Right to privacy could derail government's Aadhaar push: Here's what gets affected

While Supreme Court's upholding of right to privacy as fundamental right has been welcomed, it might result in people refusing to part with their biometric details and derailing government's push for Aadhaar enrollment; a look at some of the areas where 12-digit Aadhaar has been made mandatory by the govt.

Income Tax: It is mandatorily to link your Aadhaar with 10-digit PAN to file your income tax return. Also applying for a new PAN requires you to furnish Aadhaar details now.

Bank account: Aadhaar details are must for opening a bank account too. Even existing account holders need to provide Aadhaar numbers to their respective banks. Moreover, any monetary transaction beyond Rs 50,000 requires Aadhaar.

Subsidies: To check leakages, the government made it mandatory to have an Aadhaar number for availing benefits under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). About 72% of beneficiary households have linked their ration cards with the Aadhaar number. Last year, government also made Aadhaar mandatory for availing LPG subsidy.

Railway concessions: Aadhaar is also mandatory for availing of concessional benefits by senior citizens, students, research scholars & Arjuna awardees.

Subsidised farm loans: In order for farmers to avail subsidized loan, govt. has made it mandatorily for them to link Aadhaar numbers to their accounts. Farmers can avail short-term crop loans of up to Rs 3 lakh at subsidised interest rate of 7% that could go down to 4% on prompt repayment.

Free LPG connections: Poor women wishing to avail free cooking gas (LPG) connections under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana must apply for the unique 12-digit biometric identification number Aadhaar.

Provident fund: For easy provident fund withdrawal, Employee Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) mandates linking Aadhaar with UAN.

Passport. Your Aadhaar card also serves as a proof of identity and address and while applying for your passport online. It will get you appointment and easy processing of passport within a week's time