Aadhaar card: Calling the data storage system completely safe and secure, Union Minister for Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday said Aadhaar’s biometric data can’t be hacked even in 100 crore attempts. “… the system contains my fingerprints and my iris scan, kept in a safe and secure condition which cannot be broken into even with billion efforts,” IANS reported citing Ravi Shankar Prasad. Nearly one crore authentications are done every second by the Aadhaar authorities, he said.
“Do you know how many authentications we do every three seconds? Three crore. Do you know how many bank accounts are linked to Aadhaar? 80 crore accounts. And Aadhaar is your homegrown technology (at) one dollar each and completely safe and secure with proper parliamentary approval, IANS reported him saying.
“(It is) so tough that even if I disclose information regarding a fingerprint and iris scan to an unknown person, except in case of national security, I can be prosecuted. That is the inclusive part we have done,” he also said.
“What is the digital profile of India? For a population of 130 crore, India is home to 121 crore mobile phones, 450 million smartphones, 50 crore plus Internet (connections) and 122 crore Aadhaar cards,” he added.
Meanwhile, the government on July 13 clarified that Aadhaar is “desirable” but not mandatory to avail benefits under the Centre’s ambitious Ayushman Bharat – National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM). The clarification came after a section of the media reported that the Centre had published a gazette notification making Aadhaar mandatory for beneficiaries under its health insurance scheme.
A beneficiary eligible for receiving the benefits under the scheme shall be required to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or undergo Aadhaar authentication, media reports said quoting the notification. “Notification of the Ayushman Bharat – National Health Protection Mission being issued by the Health Ministry under Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act, merely enables the implementation agencies to ask for the beneficiary Aadhaar Card to authenticate their identity.
