JAM Yojana

JAM Yojana
Country	India
Prime Minister	Narendra Modi

JAM (short for Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) trinity refers to the government of India initiative to link Jan Dhan accounts, Mobile numbers and Aadhar cards of Indians to plug the leakages of government subsidies.

History

The JAM trinity was proposed in the Economic Survey of 2014-15.^[1]

Jan Dhan Yojana

Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana is India's National Mission for Financial Inclusion to ensure access to financial services, namely Banking Savings & Deposit Accounts, Remittance, Credit, Insurance, Pension in an affordable manner. This financial inclusion campaign was launched by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on 28 August 2014^[2] He had announced this scheme on his first Independence Day speech on 15 August 2014.

Run by Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, on the inauguration day, 1.5 Crore (15 million) bank accounts were opened under this scheme.^[3][4] Guinness World Records Recognises the Achievements made under PMJDY, Guinness World Records Certificate says "The most bank accounts opened in 1 week as a part of financial inclusion campaign is 18,096,130 and was achieved by Banks in India from 23 to 29 August 2014". By 1 June 2016, over 22 crore (220 million) bank accounts were opened and ₹384.11 billion (US$5.7 billion) were deposited under the scheme.^[5]

Aadhar

The Unique Identification Authority of India is a central government agency of India.^[6] Its objective is to collect the biometric and demographic data of residents, store them in a centralised database, and issue a 12-digit unique identity number called Aadhaar to each resident.^[7][8] It is considered the world's largest national identification number project.^[9][10]

As of March 2016, the original legislation to back UIDAI is still pending in the Parliament of India.^[11] However, on 3 March 2016, a new money bill was introduced in the Parliament for the purpose.^[12] On 11 March 2016, the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, benefits and services) Act, 2016, was passed in the Lok Sabha.^[13] On 26 March, 2016, The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of financial & Other Subsidies, Benefits & Services) Act, 2016 was notified in the Gazette of India.^[14]

Some civil liberty groups, like Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties and Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF), have opposed the project on privacy concerns.^{[15][16][17][18]}

On 23 September 2013, the Supreme Court of India issued an interim order saying that "no person should suffer for not getting Aadhaar" as the government cannot deny a service to a resident if s/he does not possess Aadhaar, as it is voluntary and not mandatory.^[19] In another interim order on 11 August 2015, the Supreme Court of India ruled that "UIDAI/Aadhaar will not be used for any other purposes except PDS, kerosene and LPG distribution system" and made it clear that even for availing these facilities Aadhaar card will not be mandatory.^[20][21][22]

References

1. "India has started linking Jan Dhan scheme, Aadhaar and mobile numbers: Arun Jaitley", Live Mint, 2 April 2016
2. Prime Minister to Launch Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana Tomorrow, Press Information Bureau, Govt. of India, 27 August 2014
3. ET Bureau (28 August 2014), PM 'Jan Dhan' Yojana launched; aims to open 1.5 crore bank accounts on first day, The Economic Times
4. "Modi: Banking for all to end "financial untouchability"". Reuters. 28 August 2014.
5. "Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana", pmjdy.gov.in
6. "Unique Identification project expenditure at Rs 3,062 crore as of July end". The Economic Times. 29 August 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
7. "Learning with the Times: What is Aadhaar?". The Times of India. 4 December 2010. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
8. Chin, Roger (June 2015). "India's Aadhaar Project: The Unprecedented and Unique Partnership for Inclusion" (PDF). Journal of Administrative Science.
9. "UIDAI: Inside the World's Largest Data Management Project". Forbes (India). 29 November 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
10. "Aadhaar world's largest biometric ID system". The Times of India. 27 April 2015. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
11. "National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010". PRS Legislative Research.
12. "Aadhaar legislation tabled as a money Bill". The Hindu Business Line. 3 March 2016.
13. "Aadhaar bill passed in Lok Sabha". Live Mint. 11 March 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
14. http://www.indiacode.nic.in/acts-in-pdf/2016/201618.pdf
15. "UID an assault on individual liberty: Activists". Rediff. 6 September 2010. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
16. "AADHAR: Union Cabinet of Ignorance!". Rediff. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
17. "The Trouble With Big Brother's Eye". Tehelka. 31 August 2012. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
18. "Nine issues to debate on Aadhaar Bill". The Hindu. 2016-03-11. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2016-06-28.
19. "Don't tie up benefits to Aadhaar, court tells Centre". The Hindu. 24 September 2013. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
20. "Aadhaar Card Not Mandatory, Supreme Court Rules". NDTV. 11 August 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
21. "Aadhaar shall remain optional: Supreme Court". The Hindu. 11 August 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
22. "SC rules Aadhaar card not mandatory, says government cannot share any personal information". IBNLive. 11 August 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2015.