UIDAI next focus on services and applications

Having enrolled 200 million Indian citizens for Aadhaar, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is now taking the initial steps to the services route.

UIDAI chairperson Nandan Nilekani said that they have started two pilots that will allow the oil industry to bring in transparency in LPG transfer and the use of Aadhaar for getting mobile connectivity.

UIDAI is running a pilot in Mysore using the Aadhaar platform for giving LPG cylinder connections in the region. One could get a LPG connection, through the use of his/her Aadhaar number.

In Hyderabad soon, the Aadhaar platform would be used in a pilot project for verifications of persons for gettimg a mobile SIM cards.

From February 7 onwards, Aadhaar had begun its service delivery function. Jharkhand was the first state to come under the ambit of these services. UIDAI along with the Ministry of Rural Development has started the use of payment mechanism with the Aadhaar number of the workers. UIDAI is also running a pilot with banks for opening up accounts.

"Our next big shift is towards applications that will benefit the common man. We have a list of empanelled IT firms and consultants for the same. Our mandate is to improve public governance," said Nilekani to media-persons on the sidelines of the NASSCOM India Leadership forum.

He also added that UIDAI has successfully completed its mandate of rolling out Aadhaar to 200 million people. "We have been mandated by the Cabinet to roll out Aadhaar's for another 400 million. By 2014 we would have enrolled 600 million people with Aadhaars," he said.

The project has taken a hiatus of six weeks to refresh and relook at the systems, security and processes.