AMN / MUMBAI
The Reserve Bank of India has clarified that neither the central bank nor its researcher was in any way connected to a study on security aspects of Aadhaar.
In a statement, the RBI said, it has come across some media reports attributing the study by one S Ananth, an adjunct faculty of Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) to RBI researchers.
The central bank said the views expressed by the author are not those of the RBI. As per media reports, a staff paper published by IDRBT has flagged safety issues related to the unique identity number.
In a separate statement, IDRBT said, the views expressed in the study are those of the author alone and do not represent the views of IDRBT or RBI.
earlier media reports suggested that, a study by a think tank affiliated with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) too suggests that. A staff paper published by the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology has flagged serious safety issues.
The paper, which attempts to trace the adoption of biometrics in India by the banks and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), also studies costs and benefits of Aadhaar.
The paper, which attempts to trace the adoption of biometrics in India by the banks and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), also studies costs and benefits of Aadhaar.
“Aadhaar faces a number of challenges over the short and long-term. The primary challenge is to protect the data from prying and excessive profit seeking excess of the business world. It is wellknown that businesses are increasingly operating in a highly competitive world in which ethical boundaries are rapidly being pulled down. The problem is compounded because they have to satisfy their shareholders in a competitive business environment that rarely looks beyond the quarterly profits and the operational dynamics of stock market listing,” it says.
However, the paper says, cyber vulnerabilities of Aadhaar are a bigger concern than the possible commercial misuse of data. “In an era when cyber threats are frequent, the major challenge for UIDAI is to protect the data under its control since the biometrics is now an important national asset which has huge ramifications for various government programmes and the banking system,” it says.
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