Agriculture ministry launches PM Kisan Mobile App with face recognition

New Delhi, June 23

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The Union Agriculture Ministry has now launched the PM-Kisan Mobile App with a ‘face authentication feature’.

With this unique feature, farmers can now complete the e-KYC, sitting at home by scanning the face without OTP or fingerprint.

The Agriculture Ministry claimed that it is the first Union government application that has a face authentication feature.

The mobile app was launched to register farmers under the Central government’s ambitious scheme for income support to farmers – ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi’.

Under the scheme, eligible farmers are provided with a financial benefit of Rs 6,000 per year in three instalments of Rs 2,000 each (every four months). The fund is directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.

“Today, it has become possible to give benefits to such a large number of farmers only with the help of technology. No one can question the implementation of the scheme, which is a very important achievement. The work has become much easier by using technology. The Centre developed this app. The government has made all necessary facilities available to the states. Now if the states work quickly, we will reach all beneficiaries and achieve the set target,” said Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar.

However, a few farmer unions claimed that it was a step to devoid farmers of the Union government’s benefits by introducing high-end technology to register themselves through this mobile application.

A farmer in Patiala said, “First, they mandated e-KYC to get the PM Kisan Nidhi scheme benefits. I had applied and filled J form to complete the e-KYC. However, I haven’t received the 13th instalment so far. Now, they have asked the poor farmers to register themselves on smartphones. Many of them don’t have a smartphone.”

In 2022-23, the number of beneficiaries of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi the Union Government’s flagship scheme had drastically dropped. The last instalment the 13th was transferred directly to the bank accounts of 8.53 crore farmers on February 27 this year. The scheme had lost as many as 2.73 crore beneficiaries when compared with the 11th instalment disbursed in May 2022. Experts believe that the delay in the completion of e-KYC and live land integration records of farmers could be the possible reasons for the drop in the disbursement of instalment.

“The new app is easy to use. In this, farmers can know the status of land seeding, linking of Aadhaar with bank account and e-KYC using the Know User Status Module,” the minister said.