Challenges / Problems of Aadhaar / UIDAI Systems in India #UID

April 1, 2013 · http://freepress.in/

The Central Government is doing a direct Cash Transfer into the hands of the Poor Indian Citizens using UIDAI based Aadhar Payment Gateways / Biometric Payment systems / ATM. The key problem areas that we identified through our interactions with block-level and district-level officials, a few recipients, and BCs

are as follows,

Frequent connectivity issues – There were days when the BC was unable to consummate even a single transaction due to lack of connectivity.

Authentication failure – Another common complaint was failure of fingerprint authentication. Field officials gave examples of some recipients who were not able to verify their identity at the micro ATM even after multiple attempts and finally had to visit the bank branch to get the cash.

None of the recipients we interacted with had a bank passbook despite an express provision that all account holders will be provided with a passbook. This gives the beneficiaries no scope to check whether their money received matched the credit in their accounts. In addition, lack of passbooks makes the BC a compulsory channel for payments.

These intermediaries have to be paid their commissions and incentives on time if the BC-operated, micro-ATM-enabled payment system has to work successfully and with integrity. We found instances of long delays in payments of incentives to the BCs. Further, surprisingly, there lack of clarity on the chain of command. The BCs were not sure whether the bank or the company that had the responsibility of creating the BC network was responsible for their payments.

Overall, our interactions suggested a favourable disposition towards the AEPS, mainly driven by ease of payments at the doorstep instead of a long travel required earlier.