10 Things You Should Know About Aadhaar

If you’re living in India, there’s a pretty good chance you have an Aadhaar card. At first glance, it may seem like yet another identity card taking up space in your wallet/purse. But there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. Keep reading to find out what it is, what it can do and what makes it unique.

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1. Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identification number for Indian residents, issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

Unlike most other government-issued cards, everyone is eligible for Aadhaar (Image Source)

2. Over 937,504,600 Aadhaar numbers have been issued so far. That’s more than 78% of India’s population. If you have enrolled for Aadhaar you can download a copy of your Aadhaar letter online.

Thousands of temporary enrolment stations were set up across the country to accelerate the process (Image Source)

3. The first Aadhaar number was issued in September, 2010. In the five years since, Aadhaar’s growth has been faster than that of WhatsApp (which was launched around the same time).

Ranjana Sonawne of Tembhli village in Maharashtra was the first person to receive an Aadhaar (Image Source)

4. As part of the enrollment process, a person’s photograph, all ten fingerprints, and iris scans are recorded, so that they can be used for biometric authentication.

Aadhaar is the world’s largest Biometric ID system (Image Source).

5. Aadhaar is a completely digital identity. Unlike other government-issued cards, it isn’t tied to a physical card or booklet. There’s no “official” or “original” Aadhaar card.

A digital copy (e-Aadhaar), a printout and the official UIDAI letter are all equivalent (Image Source)

6. Authentication and verification of a person holding an Aadhaar number can be done online using an API (a web service) provided by UIDAI. This makes it an ideal verification mechanism for online and point of sale (PoS) transactions.

“Aadhaar number, along with other attributes (demographic and/or biometrics and/or OTP) is submitted [in an API request]. The [system] verifies whether the data submitted matches the data available in [the database] and responds with a ‘yes/no’.” — Aadhaar Authentication FAQ

The Public Distribution System (PDS) uses Aadhaar-based biometric authentication to track the distribution of subsidized ration to the poor, preventing leakages and corruption (Image Source)

6. Before Aadhaar, millions of people in India, such as migrant workers and people in remote villages and city slums, had no proof of identity, age or address. Consequently, they had no access to financial services like bank accounts or loans. Many of them were running businesses entirely on cash.

Thousands of businesses, like this clothing factory in Dharavi, will now have access to financial services (Image Source)

7. Close to 180 million bank accounts have been opened in the period August 2014 — August 2015 under the Jan-Dhan Yojana. This would’ve been impossible without Aadhaar and e-KYC (Aadhaar-based verification).

The Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana was recognized by Guinness World Records for opening the highest number of bank accounts in a week (Image Source)

8. Through the Aadhaar Enabled Payments System, it is possible to manage your bank account using just your Aadhaar number and fingerprints. This has laid the foundation for setting up millions of microATMs in roadside kirana stores across the country.

Under the Direct Benefit Transfer program, subsidies are transferred directly to people’s bank accounts, which can then be withdrawn as cash from microATMs (Image Source)

9. An interesting approach was taken for verification of applicants’ addresses, many of whom did not have any proof of address: The postman delivering the Aadhaar letter is a government employee, so his delivery of the letter is considered an official verification of one’s address that can be used for other government procedures.

Delivery of Aadhaar letters was done via India Post (Image Source)

10. The core team handling the Aadhar project consisted of less than 300 people, led by Nandan Nilekani. He is the co-founder of Infosys and was its CEO before being appointed chairman of UIDAI in 2009.

P.S.: I learned most of these things while reading the book Rebooting India, written by Nandan Nilekani and Viral Shah.