UIDAI working on getting future technology for better service delivery: CEO

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the agency that administers Aadhaar, is preparing for the use of future technology such as quantum computing and blockchain for better service delivery, Chief Executive Officer Saurabh Garg said on Friday.

"We are looking at issue example of quantum resistant cryptography that would be required, how we can harness the smartphone capabilities for authentication, and blockchain also, how do we de-centralized that (Aadhaar database)," Garg said in conversation with Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma at InFinity Forum organised by International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) and Bloomberg.

Garg added that the UIDAI would look at partnering with other nations and help them learn from India's Aadhaar example.

"We think that going forward, we will be happy to collaborate with other nations on how digital identity,  the resilience of having it over 1.3 billion people. Other countries can use our architecture,  our systems. We would like to collaborate with international organizations also in building an international institution for standards for national identity," he said.

The UIDAI system handles more than 50 million authentications per day. As much as 99.5 per cent of the population now has it as its basic identity, in addition to enabling access to various services of the government.

Sharma said Paytm and Paytm Payments Bank are a "tremendous beneficiary" of Aadhaar authentications, which have reduced the time and effort required for the know-your-customer (KYC) process by using APIs.