Lok Sabha Question No. 51 (STARRED), answered on 2016-07-20
Subject: Verification of Beneficiaries
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: K. GOPAL

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.51 TO BE ANSWERED ON 20 TH  JULY, 2016

## VERIFICATION OF BENEFICIARIES

- *51. DR. K. GOPAL:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  host  of  services/facilities  are  available  on  digital  platform  including mobile and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the Government proposes to utilise  mobile number for verification of beneficiaries for extending benefits under various Government services and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the safeguards taken by the Government in this regard; and
- (d) the present status of the proposal?

## ANSWER

THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS & MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI MANOJ SINHA)

- (a) to (d) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

STATEMENT  TO  BE  LAID  ON  THE  TABLE  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA  IN  RESPECT  OF PARTS (a) TO (d) OF LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 51  FOR 20 th  JULY, 2016 REGARDING 'VERIFICATION OF BENEFICIARIES'.

(a) Yes,  Sir.  The  Government  of  India  has  implemented  several  schemes/projects  to make  services/facilities  available  on  digital  platform  including  mobile.  Under  Digital  India programme, 'e-Kranti' is  being  implemented,  which  envisages  making  all  government services  accessible  to  the  common  man  in  his  locality,  through  Common  Service  Delivery outlets such as Digital Seva Kendras and ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man. With a view to integrate  various  services,  host  of  services  under  various  Mission  Mode  Projects  (MMPs) covering  wide  domains  including  Health,  Education,  Passport  Seva,  Trade,  Income  Tax, Excise  &  Customs,  Corporate  Affairs,  India  Post,  e-Police,  Land  Records,  etc.  are  being implemented  under  e-Kranti  by  various  Central  Ministries/Departments  and  States/Union Territories governments, undertaking Government Process Reengineering (GPR), work flow automation, introducing latest technologies such as Cloud and mobile platform.

The  Government  has  undertaken  several  initiatives  to  introduce  new  Information Technology  products  and  technologies  and  to  strengthen  existing  ones  in  its  various  eGovernance  projects  wherever  applicable.  These  include Meghraj-  GI  (Government  of India) Cloud project to utilize and harness the benefits of Cloud Computing, Digital Locker for  online  storage  and  sharing  of  Government  documents  and  certificates, e-Sign  (eSignature) for  hassle free online electronic signature with Aadhaar authentication, National Geo-Spatial Information System (GIS) for decision support system, National Scholarships Portal for  all  government  scholarships  on  a  single  website, e-Hospital to  eliminate  long queues in the hospital and easy maintenance of health records, MyGov (My  Government) portal to enhance digital empowerment and enhance citizens' partnership in the governance eco  system, Mobile  Seva to  provide  government  services  to  the  people  through  mobile phones  and  tablets, Jeevan  Pramaan to  provide  biometric  enabled  digital  services  for pensioners, PayGov  India and National  Services  Delivery  Gateway for  expeditious  and cost effective implementation of e-Governance projects, etc.

In addition to this, the Government has notified 'Framework for Mobile Governance' to utilize the massive reach of mobile phones and harness the potential of mobile applications (apps) to enable easy and round-the-clock access to public services, especially in the rural areas. The framework aims to create unique infrastructure as well as application development ecosystem for m-Governance in the country.

Further, mobile applications have been used by all the States/Union Territories and various Central Government departments for delivering their services to citizens. Currently, 788 applications are hosted on the Government Mobile Application Store (Appstore) for the following categories of services:

- Aadhaar
- Agriculture
- Electoral
- Health
- Indian Post
- Judiciary

(b) to (d)   At  present,  there  is  no  such  proposal  to  utilize  the  mobile  number  for verification  of    beneficiaries  for  extending  benefits  under  various  Government  service. However, in order to transfer the cash/benefits directly under various Government schemes, Aadhaar is preferably used as an identifier for authentication & verification of beneficiary and the  mobile  number  is  used  only  for  the  purpose  for  dissemination  of  information  to  the beneficiary.

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