Is India's Aadhaar Revolution the Key to Digital Inclusion for Over a Billion People?
- yanabijoor
- Nov 20, 2024
- 2 min read
Problem:
A large portion of the global population, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, has no official identity papers. People can access education, healthcare, government services, financial services, and job opportunities with identification. However, their governments do not see them (effectively ignore them) and don’t grant them many fundamental rights and services.
Solution:
With the help of Infosys Founder Nandan Nilekani, the Indian government built a population-scale digital infrastructure called Aadhaar (foundation), giving a unique biometric identification to over 1.3 billion Indian people. Aadhaar uses fingerprints and other biological traits to verify identities and create a digital ID for individuals. This solution has helped deliver social welfare programs efficiently and reduce fraud and corruption. India is now introducing other digital infrastructures like Unified Payments Interface (UPI), account aggregator frameworks, and Open Network for Digital Commerce to expand access to banking services and commerce.
Why is this innovative?
Aadhaar is cool because it uses the latest biometrics, data management, and mobile platform technologies to create a scalable and accessible digital identity system. By moving away from paper-based documentation, India has set a benchmark for how countries can digitally authenticate identity at scale. Integrating mobile payment technologies like UPI is also a forward-thinking move to democratize transactions and bring everyday commerce into the digital age.
What is the impact?
The results are immense. Aadhaar has helped in better delivery of social services, reduced fraud and corruption, and brought more accountability to beneficiary schemes. Digital payment systems like UPI have changed how India transacts, with 1 lakh crore rupees ($1 trillion) of transactions in a year. The digital vaccination certificate module streamlined the vaccination process during COVID-19, with over 1.8 billion certificates issued. These innovations have contributed to digital inclusion and economic empowerment in India.
What can be improved?
While Aadhaar has been game-changing, it has also faced criticism on privacy and data security. Concerns remain about misuse of personal data and the system being used for mass surveillance. India has to strengthen regulations and data protection measures to protect individual privacy and prevent abuse. And globally, the challenge remains, with an estimated 1 billion people without official ID. Other nations need to scale up these digital ID solutions to different regions, especially sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where much of the population is without ID.
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