http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/government-to-link-all-savings-accounts-to-aadhaar/articleshow/56028577.cms
Government to link all savings accounts to Aadhaar Pankaj Doval | TNN | Updated: Dec 17, 2016, 11.13 AM IST HIGHLIGHTS Centre has decided to link all savings bank accounts with the Aadhaar number. The move will be particularly helpful for those who do not have a mobile phone. The sources said the measure has been approved by PM Narendra Modi. NEW DELHI: In a major move that will give an impetus to the cashless drive at the ground level, the Centre has decided to link all savings bank accounts with the Aadhaar number for enabling digital transactions, especially at retail points. The move will be particularly helpful for those who do not have a mobile phone , their number is estimated at 30 crore, and will be a gateway for them to be linked to the digital economy, official sources said. The sources said the measure has been approved by PM Narendra Modi, who has now tasked finance minister Arun Jaitley and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad with its implementation. Prasad said, "The higher the linkages with the Aadhaar number, the more we have in terms of seamless digital transactions." Sources said that of the 112 crore estimated bank accounts across the country, only around 40 crore are linked with Aadhaar. "This needs to be ramped up pretty fast." Detailing the benefits of the move, the sources said it will enable digital transactions even when someone does not have a mobile phone. "All that is required will be devices that support Aadhaar and biometric at the retail points. If anybody needs to make a transaction even without a phone, he or she just needs to log into his account through the Aadhar biometric link and make the payment," a source said. "This will make digital transactions easy as no connectivity will be required at the consumer's end." The RBI has also been pushing for deployment of Aadhaar-enabled point-of-sale machines across the retail set-up. While it is pushing to make it a must for new deployments, it has given time for migration of existing machines that may be non-complaint with the Aadhaar set-up. The government has been giving a push to Aadhaar-based linkages in view of the need to accelerate digital transactions at the rural level. (Top Comment I''m in the US. How on earth am I supposed to get an Aadhaar number from here?) Prasad also emphasised this in a meeting with bankers. Prasad and his team of officials at the IT ministry met around 50 representatives of various banks this week where officials were told to have helpline numbers to provide easier and trouble-free access to digital information. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
