India is rapidly digitising. There are good things and bad, speed-bumps on the way and caveats to be mindful of. The weekly column Terminal focuses on all that is connected and is not – on digital issues, policy, ideas and themes dominating the conversation in India and the world.

The Registration of Births and Deaths Amendment Bill, 2023, wants to push birth and death certificates for property registration using Aadhaar. There are multiple reasons for this exercise – like taxation and claims of inheritance. But beyond the needs of governance, this data collection also powers the property markets. This data sharing will happen through the government.

In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where this process has been completed much before of the rest of the country, we saw the states forcing Aadhaar to be linked to property deeds. This move by the government of Telangana was challenged in Telangana high court, with the latter limiting the state’s ability to use Aadhaar for urban property. However, it allowed agricultural lands to be linked to Aadhaar as farmers receive subsidies. This was admittedly a compromise with the Supreme Court’s orders on allowing the use of Aadhaar only for subsidies.

2 years ago

1 min read

Aug 1, 2023

7:30 AM

India is rapidly digitising. There are good things and bad, speed-bumps on the way and caveats to be mindful of. The weekly column Terminal focuses on all that is connected and is not – on digital issues, policy, ideas and themes dominating the conversation in India and the world.

The Registration of Births and Deaths Amendment Bill, 2023, wants to push birth and death certificates for property registration using Aadhaar. There are multiple reasons for this exercise – like taxation and claims of inheritance. But beyond the needs of governance, this data collection also powers the property markets. This data sharing will happen through the government.

The idea of surveying every land parcel to create property cards and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps is primarily to resolve old property disputes and make the land pool available for market economy. In turn, the state wants to promote automated tax collection mechanisms where vacant land tax and other property taxes are imposed on owners of property.

In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where this process has been completed much before of the rest of the country, we saw the states forcing Aadhaar to be linked to property deeds. This move by the government of Telangana was challenged in Telangana high court, with the latter limiting the state’s ability to use Aadhaar for urban property. However, it allowed agricultural lands to be linked to Aadhaar as farmers receive subsidies. This was admittedly a compromise with the Supreme Court’s orders on allowing the use of Aadhaar only for subsidies.