India’s University Grants Commission is asking the country’s universities to start incorporating Aadhaar numbers into issued degrees.
As with so many applications of India’s national biometric ID program, the move is meant to curb fraud. The UGC is asking that universities include students’ Aadhaar numbers together with their photographs in its degree certificates, which should help to prevent individuals from falsely claiming university degrees.
As India Today points out, the UGC’s request comes immediately after India’s lower house of parliament passed a bill making the use of Aadhaar mandatory for the filing of taxes. This is occurring in a legal grey zone, with India’s Supreme Court not yet having officially determined whether the government can make the use of Aadhaar mandatory for government services.
Nevertheless, Aadhaar continues to extend its reach through various spheres of Indian society, and with the vast majority of the population enrolled and biometric authentication technologies ever more prevalent, it offers an increasingly appealing means of authentication.
Sources: India Today, India.com
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March 24, 2017 – by Alex Perala
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