In the past few months, all of us have received SMS and emails on the need to link Aadhaar to our SIM cards.

The first reaction is “oh no, yet another big-brother moment”. The communication has left a lot to be desired, not to mention the implementation that requires you to go to the nearest office of your Telco and do a biometric authentication.

Thankfully the implementation has now been simplified and beginning 1st December, 2017, at least those who have possession of the Aadhaar-Linked Phone Number can do so with a self-service mechanism that should make it convenient.

We should applaud TRAI leadership for thinking through and implementing this - although one wonders why that wasn’t done in the first place.

Ignoring the communication and the implementation for a moment, let’s look at why this is good for all of us. Several years back I was a volunteer at UIDAI and one of the areas I studied was Telecom KYC and the potential use of Aadhaar. For nearly all of us, our SIM card was procured by visiting a showroom or a retail outlet, filling out and signing a Customer Application Form (CAF), giving a photograph and a photocopy of a government issued ID of sorts (PAN, VoterID, Drivers License, Passport). None of those ID’s were verifiable - and all are FAKE-able.

So what does this mean?

The scary-reality is that there could be SEVERAL SIM cards issued against your ID - and you don’t know it!

When I visited one of the leading operators, they had through random checks caught a retailer who had issued 6 SIM cards against one ID, merely by creating fake photocopies of ID’s and changing one word on the Address. While all telcos made massive investments over time - and I’m talking hundreds of crores - to digitize the data and run algorithms, no one can state for a fact that they have only one or a known finite number of SIM cards issued in their name - neither the resident nor the telco. So if someone commits a crime with a SIM card issued in your name, the authorities will come knocking at your doorstep - now try proving that it wasn’t you in the first place! While we all believe that such bad-things only happen to other people - can we take a chance? I believe NOT!

The real-benefit of Aadhaar is in the Uniqueness it is establishing - no other mass-issued ID in India has that. Once Aadhaar is digitally linked to my mobile number, I know that there is no other SIM card that is linked to my name. Others can’t use that to commit a crime I might be blamed for, nor can they steal my identity. And since future SIM card issuance or replacement will require biometric authentication, people can’t claim to me and steal my other credentials by hijacking OTP’s etc.

I am the primary beneficiary of linking my Aadhaar to my mobile number. I urge all of you to think about the risks of not doing so, and the benefits of doing so versus the other way around!

So while asking yourself the question WHY, please also ask the question WHY NOT?

Disclaimer: I have no ongoing affiliation to any Telco, UIDAI currently. These are completely my personal views.

About the Author - 

Sanjay Swamy is an Entrepreneur & Early-Stage Fintech Investor! #DigitalPayments & #Financial Services Fanatic! #IndiaStack_Evangelist!

This article was originally published on Linkedin