Aadhaar and the digital state

The Unique Identification Authority of India issues twelve-digit numbers linked to fingerprints and iris scans. It began in a village in the tribal district of Nandurbar, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi present. The Aadhaar Act of 2016 gave the scheme a statutory basis, and in the same year the Unified Payments Interface, run by the National Payments Corporation of India, began instant bank transfers by phone.

Privacy challenges went to the Supreme Court in the Puttaswamy cases. In 2017 nine judges held privacy to be a fundamental right; in 2018 the court upheld Aadhaar for welfare and tax but struck down its compulsory use by private companies. Whether failed authentication has cut people off from rations and benefits has been argued over ever since.