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The consistency of government-issued ID ensures connection to government benefits and financial services, limiting fraud, waste and abuse. In India, a lack of a national identification system has restricted access to public-sector goods and services. Indians had struggled when obtaining a driver's license or even enabling a mobile phone if they didn't have identification. That has changed. India has emerged as a global leader in digital identification and has established the largest database of biometrics in the world.
Aadhaar: a national identification system
The classic debate over the merits of open free markets and a system of imposed central control by government is a foundational quandary of democracy. A question that comes to the forefront is this: Have open markets offered a road to growth and prosperity, or is a central operator a crucial element of the economic balance?
Regardless of which side of this debate you fall on, in both scenarios, a method for building an implied architecture for trust is required. A key tenet of setting the foundation for economic growth in a free and open market is to ensure citizen identity. Social healthcare, government entitlement programs, immigration, school admissions and electoral voting all demand an identification system to minimize abuse.
1.1 billion enrolled and growing
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is the world's largest voluntary national ID number project; the goal is to cover 1.34 billion residents by the time the project is complete. Aadhaar is a voluntary, unique identification document program similar to the smart card program of France. Unlike the U.S. Social Security Number (SSN) program, the Chinese ID card program or Chile's RUN ID card program, UIDAI is not mandatory, but rather a voluntary government program.
The Aadhaar program has made impressive strides toward the goal of providing all residents of India with ID numbers. The initiative that began in 2009 and as of this month, 1.1 billion Aadhaar cards had been issued. A project that started with the lofty goal of issuing 100 million cards within the first year now has built a national system that can process 1.5 million applications a day.
Aadhaar is industrial grade and handles 15 million transactions daily.
The race to a unified payment system
The Unique Identification Authority...