The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is working on a set of new initiatives to help residents voluntarily use Aadhaar to avail more services of their choice, a move that would expand the use of Aadhaar and promote Ease of Living. This initiative leverages the three existing components of Aadhaar – Offline KYC Verification, Local Face Matching and mAadhaar Application to unlock a new user experience. This was demonstrated at the Global Fintech Fest 2022 here in Mumbai, one such exercise to inform the emerging fintech industry about the latest developments and get their feedback.
Initiatives are:
The main principles of these initiatives are – ease of use for residents, respecting the privacy of each individual and empowering residents to voluntarily share their information for the purpose of trading and using a range of services of their choice, explained Dr. Saurabh Garg, CEO, UIDAI. Simplicity is achieved by focusing on resident experience and allowing residents to voluntarily share their offline KYC information without any connection to the UIDAI backend and create Proof of Presence using the mAadhaar application on their own smartphones.
This ensures privacy as it does not require sharing the resident’s Aadhaar number. In addition, proof of presence can be performed by local pairing on the resident’s own smartphone. In addition, the resident has control over sharing only self-selected KYC fields with the service provider and merchant application in a secure manner.
Voluntary use of Offline KYC with two-factor authentication can help residents use multiple services at once, services across sectors and sub-sectors are being separated, choices are countless, and residents’ aspirations for seamless services and benefits are growing faster. Through Aadhaar, which is a platform for enabling good governance and easy living, UIDAI is constantly working to empower citizens.
These proposed elements are proof-of-concept and should undergo thorough consultation with all stakeholders, including the public and experts. These initiatives will be completed after proper consultation and following the required rules and protocols; and, once completed, will allow residents to voluntarily use their own information to use services.
Aadhaar saturation is almost universal among Indian adults, with a saturation level of nearly 94% among the total population. UIDAI touches the lives of citizens more than 7 million times a day through various authentications. Once implemented, the new initiatives will further expand the use of offline authentication and support residents in accessing services of their choice through the voluntary use of Aadhaar.
