Bank accounts for all in two years — a pipe dream?

The recommendation of the Nachiket Mor committee to provide bank account to every Indian over 18 years of age by January 1, 2016, seems a little stretched. It hinges on banks opening accounts based on KYC authentication done by the UIDAI for providing the 12-digit Aadhaar number to resident Indians. Till date, the UIDAI has provided Aadhaar numbers to about 56 Cr Indians. It plans to provide Aadhaars to three Cr Indians every month and complete the coverage by December 2015. But the UIDAI has, by design or default, left out most people working as migrant labourers and domestic helps as they do not possess valid identification and address proof. So, before banks can ride on the UIDAI-enabled KYC verification, the Authority must seek out such people and issue them Aadhaar numbers. According to the Mor committee report, only 36% adult Indians — 45% in urban centres and 32% in rural areas — have bank accounts. It is, however, not clear how many of these accounts are unique, as banks still lack the unique customer identification code where dual accounts of the same person across banks can be identified.