The government is expanding scope of Aadhaar linkage to more essentials. While Aadhaar, the 12-digit Unique Identity Number (UID) issued by the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India), is mandatory for filing income tax return (ITR) or applying for Permanent Account Number (PAN), news agency Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) reported on Sunday citing informed sources that all phones not linked with Aadhaar will be deactivated after February 2018. The government is moving ahead with linking Aadhaar with mobile SIM cards, the agency further said. That means mobile phone service users will have to link their Aadhaar numbers with SIM numbers. Telecom companies had been earlier instructing users to start the process of linking Aadhaar card with phone numbers.

Sources told news agency IANS that linking of Aadhaar and mobile is being done as per the orders of the Supreme Court passed in February this year in the Lokniti foundation case and all SIM cards have to be verified with Aadhaar within a year from the date of judgement, with all unlinked phones to be deactivated thereafter (after February 2018).

Many telecom operators have already started sending alerts to customers about completing the Aadhaar-SIM linking process.

If you have opted for 'eKYC' - Aadhaar-based activation - by providing the biometrics while applying for the mobile connection, you do not need to go through the Aadhaar-SIM linking process again, Idea Cellular said. Other subscribers need to visit their nearest Idea outlets and follow simple steps to complete the mandated E-KYC process, the telecom company said.

eKYC is an online method of providing details as per Know Your Customer norms