After ensuring the massive success of Aadhaar in the country, the Narendra Modi government has moved to the next phase. The Union government is organising a brainstorming session in the coming week to expand the scope of Aadhaar and making it a “International Digital Identity Standard”.
The three-day workshop, scheduled to start next week, is titled ‘Aadhaar 2.0 – Ushering the Next Era of Digital Identity and Smart Governance’.
Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, former UIDAI chiefs Nandan Nilekani, RS Sharma and Ajay Bhushan Pandey, PM’s Economic Advisory Council Chairman Bibek Debroy, Finance Secretary TV Somanathan, IT Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney and NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant will participate in the brainstorming session.
Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and experts from the World Bank like Global Director for Social Protection and Jobs, Michal Rutkowski, and professors from IITs and IISC will also attend the session.
“After over a decade of Aadhaar entering into our lives as the most-trusted identity, we at UIDAI couldn’t be more excited to start the next phase of evolution in the identity space, aiming to simplify many aspects of the digital economy,” News18 quoted the agenda paper of the session.
The experts will discuss how Aadhaar can be further used to boost the digital economy in the country. They will also discuss ways to make “Aadhaar as an International Digital Identity Standard”.
Despite multiple hurdles placed by the Opposition, the Modi government has ensured the implementation of various schemes using Aadhaar to boost the digital economy in the country and closing the loopholes in the various welfare schemes.
In a landmark judgment in September 2018, the Supreme Court upheld the country’s biometric identity system and cleared the mandatory Aadhaar enrolment of recipients of government welfare benefits.
In January this year, the Supreme Court had dismissed a bunch of review petitions challenging the September 2018 verdict.
Aadhaar, a unique 12-digit number for every person in the country, has massively simplified the process for various day to day activities. The biometric information of every individual is stored and a 12-digit unique number is issued to the person.
The upcoming session will also discuss the various ways to increase the Aadhaar enrolment.
