Are mysterious mobile numbers linked with your Aadhaar Number??

      

          UIDAI CEO Ajay Pandey has informed to public at large that UIDAI has advised all telecom companies operating in India to enable a facility that will allow subscribers to check the mobile SIMs which are linked to their Aadhaar number.

The primary reason for this facility is to guard Aadhaar Numbers being linked to unauthorized mobiles.

Instead of the word ‘unauthorised’, the words ‘unknown’, or ‘mysterious’, are more apt.

UIDAI provides an ‘Aadhaar authentication history’, tool to enable Aadhaar holders to verify when their Aadhaar number was verified. However as UIDAI does not store the authentication purpose, it is of limited usage.

Aadhaar is becoming the default identity proof of residents by various government and non-government entities.

          Telecom companies have been mandated to link the cellphone SIMS with Aadhaar Numbers. This is to establish the identity of mobile phone users.

Against the 142.9 crore active mobile subscribers, in 85.7 crore cases the mobile connections have already been linked with Aadhaar.

And, it is here where the problems have surfaced. UIDAI came to know about some retailers, operators and agents of telecom companies allegedly misusing Aadhaar authentication facility to issue new SIMs or for re-verification of numbers other than that of the Aadhaar holder. Such complaints must have reached a very high number for UIDAI to take corrective steps.

When contacted, UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey told PTI, “In order, for people, to know which mobile number is linked to Aadhaar, all telecom operators have been asked to provide this service to their customers by March 15.”

Hence, UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) has directed all telecom operators to provide a facility that will enable their subscribers to check if the mobile SIMs are linked with their Aadhaar number, a step to guard against any unauthorised use.

UIDAI has directed telcos to make the new facility available to subscribers by March 15.

The telcos have been asked to provide the facility, including SMS-based offering that will allow their subscribers to check whether their mobile number is linked with Aadhaar as well as information on other mobile numbers is issued or verified against that Aadhaar number.

As the deadline approaches, there would be more clarity on the exact process flow including the redressal channel.

Once the process goes live, it is advisable for every mobile holder to make use of this facility atleast once every week.

This is best way to safeguard your Aadhaar number.

Would it be better to integrate this facility into ‘Mycall’ Trai App??

Additional Reading:

How to Check Aadhaar Authentication History Online

Aadhaar linking to bank accounts, welfare services may be extended beyond March 31

Regulatory policies must change to cater to digital world: Trai chief

   

The Aadhaar Digital Account-On the way

          By now majority of Indians are familiar with Aadhaar. Aadhaar has begun to permeate our daily life. In a typical day, we hear the word ‘Aadhaar’, at least once. The context may be financial or non-financial.

          As more and more sectors discover the benefits Aadhaar can provide to their daily routine, the word Aadhaar will be heard more and more.

          Not only in the Government sector but in the private sector numerous discussions are taking place on the immense possibilities of Aadhaar.

          In the next couple of years, Aadhaar Number Holders in India will be able to use Aadhaar for a number of non-financial authentication services.

         

Q: What is Aadhaar authentication?

Ans:Aadhaar authentication is the process wherein Aadhaar number, along with other attributes (demographic and/or biometrics and/or OTP) is submitted to UIDAI’s Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) for verification; the CIDR verifies whether the data submitted matches the data available in CIDR and responds with a “yes/no”. No personal identity information is returned as part of the response.

Q: When do I need to authenticate?

Ans: Various service providers, such as PDS, NREGA, banks, are expected to link Aadhaar authentication to their services. Residents would need to authenticate either at the time of subscribing to the service or at the time of availing service delivery, as required by the service providers. This would benefit the residents as no one else can avail the benefits meant for a particular resident.

          Now, the most interesting part:::

Q: Is there a mechanism to notify the residents when an authentication occurs against their Aadhaar number?

Ans: UIDAI has an sms and email based notification mechanism. Through this mechanism, every time CIDR receives an authentication request against an Aadhaar number, a notification will be sent to the registered mobile / email address.

UIDAI will also provide a facility wherein residents can request the history of authentication requests for a specified period of time

Source: UIDAI Website

          The ANH need not be present at the authentication site, if the Biometric authentication method is not being used.

