Aadhaar, JAM to stay, higher growth best antidote to poverty, says Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley has said that Aadhaar and Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-mobile (JAM) trinity are here to stay and the government is weighing different options to make its legal status clear. “Both the options of going before the court or before the legislature are open to the government,” Jaitley said at the Delhi Economics Conclave on Friday.

He said viewpoints of the government, concerned authorities and experts would be placed before the court and added that a draft legislation is also ready. Aadhaar’s validity and its use as identity for various government scheme has been challenged in the court over privacy. “It cannot be that Aadhaar is acceptable in some things and not acceptable in others…There will have to be universal application,” the finance minister said. Earlier speaking at the conference, former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India ( UIDAI) Nandan Nilekani had said there should be clarity about legal status of Aadhaar.

“I think if the government can take up the matter and get it done that would put lot of things behind us. Certainly, we can do many of things but the law would help us the settle matter once and for all,” he said. Jaitley, while observing that the global economy is under stress, said that although India can take some satisfaction from its own high growth, it has potential to grow at a higher pace. “We are not satisfied with that because we do believe that our capacity and endeavour is to reach a higher rate.

Eventually, it is growth and higher growth that the Indian economy will need. Higher growth is the best antidote to poverty,” he said. Referring to subsidies, Jaitley said one has to think whether to continue it indefinitely with an unquantified amount going to an unidentified number of people or target it to specific categories of people needing them. Terming rationalisation of subsidies as “unsung reforms”, he said the government made use of the drop in oil prices globally.