’Most trusted digital ID’: Centre responds to Moody’s review of Aadhaar

mangaloretoday.com

New Delhi, Sep 26, 2023: The central government responded to the report by Moody’s Investors Service which raised questions about the security and privacy vulnerabilities of the Aadhar system in India. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said the Aadhar is the "most trusted digital ID in the world" and trashed the report saying it was made without citing "either primary or secondary data or research".

 

Moody’s report also questioned the reliability of biometric technologies and said the Aadhar system "often results in service denials". It added that the reliability of biometric technologies for manual laborers in hot, humid climates is "questionable".

The IT ministry said the report was an "obvious reference" to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and argued that the seeding of Aadhaar in the MGNREGS database was done without requiring the workers to authenticate using their biometrics. It added that the 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.

On the questions raised about security concerns, the IT ministry said the issue had been addressed repeatedly in Parliament and the lawmakers were informed that till date there has been no breach of the Aadhaar database.

"Further, Parliament has laid down robust privacy protections in the law governing the Aadhaar system and these are observed through robust technological and organisational arrangements. State-of-the-art security solutions are in place, along with a federated database and encryption of data both at rest and in motion," said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

The ministry also cited the praise received by the Aadhar system from the IMF and the World Bank to counter the Moody’s report.

Courtesy: India Today