For Modi government, UID the wild card that came good

The Aadhaar card was on the brink of being junked by the Modi government when it swept to power last May. But a presentation by Nandan Nilekani, former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India ( UIDAI) convinced Modi and his team about the document's usefulness. Since then the government has cut through the confusion that prevailed earlier and enabled the 12- digit UIDAI-issued individual identification number to serve as proof of identity and address, anywhere in India.

It has used the card to trim its subsidy bill, weeding out hoax beneficiaries of cooking gas subsidies. The card has helped intensify the government's massive financial inclusion drive — the Jan Dhan Yojana.

Economists say that Jan Dhan, Aadhar and mobile, known as the JAM trinity, can be effective in helping the government plug leakages in subsidy programmes and ensuring efficiency in the delivery of government services.

The Aadhaar card has emerged as the world's largest biometric identification database, way ahead of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The UIDAI has so far issued more than 82 crore cards, which is much higher than the FBI database of 15 crore.

According to the Economic Survey, Aadhaar card enrolments were increasing at a rate of 2 crore per month. The government had seeded over 10 crore bank accounts with registered Aadhaar numbers by December 2014.