Impact of Aadhaar on GDP

The UN Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 states that by 2030, all countries must provide legal identity for all their citizens, including birth registration. India launched its own digital identity in 2009. Since then, approximately, 95 per cent of India’s population has been enrolled with Aadhaar. The Aadhaar is universal in nature, i.e. there are no eligibility criteria for acquiring it. The Aadhaar is also not functional in nature, i.e. it is not intended for specific use for a particular purpose or sector. However, it can be linked to various functional identification systems.  It is also a proof of residence versus proof of citizenship.

Earlier research has shown the significant potential implications of legal identity for a range of issues.

The overall objective of this project is to estimate the impact of Aadhaar on GDP. There are three key stakeholders in the identification projects – the public sector, the private sector, and citizens. We will identify the direct and indirect linkages between these three stakeholders and estimate the size of the linkages to assess the overall impact of Aadhaar on GDP.