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After continuous opposition to the government proposal to mandatorily pre-install the Aadhaar app in smartphones, the central government has decided to withdraw this scheme. Now it will not be necessary for smartphone companies to pre-install the Aadhaar app in their phones.

In the statement issued by UIDAI, it has been made clear that the government will no longer move forward on this proposal. This has come as a big relief to Apple, Samsung and other major smartphone manufacturers, who had opposed this move due to security and cost increase.

Government withdrew the proposal

A government organization said that the Government of India has decided not to move ahead with the proposal under which it would have been mandatory for Apple, Samsung and other smartphone companies to pre-install the Aadhaar app in their phones. UIDAI said in a statement to the media on Friday that India’s Ministry of Electronics has reviewed the proposal and is not in favor of making it mandatory to pre-install the Aadhaar app on smartphones.

UIDAI official statement

UIDAI said in its statement that the Electronics Ministry had consulted with stakeholders of the electronics industry before taking the decision to cancel the Aadhaar pre-installation offer. However, no reason was given for this decision in the statement.

Attempt failed for the sixth time in two years

According to media reports, this request for Aadhaar was the sixth time in the last two years that the government had demanded pre-installation of government apps on the phone. All these six efforts were opposed by smartphone companies.

Concerns of smartphone companies

When smartphone manufacturing companies received the proposal for Aadhaar preload, they expressed concerns about the security and compatibility of the device. He also talked about the increase in production costs because they had to run separate manufacturing lines for India and export markets.

In March, sources told the media that both Apple and Samsung, in particular, had concerns about the proposal due to safety and security questions.

Importance of Aadhaar App

Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identity number linked to an individual’s fingerprint and iris scan. It is owned by about 1.34 billion Indians and is used extensively for verification purposes including banking and for faster entry into airports.