The Indian government is ramping up its use of AI-based tools paired with Aadhaar verification to remove fraudulent registrations from its welfare schemes. In its latest round, the National Health Authority (NHA) has de-impanelled 1,114 hospitals, suspended 549 others, and levied fines of nearly ₹ 122 crores (₹1.22 billion) on over 1,504 hospitals for missing the Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), a scheme that provides a yearly cover of ₹5 lakhs (₹500,000) to economically weaker families.
The information was revealed by Prataprao Jadhav, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, in response to a question asked in the Rajya Sabha on February 4 by Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha. The government clarified that it verifies beneficiaries for the AB-PMJAY scheme through Aadhaar e-KYC when creating cards that people can use to avail of said benefits.
The official response claims that NHA uses “artificial intelligence technologies to detect potential cases of misuse in AB-PMJAY. Technologies deployed include rule-based triggers and Machine Learning algorithms, fuzzy logic, image classification and de-duplication, etc.”
The use of AI-based tools to rule out fake or otherwise fraudulent entries looking to take advantage of government schemes isn’t new, and with India claiming to launch its own big AI model in the next eight to ten months, a rise in AI integration and further digitisation of public services is expected to rise. However, digitising the Public Distribution System (PDS) and AI verification can spit out false positives, which can have consequences for beneficiaries.
In 2021, a woman from Jharkhand moved the Indian Supreme Court alleging that non-linkage with Aadhaar led to the national cancellation of nearly 3 crore ration cards. Additionally, data from the Lokniti-CSDSÂ survey in 2019 shows that 28 percent of respondents were denied access to food grains over problems with their Aadhaar card. With internet penetration in India still hovering around the 50 percent mark in 2024, the aggressive digitisation of PDS presents a mounting challenge for beneficiaries, in addition to AI-based tools eliminating false positives from the system.
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