Govt Calls Moody's Opinion On Aadhaar As 'Baseless', Says Most Trusted Digital ID In India

The government slammed Moody's Investors Services' opinion of Aadhaar where the rating agency questioned the reliability of the country's 12-digit biometric universal identity. The Ministry of Electronics & IT on September 25 called Moody's views on Aadhaar "baseless". The ministry also said, that over the last decade, over a billion Indians have expressed their trust in Aadhaar by using it to authenticate themselves over 100 billion times.

In a statement, the ministry said, "a certain investor service has, without citing any evidence or basis, made sweeping assertions against Aadhaar, the most trusted digital ID in the world," adding, "Over the last decade, over a billion Indians have expressed their trust in Aadhaar by using it to authenticate themselves over 100 billion times."

"To ignore such an unprecedented vote of confidence in an identity system is to imply that the users do not understand what is in their own interest," the ministry said.

On Monday, Moody's raised red flags about Aadhaar biometrics. The rating agency observed that Aadhaar enables access to public and private services, with verification via fingerprint or iris scans, and alternatives like One-Time Passcodes, with an aim to integrate marginalised groups and expand welfare benefits access, as reported by Indian Express. However, it added, the system faces hurdles, including the burden of establishing authorisation and concerns about biometric reliability.

Moody's concerns over Aadhaar came after India's top auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) knocked the doors of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for Aadhaar's deficient data management.

As per the ministry, Moody's report in question does not cite either primary or secondary data or research in support of the opinions presented in it. The investor service did not make any attempt to ascertain facts regarding the issues raised by from the Authority. The sole reference cited in the report is in respect of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), by referring to its website. However, the report incorrectly cites the number of Aadhaars issued as 1.2 billion, although the website prominently gives the updated numbers.

Further, the ministry pointed out that Moody's report avers that the use of biometric technologies results in service denials for manual laborers in India's hot, humid climate, an obvious reference to India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

The ministry argued that it is evident that the authors of Moody's are unaware that the seeding of Aadhaar in the MGNREGS database has been done without requiring the worker to authenticate using their biometrics, and that even payment to workers under the scheme is made directly crediting money in their account and does not require the worker to authenticate using their biometrics.

Further, the ministry said, "The report ignores that biometric submission is also possible through contactless means like face authentication and iris authentication. In addition, the option of mobile OTP is also available in many use cases."

In case of the concern over security and privacy vulnerabilities in a centralised Aadhaar system, the ministry said, "The factual position in this regard has been repeatedly disclosed in response to Parliament questions, where Parliament has been categorically informed that till date no breach has been reported from Aadhaar database. Further, Parliament has laid down robust privacy protections in the law governing the Aadhaar system and these are observed through robust technological and organisational arrangements."

State-of-the-art security solutions are in place, along with a federated database and encryption of data both at rest and in motion, the ministry added.

Also, the ministry said, "While the vote of confidence of a billion-plus Indians is sufficient testimony to the value offered by Aadhaar, it is pertinent that a number of international agencies, including the IMF and World Bank, have lauded the role of Aadhaar. Several nations have also been engaged with the Authority to understand how they may deploy similar digital ID systems."

"Aadhaar is the foundational Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) of the India stack," the ministry said.

Recently, the G20 New Delhi Declaration has welcomed the G20 Framework for Systems of Digital Public Infrastructure, a voluntary and suggested framework for the development, deployment and governance of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), and welcomed India's plan to build and maintain a Global Digital Public Infrastructure Repository (GDPIR), a virtual repository of DPI, voluntarily shared by G20 members and beyond.