          The ANH may or may need not be present at the authentication site, if the OTP authentication method is being used. This is because the OTP will flow to the registered mobile number of the ANH and the mobile can be held by a non ANH too.

          The ANH need not be present at the authentication site, if the demographic authentication method is being used.

          Hence the need to quickly open up Aadhaar Digital Accounts. The ANHs need to have a record of all authentication requests on their Aadhaar Number. This ADA will act as an important verification mechanism in case of any disputes at a later date.

          It is expected that Aadhaar authentication services will be enabled only to registered agencies.       

Outline of ADA:-

01)  The Login ID would the Aadhaar Number itself.

02) Password can be static or dynamic. Static means the ANH will key in every time with his/her registered password. Dynamic means an OTP to the ANHs registered mobile in CIRD. For additional security the combination of static and dynamic too can be implemented.

03) All the authentications requests whether self-initiated or third-party initiated will be available.

04) The following data to be visible as part of the Authentication request:

A)   Mode

B)    Time

C)    Location

D)   Requestor

E)    Any other details as decided

05)  Print Option

06)  No Save option to external media

          

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) issues 56 crore Aadhaar Numbers

                As on 14 January 2014, UIDAI has crossed the issuance of 56 crore Aadhaar Numbers. It is fast racing toward its target of 60 crore Aadhaar Numbers in the next couple of months.

                In the recent past, on an average 13-14 lac Aadhaar numbers are being generated every day.

                UIDAI which was born in January 2009, the UIDAI issued the first Aadhaar Number on 29th September 2010, after completing necessary preliminaries including establishing various standards relating to collection of data and biometric information such as finger prints and iris images.

 UIDAI issued 25 crore Aadhaar Numbers in the period up to December 2012 at an average rate of almost one crore Aadhaars per month. During 2013, UIDAI issued a total of 29.1 crore Aadhaars at an average rate of over 2.4 crore Aadhaars per month.

Aadhaar Numbers generated State Wise on 30/01/2014
State	Sum
Andaman and Nicobar Islands	66
Andhra Pradesh	87405
Arunachal Pradesh	309
Assam	278
Bihar	52172
Chandigarh	1226
Chhattisgarh	21412
Dadra and Nagar Haveli	1352
Daman and Diu	104
Delhi	15884
Goa	153
Gujarat	267826
Haryana	68299
Himachal Pradesh	4413
Jammu and Kashmir	16669
Jharkhand	44185
Karnataka	178977
Kerala	21501
Lakshadweep	10
Madhya Pradesh	152910
Maharashtra	254888
Manipur	2290
Meghalaya	34
Mizoram	2
Nagaland	165
Odisha	115813
Others	15022
Puducherry	668
Punjab	48271
Rajasthan	127936
Sikkim	165
Tamil Nadu	179931
Tripura	1059
Uttar Pradesh	206647
Uttarakhand	15166
West Bengal	257431
Grand Total	2160639

Trident Group employees need Aadhaar Numbers to receive Salary, not Bank Account Numbers

            Do not worry, Salary will not be disbursed in Cash. Going ahead, Trident Group employees need not submit their Bank Account numbers to their Accounts/HR Department to receive their Salaries and other monetary benefits.

            Submission of Aadhaar numbers will be sufficient to receive the salaries.

            In a first of its kind, Trident Group is the first corporate in our country to adopt Aadhaar payment bridge (APB), for disbursement of salaries.

            The soft launch of the project of the project was done recently in New Delhi by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, and Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Rajinder Gupta, Chairman Trident Group was also present on the occasion

Trident Group is on the path of becoming one of the Largest Integrated Home Textile Manufacturing Facilities in the World.

The major benefits Trident Group foresee out of the Aadhaar numbers is in

·         saving verification cost

·         weed out fake data

APB facilitates seamless transfer of payments to Aadhaar Enabled Bank Account (AEBA). It is a payment gateway platform created by National Payments Corporation of India and is used by the government for direct transfer of certain government benefits.

Salary of employees of Trident Group has been transferred to their Aadhaar linked bank accounts leveraging Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB).

Chairman Trident Group, Rajinder Gupta, informed that Trident has decided to link all their future recruitment with Aadhaar number for demographic verification.

