Nilekani hopeful of meeting 60-crore Aadhaar target by 2014

UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani today expressed hope that the target of issuing 60 crore Aadhaar numbers would be met by 2014, saying that so far 40 crore people have already received them.
"More than 40 crore Aadhar numbers have already been issued till the end of July and we will meet the target of 60 crore Aadhar enrolments by 2014," Nilekani told reporters at the e-KYC on-boarding workshop held here.
Nilekani said currently the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is issuing two crore Aadhaar numbers every month. Andhra Pradesh is the top performer with around 65 lakh Aadhaar numbers issued so far, followed by Maharashtra with over 62 lakh such numbers.

He said the e-KYC is the new offering from UIDAI which allows an Aadhar number-holder to authorise UIDAI to his personal details to any service provider to allow instant activation of services like bank account, mobile connection etc.
The Law and Finance Ministries have already recognised e-KYC as a valid document for all financial services under the Prevention of Money Laundering (PML) Act, he said, adding that the authority was working with other sector regulators for extending this to their sectors.
"The RBI, Sebi, Irda have all said Aadhaar is a KYC. So the only question now is that e-KYC be made valid too," he said.

"Now the regulators will look at this approval (by the finance and law ministries) and they would take appropriate action and we do hope it will be positive also," Nilekani added.

He said to make the e-KYC popular, the UIDAI has kept a provision of Rs 150 crore to procure 1-lakh units of the devices and distribute them to service providers, like banks etc.
The e-KYC makes the entire process paperless, instantaneous, secure, economical and non-reputable.
The UIDAI expects its e-KYC service to enhance customer convenience and greatly increase business efficiency across sectors that require proof of identity and address to open customer accounts.