Aadhar to connect 60 crore mobile banking accounts: Nandan Nilekani

UIDAI is also looking at linking 60 crore mobile banking with Aadhaar in the future. "The potential of having 60 crore mobile banking linked to Aadhaar is what we are targeting in future. This will have ripple effect on e-commerce and various other mobile transactions," said Nandan Nilekani, chairman - UIDAI at the 7th Indian Digital Summit organized by Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

With 250 mn people registered under Aadhar as of today, UIDAI expects to enroll 600 million by 2014. The unique identity number will be pivotal for KYC and e-KYC with internet penetration on a steady rise. Nandan Nilekani stressed on the point that the Aadhaar can eliminate fraudulent activities and help the end beneficiary. He said, "Aadhaar can be used to validate the identity of an individual, be it for the cash-on-delivery model for e-commerce portals or even for getting telephone connection. We are targeting to have one million micro-ATMs by 2014 to benefit hundreds of thousands of people."

Talking about the future of Aadhaar, Nandan Nilekani further added, "Aadhaar is a platform that will grow and will help the ecosystem to grow along with it. It is an open platform for app developers and we sincerely hope that applications are built around it."

Speaking on privacy, he further adds that UIDAI is working with the industry within regulatory frameworks to keep privacy intact.

Taking a cue from Nandan Nilekani's session, Sam Pitroda reiterated "requirement of various platforms like UIDAI" for progress towards a developed economy. Addressing the gathering, Sam Pitroda said, "While technology is advancing, information is not spreading at a proportionate rate. We need to have platforms that will help disseminate information though the government is spending over INR 10,000 crore on public information systems." He further added, "The creation of 4 data centres, the growth of cloud computing along-with 1.6% empowerment of Indian's economy by internet will fuel technology growth."