Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the government will soon bring in a law for the mandatory linking of Aadhaar and driving licenses, reports PTI. Prasad reasoned this linking to hit-and-run accident makers obtaining duplicate licenses after fleeing the scene and not being caught. He added that when Aadhaar is linked to the driving license, a person could change their name but not biometrics (iris or fingerprints). When this person applied for a duplicate license, the system would reveal the record of a pre-existing license and not assign a new one, therefore not letting a perpetrator go scot free. At the moment, there is no clarity about the laws which would need to be amended for the mandatory linking of Aadhaar and driving license or when it will come into affect. MediaNama has reached out to the Ministry of Electronics, Information and Technology and will update the story when we hear from them. Outside of this, Prasad also added that India had: 123 crore Aadhaar cards 121 crore mobile phones 44.6 crore smartphones 56 crore internet users The Aadhaar Amendment Bill Last week, the Lok Sabha passed 'The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment Bill), 2019'. The bill seeks to amend three acts: the Aadhaar Act 2016, the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 and the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002. The amendment allows private bodies such as banks and telcos to use Aadhaar as one of the ‘know your customer’ (KYC) methods for authenticating users. This is in contravention to the…
