Five Aadhaar Features You May Not Know About

Aadhaar number is a lifelong 12-digit random number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to the residents of the country. This number, also known as Unique Identity Number (UID), is attached to a number of demographic and biometric details. Any individual, irrespective of age and gender, who is a resident of India, may voluntarily enrol to obtain Aadhaar number. While Aadhaar is mandatory for filing an income tax return (ITR) or applying for a Permanent Account Number (PAN), the government is looking to expand the scope of Aadhaar linkage to more essential services.

Here are some unique features of Aadhaar:

1) According to UIDAI, 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.

2) Aadhaar requires demographic information like name, date of birth or age (declared), gender, address, mobile number and email ID (optional) from applicants, adds UIDAI. Biometric data needed are ten fingerprints, two iris scans, and a facial photograph.

3) Envisioned as one of the key pillars of the Digital India initiative, Aadhaar can be used as a permanent financial address and facilitates financial inclusion of the underprivileged and weaker sections of the society and is aimed to be a tool of distributive justice and equality. Examples include subsidised food and kerosene delivery to Public Distribution System (PDS) beneficiaries, worksite attendance of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) beneficiaries etc.

4) Aadhaar's backing cyber infrastructure is built on open source architecture which is not dependent on specific computer hardware, specific OS, any specific vendor technologies to scale. Such applications are structured to address scalability in a vendor neutral manner and are compatible with various hardware and software platforms.

5) According to UIDAI, about 1.2 billion Aadhaar numbers have been generated till date.