The National Payments Corporation of India today launched two new services namely Aadhaar Based Remittance Service (ABRS) and Query Service on Aadhaar Mapper (QSAM).
The ABRS has been launched with Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Mehsana Urban Co-operative Bank and Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank.
The service will enable funds transfer using Aadhaar number. The (QSAM) service will enable mapping status using Aadhaar number.
“We have crossed 3 crore Aadhaar linked bank accounts. In the next year or so we will see at least 10 crore Aadhaar linked bank accounts,” said Nandan Nilekani, chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) who was present at the launch.
What has been launched today with NPCI essentially shows how it is such a simple thing to send money to somebody. Aadhaar has many uses and you will see more and more of these uses becoming obvious, said Nilekani.
To give a statutory recognition to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the Cabinet on Tuesday approved a National Identification Authority of India Bill. “UIDAI will become a statutory body and it will be able to regulate all the various activities of the UIDAI. UIDAI has the highest standards of security, privacy and encryption and will continue to do that. It is one more step of putting the organisation on an institutional footing and we are very happy that the bill has been passed by the Cabinet,” said Nilekani.
Yesterday the Supreme Court posted for final hearing on October 22 for a batch of petitions as well as applications filed by the Union government and oil companies seeking a modification of the interim order that restrained the government from making the Aadhaar card compulsory for transfer of social welfare benefits to the beneficiaries.
“When we has started the process (of issuing cards) we had said that by 2014 we will have 60 crore Aadhaars. I am comfortable that goal will be met,” said Nilekani.
