UIDAI issues 56 crore Aadhaar numbers

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has completed issuance of 56 crore Aadhaar numbers.

With generation of about 13-14 lakh Aadhaar numbers every day, the flagship programme appears all set to complete its mandate of covering 60 crore population in the next few weeks.

Established as an attached office of the Planning Commission, through a government notification in January 2009, the UIDAI issued the first Aadhaar number on 29th September 2010, after completing necessary preliminaries including establishing various standards relating to collection of data and biometric information such as finger prints and iris images.

The UIDAI issued 25 crore Aadhaar numbers in the period up to December 2012 at an average rate of almost one crore Aadhaars per month. During 2013, UIDAI issued a total of 29.1 crore Aadhaars at an average rate of over 2.4 crore Aadhaars per month.

With an increased capacity of Aadhaar generation, UIDAI is currently generating more than 3 crore Aadhaar numbers per month and has a capacity to process 15-16 lakh enrolment packets every day leading to generation of 13-14 lakhs Aadhaar numbers per day.