India is now full-fledged Aadhar country

New Delhi January 28: Nowadays Aadhar is essential to every Indian person in order to go cashless society.As govt introduced BHIM app with enabling the Aadhar number most of the Indian persons are now having Aadhar Card.

After demonetisation, Aadhaar generation and its use for financial transactions saw a substantial jump, increase in enrolments will come as a boost to the govt’s drive to make India a less-cash society, govt is encouraging the use of AadhaarPay, a merchant version of Aadhaar-enabled payment system

Over 99% of Indians aged 18 and above now have Aadhaar cards as more than 111 crore residents have enrolled themselves for the unique identification number.

The increase in enrolments will come as a boost to the government's drive to make India a less-cash society as it is encouraging the use of AadhaarPay, a merchant version of the Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AEPS).

Officials had reported on January 23 that the government was nudging banks to encourage merchants to use Aadhaar-Pay.

Backed by the Aadhaar Act and 91.7% coverage of the total population, the government is set to accelerate the use of unique identification numbers in its social welfare schemes for disbursing entitlements and subsidies as it will help check duplication and pilferage.

The government saved Rs 36,000 crore in two years even though the use of Aadhaar was restricted to a handful of schemes like PDS, household LPG supply, and MGNREGA.

"We all know Aadhaar was started by the previous government but at that time, it was only a digital identity. Under the government led by PM Narendra Modi, it has become a powerful tool of financial and future transformation," IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

"Aadhaar is also becoming a powerful instrument to bridge the digital divide," he added.