The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and the National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) came together to discuss the implementation of the UID in India at a recently held event in New Delhi.

On this occasion, UIDAI had invited a farmer from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, to be the Chief Guest and unveil the brand name, AADHAAR, and its logo. AADHAAR will be the foundation on which public and private agencies can build identity based services to benefit residents.

The UIDAI’s mandate is to provide every resident a unique identification number linked to the resident’s demographic and biometric information, which can be used to identify themselves anywhere in India. The number, referred to until now as the UID, has been named AADHAAR, which translates into ‘foundation’.

The logo for AADHAAR has been selected following a nation-wide logo competition launched by the UIDAI in February 2010. The winning design, by Atul Pande from Pune, was selected from over 2,000 entries sent by individuals and agencies from across the country.

Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of UIDAI, said, “The word AADHAAR communicates the fundamental role of the UID initiative—its relevance, universality, and its impact. It represents a new dawn of equal opportunity for each individual, which emerges from the unique identification that the number guarantees each individual. AADHAAR’s assurance of uniqueness and centralized online identity verification would be the basis for building these multiple services and applications facilitating a greater connectivity to markets. AADHAAR would give any resident the ability to access these and resources, anytime, anywhere in the country.”

“The UID infrastructure will be a foundation over which multiple applications in finance, insurance, health, labor, welfare services and others can be built, which can be used to deliver services effectively to the poor,” added Ram Sewak Sharma, Director General and Mission Director, UIDAI.

In order to ensure the smooth rollout and effective implementation of AADHAAR, the UIDAI will partner with various registrars, including state governments and other national agencies, as well as enrolment agencies. The UIDAI further intends to partner with agencies that have a pro-poor focus, such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, to ensure that the underprivileged are effectively covered during the enrolment process. The multi-tiered enrolment model will ensure that every resident will be reached through the UID infrastructure.

Sanjiv Mittal, CEO, NISG, stated, “The reach and impact of the UID project transcends our traditional approach to identity verification in India. The identity infrastructure in India today is a patchwork of multiple documents that are used as proofs of identity and which include voter cards, PAN, and driving licenses. The discussion at this platform provided insights on the UID infrastructure and its potential applications, as well as various aspects of the UID ecosystem, and the steps needed to implement UID infrastructure across industry and government.”

The enrolment process for AADHAAR is a significant opportunity for registrars across the country to provide services to residents who have long been excluded due to their lack of identification documents. It is also an opportunity for registrars across sectors such as education, health and finance, to develop innovative business models that leverage AADHAAR’s features of uniqueness and online authentication, in order to provide services and resources to residents more effectively.

Currently, the UIDAI is executing Proof of Concepts in three states, viz. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Bihar. These POCs will enable certain systems to be tested before the concept is scaled up. The UIDAI plans to complete field testing on enrolment and biometric processes by mid-July this year. The first AADHAAR is expected to be issued between August 2010 and February 2011. The Authority plans to issue 600 million UIDs over four years from the issue of the first number, through the various agencies.