RuPay cards to replace Aadhaar in welfare scheme authentication in India

Monday, August 11, 2014

NEW DELHI: The finance ministry has decided to limit Aadhaar’s role in its welfare scheme payments and, instead, use ATM-enables RuPay cards for last-mile authentication to withdraw money.

While it will continue to use Aadhaar for opening accounts and to eliminate ghosts and duplicates from beneficiary rolls, the ministry has decided to give RuPay ATM cards with bank accounts being opened under to-be-announced financial inclusion drive, Sampoorn Vittiyea Samaveshan, government officials told ET.

“We do not want that an account holder should be restricted on a particular technology platform. By providing RuPay powered ATM card the account holder can transact on multiple platforms,” a senior finance ministry official said on the condition of anonymity. This is a large blow to the Unique Identification Authority of India(UIDAI) which has, till now, regarded authentication services as one of its principal functions.

Source: Economic Times India (link opens in a new window)

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Base of the Pyramid, financial inclusion, regulations