Government of India Initiatives & Policies

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which was set up by the Government of India, is the statutory body that issues the Aadhaar number. Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identity number that is given to all residents of India after taking their biometric and demographic details (10 fingerprints, two iris scans, and a face photograph). It has transformed from a simple ID card to a base layer of India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).

The Paramount Significance of Aadhaar

The importance of Aadhaar arises from its potential to furnish a universal, verifiable, and portable identity to all residents, promoting transparency and efficiency in governance and delivery of services. Its most important functions are:

 • Universal Identity: It is one, most accepted Proof of Identity (PoI) and Proof of Address (PoA) nationwide for both government and non-governmental services.

• Targeted Service Delivery (DBT): It is the foundation of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system. Through connecting Aadhaar to bank accounts, subsidies (such as LPG, pension, PDS) get transferred directly to the target beneficiaries, obviating intermediaries, reducing leakages, and ensuring the right person receives benefits.

• Financial Inclusion (e-KYC): Aadhaar-linked Electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) has made it easy and quick to open a bank account, obtain mobile connections, and avail financial services, greatly helping to include the disadvantaged in the financial system.

 • Better Governance: It aids in the removal of duplicate and false identities from multiple government databases, including voter ID and ration cards, thus helping to ensure better use of public funds.

• Convenience of Living: Facilitations such as obtaining a passport, enrolling with the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), or opening an Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) are made efficient and convenient with Aadhaar.

 Latest Developments and Innovations

 UIDAI is constantly working to improve the Aadhaar ecosystem, going in the direction of security, privacy, and ease of use. Recent trends reflect this thrust:

• Aadhaar Face Authentication: Face verification is picking up speed quickly, being implemented across industries. It provides safe, contactless, and paperless authentication, and is being championed as a major feature for diverse transactions.

• Future New Aadhaar App: UIDAI has exhibited a future mobile app aimed at providing Aadhaar card holders more power over their information. The new application will allow residents to provide only the required data while taking advantage of services, thus safeguarding their privacy.

• Mandatory Biometric Update (MBU) for Children: UIDAI has made efforts more stringent so that mandatory biometric updates for children between 5 to 15 years of age are made in time, which is necessary for keeping the database accurate.

• Integration with UDISE+ and Others: The emphasis is placed on integrating Aadhaar status with systems such as UDISE+ (Unified District Information System for Education Plus) and announcing authentication platforms for organizations such as Cooperative Banks to enhance its implementation.

• Robustness and Security: Collaborations with institutions such as the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) for state-of-the-art R&D are geared towards enhancing the robustness, security, and reliability of the Aadhaar system even more through data-driven innovations.

 Key Points from Aadhaar Samvaad

Aadhaar Samvaad is a series of flagship stakeholder outreach conferences organized by UIDAI to deliberate and exchange thoughts on improving service delivery and usage of Aadhaar. Some highlights and themes of recent editions are:

 • Aadhaar as the Foundational Layer of DPI: Top government leaders have reiterated over and over again Aadhaar's status as the root layer of India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), which has enabled the expansion of many digital services.

• Innovation and Augmented Usage: The speeches draw attention to ongoing innovation in UIDAI to meet emerging use cases. Themes such as 'Connect, Empower, and Innovate' concentrate on increasing Aadhaar's usefulness, enabling the startup ecosystem, and encouraging innovation.

• User-Centric Design and Control over Data: The overall theme is empowering Aadhaar users by providing them with greater control over the manner in which they want to share their identity data, as illustrated by the unveiling of the new Aadhaar app, which enables users to share only required data.

• Building Governance and Inclusion: Samvaads systematically reaffirm Aadhaar's core position in building governance, enhancing financial and social inclusion, and facilitating effective service delivery from education and healthcare to social welfare.

 • Embracing New Technologies: The events are used as a platform to bring to the fore and encourage the embracing of new technologies and processes for enrolment and authentication, with Aadhaar Face Authentication being featured as a key breakthrough.

In short, Aadhaar, with the relentless efforts of UIDAI, remains a cutting-edge, secure, and privacy-enforcing digital identity infrastructure, serving as the key driver of India's digital story and inclusive growth narrative.