Many people face confusion in understanding the terminologies Aadhaar Linking and Aadhaar Seeding. Although the name sounds same, the objectives of both are different.

Aadhaar Linking

It is the process of linking your bank account with Aadhaar card number. You can link any number of bank accounts with your Aadhaar number. For e.g. if you have bank account in ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank; then you can link your Aadhaar number in each of these banks.

Advantages of Aadhaar Linking

Once the linking is done, you can withdraw money from the bank without requiring the bank account number. And instead you can use your fingerprint to withdraw money.

Remember that Aadhaar is a unique number. And no resident can have a duplicate Aadhaar number since it is linked to their biometrics, which help identify fake identity.

Aadhaar Seeding

It is the process of linking Aadhaar card with bank account number. Note that, with seeding you can only link any 1 bank account with Aadhaar number. For e.g. If you have bank account in Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bank of Baroda; then you can link your Aadhaar number in any of the 3 banks.

Advantages of Aadhaar Seeding

Using Aadhaar seeding, money can be deposited in the seeded account by providing your Aadhaar number. There is no need to provide bank account number to deposit the money.

With Aadhaar linking, you can withdraw money using your Aadhaar number. Whereas, using Aadhaar seeding, money can be deposited in your seeded bank account using the Aadhaar number.

What is the need of Seeding?

When there was no seeding, beneficiaries were not receiving money sent through the government schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, Subsidy, MNREGA, Pension and others.

For e.g. Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi. In this scheme, the beneficiary gets Rs. 6000 every year. But in many cases it was found that, although Aadhaar details of beneficiary were provided but the bank account of a different person was provided. This was resulting in the money received by someone else. That is, verification was not possible. Because of this reason, government started Aadhaar seeding through which money from direct benefit transfer (DBT) process will be credited via Aadhaar number and not bank account.

How to Know Which Bank Account is Seeded with Aadhaar?

Using Aadhaar Seeding, DBT beneficiaries receive money from the government using Aadhaar number only. But if you don’t know which bank account is seeded with Aadhaar then you’ll first need to link your mobile number with Aadhaar number. For this –

1. You need to visit the official government website https://myaadhaar.uidai.gov.in/
2. Click Login button
3. Enter Aadhaar number of the DBT beneficiary and enter captcha.
4. Click Login with OTP
5. DBT beneficiary will receive 6-digit OTP on the mobile number linked with Aadhaar
6. Upon entering accurate details, you will be successfully logged-in into the Aadhaar portal
7. Then click on the tab “Bank Seeding Status”
8. It will then show which bank account is active along with the bank name and account number and the last updated date. This is the bank account in which DBT beneficiary receives money from the government.

Hi, I am Nikesh Mehta, owner and writer of this site. I’m an analytics professional and also love writing on finance and related industry. I’ve done online course in Financial Markets and Investment Strategy from Indian School of Business. I can be reached at nikeshmehta@allonmoney.com.