About Aadhaar
Aadhaar number is a 12-digit random number issued by the UIDAI
(“Authority”) to the residents of India after satisfying the
verification process laid down by the Authority. Any individual,
irrespective of age and gender, who is a resident of India, may
voluntarily enrol to obtain Aadhaar number. Person willing to enrol has
to provide minimal demographic and biometric information during the
enrolment process which is totally free of cost. An individual needs to
enrol for Aadhaar only once and after de-duplication only one Aadhaar shall be generated, as the uniqueness is achieved through the process of demographic and biometric de-duplication.
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Demographic information |
Name, Date of Birth (verified) or Age (declared), Gender, Address, Mobile Number (optional) and Email ID (optional) |
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Biometric information |
Ten Fingerprints, Two Iris Scans, and Facial Photograph |
Aadhaar number is verifiable in an online, cost-effective way. It is
unique and robust enough to eliminate duplicates and fake identities and
may be used as a basis/primary identifier to roll out several
Government welfare schemes and programmes for effective service delivery
thereby promoting transparency and good governance. This is the only
program of its kind globally, wherein a state-of-the-art digital and
online Id is being provided free of cost at such a large scale to
people, and has the potential to change the way service delivery
functions in the country.
Aadhaar number is devoid of any intelligence and does not profile
people based on caste, religion, income, health and geography. The
Aadhaar number is a proof of identity, however, it does not confer any
right of citizenship or domicile in respect of an Aadhaar number holder.
Aadhaar is a strategic policy tool for social and financial
inclusion, public sector delivery reforms, managing fiscal budgets,
increase convenience and promote hassle-free people-centric governance.
Aadhaar can be used as a permanent Financial Address and facilitates
financial inclusion of the underprivileged and weaker sections of the
society and is therefore a tool of distributive justice and equality.
The Aadhaar identity platform is one of the key pillars of the ‘Digital
India’, wherein every resident of the country is provided with a unique
identity. The Aadhaar programme has already achieved several milestones
and is by far the largest biometrics based identification system in the
world.
Aadhaar identity platform with its inherent features of Uniqueness,
Authentication, Financial Address and e-KYC, enables the Government of
India to directly reach residents of the country in delivery of various
subsidies, benefits and services by using the resident’s Aadhaar number
only.
adhaar Enrolment
Aadhaar Update
Aadhaar Services
- Verify Aadhaar Number
- Verify Email/Mobile Number
- Lock/Unlock Biometrics
- Check Aadhaar & Bank Account Linking Status
Features of Aadhaar
Uniqueness
This is achieved through the process of demographic and biometric
de-duplication. The de-duplication process compares the resident’s
demographic and biometric information, collected during the process of
enrolment, with the records in the UIDAI database to verify if the
resident is already in the database or not. An individual needs to enrol
for Aadhaar only once and after de-duplication only one Aadhaar shall
be generated. In case, the resident enrols more than once, the
subsequent enrolments will be rejected.
Portability
Aadhaar gives nationwide portability as it can be authenticated
anywhere on-line. This is critical as millions of Indians migrate from
one state to another or from rural area to urban centres etc.
Random number
Aadhaar number is a random number devoid of any intelligence. Person
willing to enrol has to provide minimal demographic along with biometric
information during the enrolment process. The Aadhaar enrolment process
does not capture details like caste, religion, income, health,
geography, etc.
Scalable technology architecture
The UID architecture is open and scalable. Resident’s data is stored
centrally and authentication can be done online from anywhere in the
country. Aadhaar Authentication service is built to handle 100 million
authentications a day.
Open source technologies
Open source architecture precludes dependence on specific computer
hardware, specific storage, specific OS, specific database vendor, or
any specific vendor technologies to scale. Such applications are built
using open source or open technologies and structured to address
scalability in a vendor neutral manner and allow co-existence of
heterogeneous hardware within same application.
Aadhaar Usage
Government of India funds a number of social welfare schemes focused
towards the poor and most vulnerable sections of society. Aadhaar and
its platform offer a unique opportunity to the government to streamline
their welfare delivery mechanism and thereby ensuring transparency and
good governance.
For Governments, Service Agencies
The UIDAI issues Aadhaar number to residents only after
de-duplicating their demographic and biometric attributes against its
entire database. Aadhaar authentication enables elimination of
duplicates under various schemes and is expected to generate substantial
savings to the government exchequer. It also provides the government
with accurate data on beneficiaries, enables direct benefit programs,
and allows the government departments/service providers to coordinate
and optimize various schemes. Aadhaar will enable implementing agencies
to verify beneficiaries and ensure targeted delivery of benefits. All
these activities will lead to:
Curbing Leakages through Targeted Delivery: Welfare programs
where beneficiaries are required to be confirmed before the service
delivery, stand to benefit from UIDAI’s authentication services. This
will result in curbing leakages and ensuring that services are delivered
to the intended beneficiaries only. Examples include subsidized food
and kerosene delivery to Public Distribution System (PDS) beneficiaries,
worksite attendance of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) beneficiaries, etc.
Improving Efficiency and Efficacy: With the Aadhaar platform
providing accurate and transparent information about the service
delivery mechanism, government can improve disbursement systems and
utilize scarce development funds more effectively and efficiently
including better human resource utilisation involved in the service
delivery network.
For Residents
Aadhaar system provides single source online identity verification
across the country for the residents. Once residents enrol, they can use
the Aadhaar number to authenticate and establish their identity
multiple times using electronic means. It eliminates the hassle of
repeatedly providing supporting identity documents each time a resident
wishes to access services such as opening a bank account, obtaining
driving license, etc. By providing a portable proof of identity that can
be verified through Aadhaar authentication on-line anytime, anywhere,
the Aadhaar system enables mobility to millions of people who migrate
from one part of the country to another.
Unique Identification Authority of India
Government of India
3rd Floor,Tower II, Jeevan Bharati Building,Connaught Circus,
New Delhi - 110001
Phone : 011-23466899
For general queries and grievances
UIDAI Regional Offices
- UIDAI Regional Office, Bengaluru
- UIDAI Technology Center, Bengaluru
- UIDAI Regional Office, Chandigarh
- UIDAI Regional Office, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi
- UIDAI Regional Office, Guwahati
- UIDAI Regional Office, Hyderabad
- UIDAI Regional Office, Lucknow
- UIDAI Regional Office, Mumbai
- UIDAI Regional Office, Ranch
