India scales farmer ID system for payments with KPMG support

The India office of influential accounting firm KPMG has explained how it supported the advancement of the country’s Digital Agriculture Mission by building infrastructure that enabled direct benefit transfer (DBT) payments for millions of landholding farmers.

India’s digital agriculture mission was launched in September 2024, with the objective of building and scaling the “AgriStack” as a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). The idea was to create a database and a farmer ID that would serve as a single source of truth for the identification of farmers in the country for purposes of DBT, and access to inputs and subsidies. Early this year, the Indian government said more than 84 million people had obtained a farmer ID under the scheme.

According to a recent case study, KPMG collaborated with the Indian government to put in place a new operating mode for the benefits program to ensure “better accuracy, scalability, and continuity even during peak demand periods.”

The company adds that in the implementation of the program, they came face-to-face with several challenges which they have been able to surmount, leading to the onboarding of 12.75 crore (127.5 million) farmers and the disbursement of more than 2 lakh crore Indian rupees (over US$ 21 billion).

KPMG said it adopted an approach that enhanced identity verification and system integration allowing Aadhaar-based eKYC and UIDAI integration as well as the integration of other databases that made it easier to flag farmers that were ineligible for benefits. KPMG says it helped reclaim 296 crore rupees (US$37.7 million)

With regard to the digital operating model and platform scalability, the company said it built a cloud-based infrastructure to support transactions during peak periods and also made sure beneficiary touchpoints.

The company says it also helped the Indian government put in place an advanced analytics and governance system that made it possible to track disbursements or to reclaim funds paid to ineligible persons.

Above all, it helped put in place a system to streamline how complaints and other grievances are handled and to ensure that services could be continue uninterrupted, especially during the period of the coronavirus pandemic.

Apart from DBTs, KPMG has also been involved in supporting foot security initiatives where it has helped some Indian states to deliver rice rations to millions of citizens within the framework of the country’s national foot security drive.

KPMG has been doing some work around the world to support the implementation of digital public infrastructure systems, notably through its Digital Government Advisory initiatives.

Beyond India, KMPG companies carry out DPI market assessments to advise countries on how they go about their national digital ID systems and wider DPI projects. They are also involved in initiatives in the areas of digital health, energy distribution, and cybersecurity and data protection.  KMPG has long led advocacy for passwordless authentication.

A 2020 KPMG survey noted growing interest in enterprises modernizing their operations with innovative digital technologies such as biometrics and virtual reality systems.

Article Topics

Aadhaar  |  AgriStack  |  digital ID  |  digital payments  |  digital public infrastructure  |  farmer ID  |  India  |  KPMG