aadhaar ecosystem

In a decade, India built the world’s largest population-scale real-time payments system. It changed not just banking, but behaviour itself

India's financial landscape has been revolutionized by UPI, the nation's digital payments centerpiece. Launched in 2016, it has become the world's largest real-time payment system by volume, processing billions of transactions monthly. UPI has significantly expanded financial inclusion, bringing millions into the digital economy and setting a global benchmark for inclusive financial innovation.

India's digital payments are getting a security boost from April 1 with stricter RBI authentication rules, requiring two-factor verification for all transactions to combat rising fraud. Beyond digital payments, changes affect credit cards, FASTags, RuPay cards, PAN applications, and banking services, alongside a new income tax framework, aiming for a safer financial ecosystem.

Several changes are expected to reduce the tax burden for the salaried class in general. We take a look at top 10 things salaried taxpayers should know going into the new financial year 2026-27:

India's vehicle scrappage policy aims for a circular economy but faces implementation hurdles. Gaps in infrastructure, particularly Automated Testing Stations and Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facilities, and regional disparities hinder progress. Overcoming these challenges through policy alignment, technology, and informal sector integration is crucial for success.

Meghalaya has been recognized as the nation's top-performing state in adult Aadhaar enrolment verification by UIDAI. This achievement follows a May 2023 reform where the state began verifying all new adult Aadhaar enrolments linked to Meghalaya, regardless of generation location. The citizen-centric approach has enhanced accuracy and reduced fraud.

The aadhaar ecosystem includes enrolling agencies, registrars, requesting entities, offline verification seeking entities and any other entity or group as may be specified by regulations. A bill to amend the Aadhaar Act, the Indian Telegraph Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act is listed for introduction in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

The SC issued notice to the Centre and UIDAI seeking their response on validity of the Aadhaar ordinance allowing voluntary use of the document as identity proof. The notice was issued after a PIL was filed challenging the validity of Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has initiated a nationwide capacity-building drive to improve the proficiency of thousands of Aadhaar operators across the country. UIDAI aims to reduce errors at the operator level during enrolment, updates, and authentication processes to improve residents' experience. UIDAI has already conducted around two dozen training sessions to equip nearly 3,500 operators and master trainers with the latest enrolment, update, and authentication processes' knowledge. Over 100 more training sessions are expected to take place across the States and Union Territories in the current year.

IT industry body Nasscom and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will together launch what they call the ‘aadhaar ecosystem diffusion project’ on Tuesday to encourage startups to develop an app economy around the Aadhaar platform.

New Delhi, Jan 1 () The government has proposed a penalty of up to Rs 1 crore on entities that violate the provisions of the Aadhaar Act, with an additional fine of up to Rs 10 lakh per day in case of continuous non-compliance, sources said.

Maharashtra's 'Aai' tourism policy is empowering women entrepreneurs, with over 900 securing loans totaling Rs 72.49 crore. The initiative aims to boost women's participation in tourism, offering interest-free loans and support for ventures like homestays and travel services, while also enhancing safety and inclusivity for women travelers across the state.

Principal Secretary, Food and Transport, Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, has said that the Aadhaar card has helped to establish the identity of every citizen of the country.

Starlink, under Elon Musk, is partnering with UIDAI to streamline KYC for Indian users via Aadhaar-based verification. This collaboration enables quick, secure, and paperless onboarding, ensuring regulatory compliance and a user-friendly experience. The initiative highlights the scalability and reliability of India's digital infrastructure, demonstrating how Aadhaar supports innovative technology adoption while maintaining transparency and user control over personal data.

"The impugned Ordinance creates a backdoor to permit private parties to access the aadhaar ecosystem, thus enabling state and private surveillance of citizens and the impugned regulations permit the commercial exploitation of personal and sensitive information which has been collected and stored for state purposes only," claimed the PIL.

To prevent misuse, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has deactivated approximately 1.2 crore Aadhaar numbers of deceased individuals, utilizing death records from 24 states and Union Territories. A new service on the myAadhaar portal allows family members to report a death.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Khosla Labs, Nasscom and AngelPrime have teamed up for what it calls the biggest ever Aadhaar hackathon, an effort to create useful applications based on the Aadhaar platform.