargil War (1999) citing the national security. For the same purpose, UIDAI was formed in 2009 which started functioning as an attached office of the Planning Commission (now called NITI Aayog). The first Unique ID card was issued in Tembhli village, Nandurbar district of Maharashtra and the project was launched in September 2010. It was the time when United Progressive Alliance government, led by the Congress Party, was ruling party. Aadhaar was launched to eliminate the middlemen, corruption, fraud and black-marketing in all the government programmes and schemes such as it was linked to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) so that beneficiary will get the direct benefit.
Benefits Of Aadhaar
There are so many benefits of enrolling in and linking with the Aadhaar project.
1. Linking of Aadhar number with the bank and LPG distributor allows
a family to LPG subsidy. The credit of subsidy goes directly to their bank account.
2. It is also necessary to enjoy the benefits of pension schemes and employee provident fund.
3. It has become ‘Know Your Customer’ document in banks.
4. While applying for a passport, Aadhaar is produced as identity proof.
5. To open a bank account under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar is sufficient. Government of India has made it mandatory to file Income Tax returns.
Important Persons
1. In June 2009, Nandan Nilekani, the co-founder of Infosys was appointed as the head the Aadhar project and was named the Chairman of UIDAI.
2. In July 2016, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, former Director General and Mission Director, UIDAI, was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer
Other countries too have similar systems of Aadhaar:
Malaysia : Malaysian version of Aadhar is MyKad. All Malaysian residents or adult permanent residents should own a MyKad card in the country. It can be used for many purpose such as an ATM card, digital wallet and much more.
Brazil : Brazil government or the Brazilian Association of Digital Identification Technology Companies (Abrid) issues biometric and digital identification for the residents of Brazil.
Indonesia : eKTP is a single verification document and is an Indonesian version of Aadhaar. It is needed to get a number of public services.
Enrolled People Into Aadhar till 2017
In January 2017, Minister for Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad announced that more than 111 crore people have an Aadhaar number which they can produce as an identity proof.