"We already have 140 million, almost 14 crore, health ID generated in India right now. 96% of them are linked with Aadhaar, remaining are linked with mobile number and we are giving an alternative option now for the last few weeks to link it with driving license," Praveen Gedam, Mission Director of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) said during a webinar organised to simplify the digital health mission for doctors on November 18. Gedam revealed new details about the ABDM to be rolled out nation wide such as the authentication of Unique Health IDs (UHIDs), the techno-legal challenges it faces therein, upcoming consultation papers, future plans for Aarogya Setu, and so on. The Indian government's digital health mission proposes a multi-tiered digital health architecture which, using registries like the UHID, will generate longitudinal electronic health records, facilitate tele-consultations, and so on. However, the mission has also led to several privacy concerns, running into controversy for reported instances of individuals being coerced into signing up for the project. What Gedam revealed during the webinar Unique Health ID authentications: "Going forward, linkages with PAN, Passport (for Unique Health IDs) so that Aadhaar is not made mandatory because it cannot be made mandatory by way of legal procedures," Gedam said. Currently, through OTP-based authentication, individuals can potentially have multiple health IDs, on different numbers, in addition to the one linked to their Aadhaar. Once linking is enabled, Indians with mobile-based UHIDs will get a message asking them to link it with a government-issued ID, Gedam…
