Over 712 million connections and 820 million bank accounts are already linked with 12-digit Aadhaar biometric number. The 712 million mobile connections include both new and existing connections. And the number is on December 8, 2017, according to Minister for Electronics and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad. He informed this news to Rajya Sabha recently.
"Linking of Aadhaar with personal bank accounts is being done based on the amendments that have been effected in the Prevention of Money Laundering Rules 2005. Linking of Aadhaar with the mobile number has been effected in pursuance of...Supreme Court order dated February 6, 2017," added Prasad.
Prasad further said: "As on December 8, 2017, 71.24 crore mobile numbers (new and re-verified) and 82 crore bank accounts have been linked with Aadhaar."
This news is reported by Press Trust of India first, and Prasad also noted that telcos would continue verifying the mobile connections until March 31, 2018, in-line with the recent deadline extension.
Recently, the Supreme Court extended the date for linking of Aadhaar with mobile numbers and other services until March 31, 2018. Alongside mobile numbers deadline extension, the Centre also extended the mandatory Aadhaar linking deadline for PAN Card, Bank Accounts, and welfare schemes until March 31.
To recall, the previous deadline for linking mobile connections with Aadhaar is February 6, 2018. It is also to be noted that the telcos would be implementing mobile number re-verification with Aadhaar using three new methods, which would simplify the entire linking process.
At the moment, telecom operators are coming up with several new methods such as doorstep Aadhaar linking, cashback on linking with Aadhaar, etc. Also, Airtel lost its eKYC license recently but temporarily got back until January 10, 2018.
