Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)

Why in news?

• The IT system at UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) has been facing a massive outage for more than a week and Aadhar users have been left in a lurch.

About UIDAI:

• The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is a statutory authority established under the provisions of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 (“Aadhaar Act 2016”)
•  The Aadhaar Act 2016 has been amended by the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019.
• UIDAI is under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
• UIDAI was created to issue Unique Identification numbers (UID), named as "Aadhaar", to all residents of India.
• Under the Aadhaar Act UIDAI is responsible for:
  • Aadhaar enrolment and authentication.
  • Operation and management of all stages of Aadhaar life cycle.
  • Developing the procedure and system for issuing Aadhaar numbers and perform authentication.
  • To ensure the security of identity information and authentication records of individuals.

About Aadhaar:

• Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identity number that can be obtained voluntarily by residents or passport holders of India, based on their biometric and demographic data.
• The data is collected by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
• Aadhaar is the world's largest biometric ID system.
• It is considered a proof of residence and not a proof of citizenship and Aadhaar does not itself grant any rights to domicile in India

What is Aadhaar Authentication?

• It is a process in which:
  • Aadhaar number along with the demographic information or biometric information of a Aadhaar number holder is submitted to the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) for its verification and
  • CIDR verifies the correctness on the basis of the information available with it.(CIDR is regulated by UIDAI).
• The purpose of Aadhaar Authentication is to provide a digital, online identity platform so that the identity of Aadhaar number holders can be validated instantly anytime, anywhere.
• UIDAI offers Aadhaar-based authentication as a service that can be availed by requesting entities.
• Requesting entities can be either government or private entities.
• This service from UIDAI can be utilized by the requesting entities to authenticate the identity of their customers or employees or other associates before providing them access to their consumer services or subsidies or other benefits.

PRELIMS QUESTION

Which of the following statements are not correct regarding ‘Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)’?

1. It is a constitutional body.

2. It operates under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Home Affairs.

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer