NB Explains | India hits back at Moody’s report over Aadhaar security & efficiency; Know why govt is furious-
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New Delhi, Sept 26: Coming down heavily on Moody's Investors Service, India has slammed the international credit agency for making sweeping assertions against Aadhaar without citing any evidence, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said on Monday.
The UIDAI issued a strong rebuttal to Moody's Investors Service which claimed that the Aadhaar system often results in service denials and the reliability of biometric technologies, especially for manual labourers, in hot and humid climates is questionable.
"A certain investor service has, without citing any evidence or basis, made sweeping assertions against Aadhaar, the most trusted digital ID in the world. Over the last decade, over a billion Indians have expressed their trust in Aadhaar by using it to authenticate themselves over 100 billion times," the UIDAI said in a statement.
The unique id Aadhaar's custodian said that the report in question does not cite either primary or secondary data or research in support of the opinions presented in it.
"The investor service did not make any attempt to ascertain facts regarding the issues raised by it from the Authority. The sole reference cited in the report is in respect of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), by referring to its website. However, the report incorrectly cites the number of Aadhaars issued as 1.2 billion, although the website prominently gives the updated numbers," the UIDAI said.
It said that the report ignores that biometric submission is also possible through contactless means such as face authentication and iris authentication.
"In addition, the option of mobile OTP is also available in many use cases. The report also avers that there are security and privacy vulnerabilities in a centralised Aadhaar system. The factual position in this regard has been repeatedly disclosed in response to Parliament questions, where Parliament has been categorically informed that till date no breach has been reported from the Aadhaar database," the statement said.
"The report avers that use of biometric technologies results in service denials for manual laborers in India’s hot, humid climate, an obvious reference to India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). However, it is evident that the authors of the report are unaware that the seeding of Aadhaar in the MGNREGS database has been done without requiring the worker to authenticate using their biometrics, and that even payment to workers under the scheme is made by directly crediting money in their account and does not require the worker to authenticate using their biometrics," it said.
What did Moody's say?
The New York-headquartered Credits rating agency, in a purported warning, questioned the security and privacy credentials in Aadhaar.
It linked Aadhaar with the risks associated with centralised systems that control user identification credentials and online resource access.
"The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) administers Aadhaar, aiming to integrate marginalised groups and expand welfare benefits access… The system often results in service denials, and the reliability of biometric technologies, especially for manual laborers in hot, humid climates, is questionable," Moody's stressed.
Earlier this month, during the G20 Summit in New Delhi, the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) document, prepared by the World Bank, praised the transformative impact of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in India in last ten years.