The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) organized a Workshop on ‘Recent Initiatives for Simplifying Aadhaar usage’ on 22nd April 2022 here today. The event focused on sharing key developments on Aadhaar and good practices in Aadhaar Usage adopted by Central Ministries. The event was attended by Sh. Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, Shri Sudhanshu Pandey, Secretary, F&PD, Sh. K. Rajaraman, Secretary MeitY,  Ms. Anuradha Prasad, Secretary ISCS, MHA, Sh. Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, MSDE and Dr. Saurabh Garg, CEO, UIDAI along with other dignitaries from Centre Governments.

Digital Identity plays an important role in development of society, both socially and financially. Ministries/Departments should utilize ‘Aadhaar’ as a foundation to achieve the goal of “saturation” i.e. to reach 100% beneficiaries. Aadhaar has proved to be one of the biggest innovations of the country.  Quite interestingly, Aadhaar has given identity to a large number of people who did not have any identity whatsoever earlier. It has bridged the digital divide, enabled e-KYC services, provided banking at the doorstep and at mobiles and facilitated cash transfer directly into the bank accounts of the needy and deserving recipients of various welfare schemes of the Government. The scale and facilities extended by Aadhaar are unheard of in entire world. Benefits of Aadhaar can be classified not only in monetary savings directly to the state but also the indirect benefits accrued in terms of modifying and stimulating responsible behaviour and digital experience of Aadhaar based identity in different sectors and states.

Various schemes like One Nation One Card are actively utilizing Aadhaar for digital authentication. Some encouraging examples like increased customer satisfaction at Fair price shops in Karnataka came to fore during the workshop. It was also deliberated during the discussions that security and privacy of resident data holds utmost importance and UIDAI should always endeavour to continue necessary measures to preserve the confidentiality, integrity & availability of same. A digital identity eco-system must support resident-centricity and allow consent-based framework for growth, scalability and ease of access to residents.

In his address, Dr. Saurabh Garg, CEO, UIDAI elaborated on the progress made by Aadhaar in the past decade and about the multiple opportunities enabled by use of Aadhaar as a foundational identity in different sectors like Food Security, DBT, Scholarships, Fintech, Lending, Healthcare etc. He also spoke about the various untapped sectors and gaps which can reap the potential of Digital Identity to reach the last mile of users and achieve universal inclusion, both social as well as financial with the cooperation of various Ministries/Departments of Government of India in order to fulfill the vision of ‘Ease of living’ for the residents.

The event showcased the functioning of Aadhaar Ecosystem and good practices followed by central government ministries utilizing Aadhaar Platform, for instance, Faceless Transport Services (eTransport MMP), PDS, DBT Schemes, eSHRAM portal etc.

The workshop ended with a vote of thanks to the chair, speakers and attendees of the workshop with a pledge to work jointly along government departments for providing ease of access and simplifying the lives of residents utilizing power of Aadhaar.

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RKJ/M

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