Friday, September 13, 2013

Government To Approve Instant Aadhaar Verification For New Mobile Connection By Year End

Indian Telecom Industry
September 9, 2013

By the end of the year you will be able to get a new mobile connection through instant identity verification using the Aadhaar card biometric data. The government is likely to finalise the norms for this procedure by the end of the year, according to a report.
Once implemented, this procedure will involve the retailers taking the thumb impression of customers fingers to match it online with that of the UID card data presented at point of sale. The card will also suffice as an address proof, the Business Line report said.
A recent pilot project for the same was conducted in Andhra Pradesh. The state accounts for about 25% of the Aadhaar cards issued in the country so far.
Using this procedure will reduce a lot of paperwork at the retailers end , as the profile and biometric verification can be done online with the UIDAI server.
Currently, although Aadhaar cards are accepted as ID proof, other accompanying documents like passport are still required and the verification takes a couple of days before the connection is activated.
Telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications have agreed to issue new mobile connections using just the Aadhaar card.
Back in May, Reliance Communications announced Aadhaar based authentication for people wanting to buy a new mobile connections. The company said that it was waiting for clearances from the department of department of telecommunications to implement the Aadhaar authentication procedure.

 40 crore Aadhaar cards have been issued and that 60 crore Aadhaar cards would have been issued by 2014.

No comments: