No Cabinet rank for UIDAI chairman: Prasad

UIDAI Chairman has not been given the Cabinet rank and will hold power limited to provisions defined under the Aadhaar Act 2016.
"Rank will be as governed under law. Granting Cabinet (rank) status is decided by the Cabinet. Our government does not appreciate desire to get Cabinet status," IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.
He was responding to a query on rank status of Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) which was equivalent to a Cabinet minister under the UPA regime.
Prasad administered the oath of Office and Secrecy to J Satyanarayana, retired 1977 batch IAS of Andhra Pradesh cadre, who has been appointed part-time chairman of UIDAI as per the Aadhaar (Targetted Delivery of Financial And other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act 2016.

The minister also administered the oath to IT company netCore's founder and Managing Director Rajesh Jain and Persistent Systems' Chairman and Managing Director Anand Deshpande -- who have been appointed as part-time members of UIDAI.
Both the members will continue to manage their present businesses as well.

Prasad said that legal framework around Aadhaar is very stringent and enshrines enough provisions to ensure privacy, security and secrecy of the personal data.
"The legal framework of Aadhaar completely maintains secrecy. There is a legal provision in Aadhaar that owner of Aadhaar even with his own consent cannot reveal to anyone his biometric details -- his iris and finger prints," Prasad said.

He said that even police cannot take Aadhaar details unless their is proper court order.
"Only in case of national security, the core biometrics iris and finger print can be revealed... And that too there will be a committee under joint secretary which will be affirmed by Cabinet secretary," Prasad said.
As on September 7, the UIDAI has generated 105.11 crore Aadhaar numbers.
"If we take 2015 census, the Aadhaar today covers 98 per cent of adult population. 50 lakh people of India are accessing their biometrics on daily basis.
The minister said that around 32 crore people have linked their bank accounts to Aadhaar.

"Total number of transactions on Aadhaar platform has reached 131.11 crore and total amount involved in those transactions is Rs 37,184.81 crore. We have saved amount of about Rs 36,000 crore from Aadhaar based transactions," Prasad.
He said that as per a World Bank report published in January 2016, if Aadhaar is used in all the schemes in India by both Centre and states then it will lead to savings of about Rs 70,000 crore a year.
The expenditure for the MGNREGS, which provides at least
100 days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household in rural areas whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work, is made from the CFI.

Rs 38,500 crore have been allocated for MGNREGS in the current fiscal by the Centre, an increase of over Rs 3,800 crore outlay made for the rural job scheme during 2015-16.
The move to make Aadhaar mandatory for MGNREGS work will help in checking leakages of government subsidies and to ensure that the beneficiaries get their due, according to another officer who is part of the wing looking after implementation of the Centre's Aadhaar-linked Direct Benefit Transfer scheme.
The DBT programme, a major reform initiative to check leakages of welfare funds, was launched on January 1, 2013 with regard to 24 selected schemes of eight ministries.

Through DBT all cash benefits are transferred directly to the beneficiary's bank account. The Centre has asked all its departments and state governments to widen the scope of DBT scheme to include all monetary and in kind transfers to beneficiaries.
In order to give further fillip to it, DBT Mission was last year shifted to Cabinet Secretariat and its implementation is being monitored by the Prime Minister's Office.
In a related development, retirement fund body EPFO has made it mandatory for its about 50 lakh pensioners and around four crore subscribers to provide either Aadhaar or a proof that they have applied for it till month-end to remain the beneficiary of its social security schemes.