-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the mandatory linking of Aadhaar with bank accounts and PAN cards was intended to screen genuine tax payers from dishonest elements evading taxes. The government made the comments while trying to allay fears that people could be harassed for money-laundering offences. Appearing for the Centre and the Aadhaar-issuing Unique Identification Authority of India, additional solicitor-general Tushar Mehta told a five-judge...

-The Hindu Use OTPs only in the presence of customers: UIDAI The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has asked banks to provide Aadhaar-based onetime password (OTP) for opening of bank accounts only in the presence of the customer, in a banking outlet. In a letter addressed to commercial banks, UIDAI Chief Executive Officer Ajay Bhushan Pandey cited instances of misuse of Aadhaar while opening accounts. The direction is a huge blow to the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Aadhaar is blind to the purpose of authentication as it only establishes identity and nothing more, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey told the Supreme Court on Thursday, countering apprehensions that Aadhaar would result in “virtual surveillance” of citizens. In the course of a Power-Point presentation, Pandey said Aadhaar was a tool to establish identity and was not an aggregator of...

-The Indian Express Biometric authentication by PDS dealers defeats the unique identity scheme’s purpose. An aborted scheme in Madhya Pradesh that relied on once-in-a-year authentication can curb exclusion errors. Aadhaar is in the news today partly because of security concerns and partly because of reports that the poor are unable to receive PDS rations because of failures in Aadhaar authentication. Here, we will focus on the latter with an eye to look...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: With cases of denial of hospital facilities being reported, UIDAI has reiterated that the Aadhaar Act clearly states that benefits cannot be denied due to absence of an Aaadhar number or failure of biometrics due to reasons such as old age or poor connectivity. In a statement, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) asked government departments/ministries and state/UT governments to ensure that no essential service...