A think tank affiliated to the Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday distanced itself from a report, prepared by one of its faculty member, that flagged problems related to the Aadhaar system. “It is clarified at the outset that neither RBI nor its researchers were in anyway connected with the study,” the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology said in a statement on Wednesday.

In the staff paper on biometrics published in October 2017, S Ananth – an adjunct faculty at the institute – had said that the benefits of Aadhaar were largely unclear and the Aadhaar database was a “single target” for cyber criminals and India’s external enemies.

“The views expressed in the study are those of the author alone and do not represent the views of IDRBT or RBI... The views expressed therein have been wrongly attributed to RBI researchers in certain sections of the media,” the institute, which was established by the RBI in 1996 as an autonomous body, said.

The paper had flagged security concerns, and added that the loss to the economy and the citizens in case the UIDAI data is attacked is “incalculable”. “There is a need for caution in the manner in which Aadhaar is used by the government, especially as more programmes and economic activities are linked to it,” Ananth said. “Only time will tell if the benefits outweigh the costs or vice versa.”