Aadhaar-linked 25.25 crore transactions carried out in Sept: Govt

As many as 25.25 crore e-KYC transactions were executed via Aadhaar, an almost 7.7 per cent jump in such transactions when compared with August, an official statement said on Tuesday. The statement noted that Aadhaar adoption and usage by residents continues to progress well, indicative of how it is aiding ease of living. In September alone, 25.25 crore e-KYC transactions were executed via Aadhaar, a 7.7 per cent jump in such transactions when compared with August.

An e-KYC transaction is done, only with the explicit consent of the Aadhaar holder, and eliminates physical paperwork, and in-person verification requirement for KYC, the statement said. The statement said Aadhaar e-KYC service was increasingly playing a crucial role for banking and non-banking financial services by providing better and transparent customer experience, and ease of doing business.

The cumulative number of e-KYC transactions via Aadhaar so far has increased to 1,297.93 crore by the end of September 2022, the statement said. Similarly, Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AEPS) has been an enabler of financial inclusion at the bottom of the income pyramid. The official statement said cumulatively, 1,549.84 crore of last-mile banking transactions have been made possible through the use of AEPS and the network of micro ATMs so far by the end of September 2022. In September alone, 21.03 crore AEPS transactions were carried out across India.

In September, 175.41 crore authentication transactions were carried out via Aadhaar. A majority of these monthly transactions were done by using fingerprint biometric authentication, followed by demographic and OTP authentication, it said. So far, cumulatively 8,250.36 crore authentication transactions have been completed by the end of September, indicative of how Aadhaar is sincere with its stated vision, the statement said.

The official statement said Aadhaar saturation was now near universal among the adult population of India. Among all age groups, Aadhaar saturation was 93.92 per cent by end of September. During the month of September, residents successfully updated more than 1.62 crore Aadhaars as against 1.46 crore such updates carried out in August. Cumulatively, till date (end of September) little above 66.63 crore Aadhaar numbers have been successfully updated following requests from the residents, it said.

These updation requests are related to demographic as well as biometric updates done at both physical Aadhaar centres, and by using the online Aadhaar platform. Whether it is AEPS for last-mile banking, e-KYC, Aadhaar-enabled Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) or authentication, Aadhaar has been playing a stellar role in supporting the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of Digital India.

It said Aadhaar, a digital infrastructure of good governance, is a facilitator of both ease of living and ease of doing business. The digital ID is helping various ministries and departments in the centre and at states in improving efficiency, transparency and delivery of welfare services to the targeted beneficiaries. So far, around 1,000 welfare schemes in the country run by both Centre and the states have been notified to use Aadhaar.