Meanwhile Nandan Nilekani, chairman UIDAI welcoming Trident group in UIDAI ecosystem, congratulated the group for being the first corporate in the country to implement Aadhaar linked salary disbursal for its employees. This technology platform with advantage of de-duplication would be increasingly used by private sector and would create innovative applications for its use in more efficient manner.

Andhra Bank – Aadhaar Seeding – Ways and Means

            Apart from the usual Branch channel, Andhra Bank customers can seed their Bank Account with Aadhaar Number via the alternate channels mode.

The following channels are available to submit AADHAAR seeding request:

Internet Banking: This is available Only for Retail Internet Banking Customer’s.

• Customer has to login to Internet Banking using his/her User ID and Password.
• Click on the link in the home page “Registration of Aadhaar Number in Internet Banking “.
• Enter and confirm the 12 digit Aadhaar number in the respective fields.
• Select the Savings account for which Aadhaar number is to be linked.
• To know the status about Linking and Rejection of Aadhaar number click on "Inquiry"

Andhra Bank ATMs:

• Customer to inserts ATM/Debit card in any Andhra Bank ATM and selects AADHAAR registration option available under Services category.
• ATM will prompt the customer to enter AADHAAR number twice.
• On completion, customer will receive receipt of seeding the request.

Using SMS:

• This facility is enabled only for Andhra Bank customer’s registered for mobile alerts.
• Customer to send an SMS to the 56161 the AADHAAR request as per below format. The syntax for sending the SMS is given below :
• AADHAAR 15 digit Bank Account Number 12 digit AADHAAR Number where "AADHAAR" is the keyword for sending the message.

 On successful linking / delinking of AADHAAR number to the customer account though any channel, an SMS alert will be sent to the customer’s registered mobile number with the Bank.

It is to be noted that Aadhaar Seeding Request’s will be processed by Andhra Bank subject to satisfactory verification of AADHAAR credential.

Aadhaar Numbers – 2 crores allotted in July 2013

            UIDAI has an internal target to issue 60 crore Aadhaar numbers by 2014 end. It is steadily racing towards its target, and till date UIDAI has issued 40 crs 19lacs (40,19,00,000) numbers.

            A record 2 crore Aadhaar numbers have alone been allotted in July 2013. The pace is picking up, as more and more departments are realizing the benefits of storing residents Aadhaar numbers in their data-bases.

            Aadhaar Enabled Service Delivery is linked to various government schemes such as scholarship, pension scheme, dhanalaxmi, janani suraksha yojana, payment of social security benefits such as old-age payments, distribution of LPG subsidy etc

            Enrolment drives are being  popularized in many parts of the country to raise the awareness levels. Radio jingles seem to be the most effective way.

            In Kerala, Akshaya Kiosks are the preferred mode for Aadhaar enrollments.

            The main challenge for residents is in case of delayed receipt of Aadhaar numbers, whom to contact and how.

            How long a resident should wait for his/her Aadhaar number after the enrolment date. The average waiting period is 30 days to 90 days. In case, the resident does not receive his Aadhaar number within 90 days, it is better to start inquiring with UIDAI on the allotments status.

            

NPCI adopts Verhoeff Algorithm for validation of Aadhaar Numbers

NPCI adopts Verhoeff Algorithm for validation of Aadhaar Numbers

          The NPCI Aadhaar Seeder is the bridge connecting the Government Departments and the Bank Account Holders for receipt various Government subsidies, scholarships etc.

          Due to the LPG subsidy rollout program in the last couple of months, the number of Aadhaar numbers being seeded in Bank Accounts and NPCI Database has zoomed up drastically.

          It might be noted that Aadhaar is just another number, if the Biometrics validation of the Resident is not done.

          At present, basing on the Aadhaar Number Card, the seeding is done on Bank accounts or with LPG companies. The actual biometric validation has not yet commenced.

          Hence, it becomes still more important to capture the correct Aadhaar number.

          Recognizing that the Aadhaar number will be manually keyed in numerous occasions, UIDAI had adopted the Verhoeff Algorithm method, to minimize data-entry mistakes.

          The Algorithm logic is in public domain. However, computation cannot be done manually, and only computer programs are capable of validating a number in the Verhoeff Algorithm method.

