Over 10.97 million mobile numbers were seeded in Aadhaar following requests from residents in the month of February 2023, a jump of more than 93 per cent over the previous month.

According to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), while 5.67 million mobile numbers were seeded following residents application, the number saw a significant climb in February.

The UIDAI has been encouraging residents  to link  their Aadhaar with mobile number for better and effective communication while availing welfare services and accessing multitude of voluntary services.

The jump is indicative of UIDAI’s continuous encouragement, facilitation, and residents’ willingness to keep their mobile number updated for availing various services. Nearly, 1700 Central and State social welfare direct benefit tansfer (DBT) and good governance schemes have been notified for use of Aadhaar.

There is a growing adoption and usage of Aadhaar across sectors in India. In the month of February alone, 226.29 crore number of Aadhaar authentication transactions were executed, more than 13 per cent growth over January when 199.62 crore such transactions were carried out.

Cumulatively, 9,255.57 crore Aadhaar authentication transactions have been executed so far, by the end of February 2023. While a majority of the authentications transaction numbers were carried out by using fingerprint, it is followed by demographic and OTP.

Similarly, Aadhaar e-KYC service continues to play a stellar role for banking and non-banking financial services by providing transparent and improved customer experience, and helping in ease of doing business. More than 26.79 crore e-KYC transactions were carried out in the month of February.

Adoption of e-KYC has reduced customer acquisition cost of entities like financial institutions, telecom service providers and others. Cumulatively, Aadhaar e-KYC transactions so far has gone past 1,439.04 crore by the end of February.

Whether it is AePS for last mile banking, Aadhaar enabled DBT for direct fund transfer, e-KYC for identity verification, or authentications, Aadhaar has been playing a key role in supporting the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of Digital India, and enabling ease of living for residents.

During the past decade, Aadhaar number has emerged as a proof of identity of residents in India and it is being used for availing several government schemes and services. Residents who had got their Aadhaar issued 10 years ago, and have never updated after that in these years, such Aadhaar number holders are encouraged to get their documents updated.

RKJ