Time to De-Link

 

The Supreme court of India yesterday ruled…well…50-50, on the validityvalidity of the Aadhaar act. Politicians are busy still discussing which side won, but one thing is clear: Private entities can no longer ask for Aadhaar related data of Indians. Aadhaar is now meant to be used for government benefits. So basically Aadhaar has now become one of the fifteen thousand other documents in India that are compulsorily optional.

 

 

So no need to provide aadhaar number for services like mobile phone connections, bank accounts and school admissions. All those private players who depended on the system for easy-KYC have been left in the open now. They will have to find a backup plan or go back to old school KYC. I am specially chuckling at how SBI mandated that a person can have only a single account via Aadhaar linking.

So now, its time to de-link. Coming to think of it, I have provided my own aadhaar number to about a dozen private companies for services. Time to follow up and get them all un-linked..

..if that is even possible now.