In an impressive step, the Indian government, weeks from devaluing more than 80% of its cash in circulation, reveals its plans to implement a biometric payment system of last generation.

In a matter of a month, we could see India enter into a kind of economic time machine. On November 8, 2016, the government and the banking system of India implemented a policy of monetary devaluation that took out of circulation its most popular currencies, almost immediately. Now the Indian government announces plans to implement a fully digital and biometric payment system, and more than 10 million transactions have been carried out daily.

Single authority

India's Unique Identification Authority (UIDAI) has developed a mobile application called Aadhaar that is already capable of handling 10 crore, or 100 million biometric authentications per day. This will be increased to 40 crores, or 400 million, per day.

Individuals can link their Aadhaar 12-digit number with their bank accounts and employ Aadhaar Payment Systems (AEPS) to transfer funds, check balances, deposits and withdrawals, and make inter-bank transactions. As a PayPal mobile application, but in a much higher technology version with a citizen number and employing fingerprint or retinal scanning as a means of verification.

The Executive Director of UIDAI, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, stated:

We will create awareness of this new mode of transaction. Eventually we will generate capacity for 40 crore authentication. Yesterday, we reported 1.31 biometric authentication with Aadhaar. Gradually we will increase this amount. "

This is tantamount to the technological leap that took place in Kenya earlier this decade. In an economy based largely on cash and barter, with a rather small percentage of credit and debit card transactions, such as India, M-Pesa, the telephone payment system, took the whole nation by surprise. M-Pesa went from being just one concept to becoming the nation's leading payment method - measured in GDP - in just three years.

India is a gigantic society that deals with 1.2 billion people who use cash for their transactions 90% of the time. If this were to be achieved, India would effectively skip the PINs, passwords and debit cards that Western civilizations have employed for more than a generation and would enter directly into a fully digital system based on identity and biometric indicators.

"We are asking cellular manufacturers if all of India's cell phones could be built with built-in iris and fingerprint identification systems to facilitate transactions with Aadhar," said Amitabh Kant, Executive Director of NITI Aayog.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced last month that he would wage "black money" or undeclared income through black markets. This was done by first devaluing the 500 and 100 rupee tickets last month, the most popular Indian banknotes, which accounted for more than 80% of all circulating currency. New replacement tickets have been promised but there is not enough supply to deal with the gigantic population, which means ATMs dry in hours.

Modi has stated that people should start to feel comfortable using "digital payments", while Bitcoin's demand and price in the region reach their highest points, reaching over $ 1,000. The goal is to move to a "cashless" society.