In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Andy Mukherjee writes that India’s recent Supreme Court decision, which found Aadhaar to be constitutional, grants the government sole use of the biometric-based system, moving it beyond the public's reach. The ruling, he says, will make regulatory requirements for “know-your-customer” drastically more expensive for companies that could, as a result, slow down growth and negatively impact the economy. Mukherjee writes that while the decision “threatens to be a showstopper, though it needn’t be.” He adds that the government may be able to operate a KYC utility, "That way, India could balance the concerns of privacy and trust: by allowing the private sector to only make 'Yes/No' queries of the central repository when a customer wants to establish her identity." (Registration may be required to access this story.)
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