India, March 20 -- Amid reports of alleged friction between the Indian government and industry over having the Aadhaar app pre-installed in smartphones, both sides have now said this was a proposal still being discussed, and there's no plan to make it mandatory to keep the app.

The proposal was sent to the IT ministry in November 2025 to preinstall the new Aadhaar app on mobile phones, and there are stakeholder consultations going on in the matter, Bhuvnesh Kumar, CEO of the UIDAI, told HT on Friday.

"The UIDAI's logic behind the preinstallation of the app was convenience for underprivileged people who don't have access to high-end mobile phones and cannot install apps that may occupy a lot of space on their devices," he said.

He also ...