Aadhaar for instant cellphone activation

Your unique identification (UID) or Aadhaar number can help you to activate your mobile phone instantly.

Updated on: Apr 12, 2012, 02:03:20 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Your unique identification (UID) or Aadhaar number can help you to activate your mobile phone instantly.

The telecom companies don't activate a new mobile connection without verification of the proof of residence and proof of identity documents because of security reasons. It may lead to people not having a proof of residence being denied mobile phone connections.

"The objectives of inclusion and security can be mutually exclusive at times," said a Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) paper on Leveraging Aadhaar in Telecom sector.

It has resulted in improper use of documents to get mobile connections. The Department of Telecom reported that in 2010-11, a penalty of Rs. 700 crore was imposed on telecom operators related to subscriber verification.

Nandan Nilekani led UIDAI had found a paper-less way-out for authenticating a person's credentials without the telecom companies having to install biometric readers.

The bar code on the Aadhaar letter will be more than enough to authenticate one's credentials.

The Aadhaar letter would be more than useful enough for verification.

"Retailers selling connections can use Aadhaar enabled terminals to scan the barcode printed on Aadhaar letters making the data capture of the resident details fast and error free. Using Aadhaar authentication, the resident can then establish their identity in real time with a biometric authentication captured on the terminal," the report said.

Once the authentication is received, the telecom operator can store the digitally signed authentication response from UIDAI as proof of verification. The retailer can provide a connection to any resident for whom the authentication is successful.

The entire process will just take a few minutes.

"The telecom operator will be at liberty to activate the connection immediately," said a senior UIDAI official, adding that it can lead to saving of up to Rs. 1,000 crore annually for the industry which issues 30 million sim cards every month.

The UIDAI through its concept of proof studies has found the authentication of a person's details successful in about 99% cases. These studies were done for a year from January 2011 in different parts of the country.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.