          NPCI vide its circular dt. July 09, 2013, advised all banks which are part of the NACH-APB system to implement the Verhoeff Algorithm in their systems to validate Aadhaar numbers before seeding the same in customer accounts. If this is not done, any invalid Aadhaar number will be rejected by NPCI mapper with the reason, ‘Invalid Aadhaar No_ Verhoeff Checksum validation failed’.

Aadhaar Payment Bridge System – The heart of GOI’s DCT.

            The APBS was conceptualized by NPCI in the mid 2011, with Reserve Bank of India, according permission to launch it in October 2011. Bank of India was the first bank to go live on APBS, followed by ICICI Bank and Union Bank of India.

            The testing field was the state of Jharkhand.

APBS was built around the Aadhaar Numbers being issued by UIDAI. The Aadhaar number is the common link between the Government Departments and the beneficiary.

The core idea of APBS is to ensure that the Aadhaar number holder receives his/her funds from the Government in the respective bank account. The Aadhaar number holder need not inform all the government departments in case of the change of his bank account number.

The mapping between the bank account number and the Aadhaar number would be via the ‘Mapper Module’, built in APBS.   

In the long run, this approach would result in a) minimal transaction cost b) reduced TAT c) minimal customer complaints d) minimal recon issues.

The present process flow is as follows: -

01) The government departments submit the transaction files to NPCI via their Sponsor Bank between 10.30am to 12.30pm.

02)Around 2.00pm, NPCI switches the transactions to the recipient banks, to the banks as mapped on the Aadhaar Mapper which is a part of APBS.

03)By 3.00pm the beneficiary banks would have passed on the credits to the respective beneficiary account holders.

04)By 5.00pm, the beneficiary banks intimate NPCI the status of the individual transactions i.e successful or rejected.

05)By 7.00pm, NPCI updates the statuses to the Sponsor Banks.

All the above happens on the same day. Initially there is only one payment cycle. Yes, the APBS can handle multiple payment cycle, it is up to the sponsor banks and the government departments to demand more payment cycle, in case of surge in the volumes. 

Indian Union Budget 2012 – A Safe ePayments Motivator view

10 boosters for Safe ePayments in Union Budget 2012.

1. Kisan Credit Card (KCC ) being turned into a smart card to be used at ATMs. The genesis of this idea can be traced back to 2005, when State Bank of India, was planning to launch ATM linked Kisan Card
   
   
2. 02) Central 'Know Your Customer (KYC) depository' will be rolled out in 2012-13, to minimize customer inconvenience in opening Bank Accounts and possible reduction in fraudulent documents being part of the Banking System.
   
   
3. National Population Register (NPR) will be live in the next two years. The NPR will have the AADHAAR numbers, as the Unique Identifier which will drive Government's e-governance initiatives.
   
   
4. 04) UID-Aadhaar enrollments will cross 60 crs+ and majority of MG-NREGA; old age, widow and disability pensions; and scholarships will move directly to the beneficiary accounts in selected areas.
   
   
5. 05) National rollout of mobile- based Fertiliser Management System (mFMS) . The system is live, and the is being rolled out across the country. The basic aim of mFMS is to track the movement of fertilizers along the supply chain I.e from Manufacturer to Retailer. Once, this is stablised,the next hase would be Direct transfer of subsidy to the retailer, and eventually to the farmer.
   
   
6. As the data in the transparency portals of the three public sector Oil Marketing Companies stablise, the project for selling LPG at market price and reimbursement would be rolled out. Already a pilot project is being conducted in Mysore.
   
   
7. Another project is for the direct transfer of subsidy on Kerosene. This has commenced in Alwar district of Rajasthan.
   
   
8. Similarly, the Aadhaar platform has also been successfully used to validate PDS ration cards in Jharkhand. This is forerunner to roll out Aadhaar enabled payments in atleast 50 selected districts in the next six months.
   
   
9. All IPO's of above Rs10 crs, will be in the in electronic form through nationwide broker network of stock exchanges; This will substantially reduce the Paper cheques in the Banking industry.
   
   
10. Another electronic platform in the Stock Market is the through electronic voting facilities, besides existing process for shareholder voting, which will be made mandatory initially for top listed companies;