Viewpoint: How Aadhaar Bill Will Benefit Startups and the Fintech Segment

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

By Siddharth Kukatlapalli

On July 8th, 2019, Aadhaar, the ‘Aam Aadmi ka Adhikaar’ (Right of Every Citizen), bill was passed in both of the houses and the same shall be welcomed by all the private organisations and startups in the fintech and BFSI verticals. Before going into the details of the passed Aadhaar Bill, it is equally important to understand the Supreme Court verdict on Aadhaar which was given on September 26, 2018.

Highlights Of The Supreme Court Judgement

  1. Aadhaar gained constitutional validity with the judgement.
  2. The panel upheld Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act, which made Aadhaar mandatory for providing all subsidies or services offered by state and centre governments.
  3. The panel nulled compulsory seeding of Aadhaar Numbers with the Mobile Numbers and Bank Accounts.
  4. It also took down the Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act, which does not allow any private companies to take Aadhaar for verification/identification purposes.
  5. Aadhaar not to be mandated for examinations and admissions.

Post the Supreme Court Judgement, the usage of Aadhaar by Private Entities – including the ones that are regulated by regulators (except private banks) had to stop using Aadhaar-based KYC and Authentication Services. The usage of Aadhaar was only restricted to individual governments and that too mainly for the subsidies that were being provided to the beneficiaries.

Photo courtesy of Francisco Anzola.

Source: Inc42 (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Finance, Technology
Tags
digital identity, fintech, public policy, regulations, startups