New Delhi: The central government appears to be working on a replacement for the Aadhaar Card. According to The Indian Express’ assessment of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (MeitY) proposed plan, the government is working on a new model of “Federated Digital Identities” that will link multiple digital IDs such as driving licences, passport numbers, PAN numbers, and so on into one.
This new digital ID will appear to be in the form of a one-of-a-kind number, similar to the Aadhaar card number. The proposed proposal claims that a citizen will be “empowered” by the umbrella digital identity since it “puts her in control of various identities and gives her the option of choosing which one to employ for what reason,” according to the report.
The Federal Digital Identity appears to be a one-stop shop for storing Central and State-related ID information. This digital ID could be used for KYC or eKYC (know your customer) procedures, as envisaged. The planned strategy has been relocated under the India Enterprise Architecture (IndEA) 2.0, which was first announced in 2017 with the goal of bringing government and business organisations together to make online identification processes easier.
To carry the proposal forward, the government has proposed a redesigned framework in which the most comprehensive work will be done by the Centre ‘or by ministries that deal with concurrent or state matters,’ according to the government. The’state architecture pattern’ will be handled by state governments, while the ‘InDEA Lite architectural pattern’ will be handled by both state and federal governments.
The suggested framework, according to the paper, intends to create a new digital architecture that is “interconnected and interoperable.” With just one unique ID, the ‘Federal Digital Identity’ hopes to simplify the eKYC process.
However, detractors may raise concerns about digital security, and an umbrella identity might increase the danger of important data being exposed. However, the proposed concept is still in its early phases, and the inner workings are unknown. The proposal is expected to be released to the public soon, and the Ministry may request feedback by February 27.
