UIDAI Plans To Roll Out Aadhaar 2.0 For Faster Solutions

Speaking at a virtual event held today, Saurabh Garg, CEO of UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) said that the organisation plans to come up with Aadhaar 2.0 for faster solutions.

Aadhaar 2.0, which will be an extension of the current system, will allow faster automated biometric matching solutions with an increased focus on system security, said the CEO. 

The IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer from the Odisha cadre did not rule out the possibility of the authority exploring the use of blockchain technologies and quantum computing. 

“We are looking at what blockchain has to offer, whether blockchain can be utilised in any manner for making decentralised-level solutions. In quantum computing, we need to look at whether there are quantum resilient security solutions,” he said, speaking about the plans for Aadhaar 2.0.

Apart from Aadhaar 2.0, he also talked about how the existing platform has been performing. According to him, over five crore Aadhar authentications take place every day and more than 40 Cr last-mile banking transactions are done every month through the Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS)..

“We wanted anytime, anywhere authentication capabilities. For people who don’t want to use an online authentication facility, we have brought in the offline verification system and given it a legal basis. The offline verification is free for anyone to use,” said Garg.

“Aadhaar is a public infrastructure and the goal is how we can make it accessible to all at nominal rates or free. Currently, more than 700 welfare schemes are using Aadhaar infrastructure,” he added. 

According to Saurabh Garg, more than 40 Cr last-mile banking transactions are conducted every month on the AePS system through micro ATMs. He also confirmed that Aadhaar authentication will remain free for individual residents. The UIDAI had earlier slashed the price of authentication for business customers from INR 20 to INR 3.

Last month the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 that was passed in the Lok Sabha threw widespread condemnation at its aim to link individuals’ voter IDs with their Aadhaar card.