Face authentification now in PM-Kisan mobile app, a first for Govt schemes

Sharing details of the new feature, Meherda said, “PM-Kisan scheme has become the first scheme of the government to do e-KYC through facial authentication mobile app. This app is very much useful for the farmers who are aged and also their mobile number is not linked with their Aadhaar.”

Meherda said the ministry began pilot testing of the face authentification feature in the PM-Kisan mobile app on May 21 this year. Since then, e-KYC of 3 lakh farmers has been done successfully, he said.

Until now, e-KYC of the PM-Kisan beneficiaries used to be done through either biometrics at a designated centre or one-time passwords sent to mobile phone numbers linked with Aadhaar.

However, during the e-KYC exercise, officials found many instances when farmers’ mobile numbers were not linked to Aadhaar due to which the process could not be completed, said an official. In the case of biometrics, several elderly farmers faced problems going to the nearby centre. Also, many faced the issue of non-matching of fingerprints.

Therefore, to ease the e-KYC process, the ministry decided to introduce the face authentication feature in the PM-Kisan mobile app, an official said.

The face authentication feature uses iris data of a person having an Aadhaar number. “The Aadhaar iris data was available with the Unique Identification Authority of India. So, we requested them to give us access to the face authentication feature,” the official said.

In another move, the official said, the PM-Kisan scheme is also integrating with Bhashini to provide farmers information in their native language. Bhashini is the government’s National Public Digital Platform for languages to develop services and products for citizens by leveraging the power of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

Launched in 2019, the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi or PM-Kisan scheme gives beneficiaries financial assistance of Rs 6,000 per year in three equal instalments every four months. The amount is transferred to the bank accounts of eligible farmers’ families across the country through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.

According to the Agriculture Ministry, more than 11 crore farmers have availed the scheme and an amount of Rs 2.42 lakh crore has been transferred to their accounts.