Linking Aadhar Card and what it means in general.

For those who haven't yet linked their Aadhaar Card to avail services and welfare schemes, kindly note that the Supreme Court has extended the deadline indefinitely until another decision or another judgement in the matter concerning is made.

In a nutshell you don't have to worry about linking the Aadhaar card to your bank accounts which you were required to by December 2017 and still haven't, linking your mobile phone numbers by end of March 31, 2018.

Well what is the fuss all about and why is it that some of us or most of us are very apprehensive about linking their Unique Identifier Aadhaar to avail crucial services and certain other such, like every other citizen of developed or developing countries.

Let us understand the underlying details and the significance of the resistance against and towards linking it:

1. Aadhaar comes under the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) and it captures the biometric details of each of Indians citizens like that of Fingerprints, Iris and other such details.

2. It is the world's largest biometric ID system with over 116.09 crore (1.19 billion) enrollments as of Nov 2017, YES you heard it right. Imagine a database that can run such huge numbers every time you verify or make a new entry. A true DB guy will understand what I mean, it's more like you searching a contact on your phone but with 1 billion contacts but the phone doing it for you with the same speed and accuracy.

3. It represents 99% of Indians and is considered the world's most sophisticated and complicated ID systems. YES world's best.

4. A total of 9000 crores ($1.4 billion) has been spent since 2009 for enrolling and issuing, printing and despatching the Aadhar.

5. The government has saved around $1.9 billion in LPG subsidies between 2014 and 2016 literally removing ghost benefactors who misused the subsidiaries that were meant to low income groups.

6. The Civil Supplies department that oversees the ration card and subsidies through PDS (Public Distribution Services) is slated to be brought under great scrutiny to plug illegal sales and fraud by middle men and shop supervisors. A pilot project in Karnataka covering a mere 50 shops where essentials were only distributed upon furnishing Aadhar ID card saved 12.16 Lacs in one month. Imagine what it can save covering all the shops in the country and the accountability and transparency it can bring to public distribution system and to the FCI (Food Corporation of India).

7. It has potential beyond our imagination and linking all important services like that of banks and phones can help prevent black money hoarding and misuse of cellphones to harass anyone, threaten anyone or even use for illegal operations and terrorism.

8. Imagine the biometrics that can be used to track criminals committing crimes, preventing them and avoiding any further casualties apprehending them. The pending cases it can solve, the profiling of criminals it can achieve and what not.

The advantages are just starting to come forward as we surge ahead reaping the benefits of such a unique identification system.

Now coming to the fuss and genuinely I agree to most of the concerns people are having around their crucial biometrics data and the way it is being handled.

1. We as a developing country do not have a proper legislation to oversee the implementation and protection of such crucial data.

2. Sharing of data with anyone wanting to provide a service and implications of any misuse.

3. Data leaks and security of systems storing such huge data and risks of exposing the data to hackers and other such elements. We need strong and better Data security and one point authorisation point monitoring the data shared, retrieved, edited or entered.

4. Many many other such factors are still a concern and many more to be fixed and implemented.

But again on the bright side your information is already captured and stored, if your worry is about misuse please note your information is already in the system and needs better and strong protection tools implemented for safe guarding it.

All I am trying to say is give it some time and allow it to evolve and we would too in time have something on the lines of SS and other such ID systems used in developed countries.