Aadhaar authentication hits 2.31 billion in March, e-KYC up by 16%

NEW DELHI- Aadhaar holders have carried out nearly 2.31 billion authentication transactions in the month of March 2023, indicative of the growing usage of Aadhaar and growth of digital economy in the country.

The March number is better than the February when 2.26 billion authentication transactions were carried out. While a majority of the authentications transaction numbers were carried out by using biometric fingerprint, it is followed by demographic and OTP authentications.

Aadhaar e-KYC service continues to play a stellar role for banking and non-banking financial services by providing transparent and improved customer experience, and helping in ease of doing business. More than 311.8 million eKYC transactions were carried out during March 2023, a jump of over 16.3 per cent against February.

Adoption of e-KYC has also significantly reduced customer acquisition cost of entities like financial institutions, telecom service providers and others. The cumulative number of Aadhaar e-KYC transactions so far has gone past 14.7 billion by the end March 2023. One hundred seventy five  entities are live on the e-KYC.

Aadhaar saturation among adult population continues to be near universal. During the month of March, more than 21.47 million Aadhaars were updated following requests from the residents as against 16.8 million such updates in February 2023.

Whether it is Aadhaar enabled DBT for direct fund transfer, Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) for last mile banking, authentications, or e-KYC for identity verification, Aadhaar, the digital infrastructure of good governance, has been playing an important role in supporting the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of Digital India, and enabling ease of living for residents.

The AePS is enabling financial inclusion for those at the bottom of the income pyramid.  In March 2023, 219.3 million last mile banking transactions were made possible through AePS and the network of micro ATMs.