Aadhaar-based face authentication being used by 47 entities: Govt

Monthly transactions enabled by Aadhaar-based face authentication across the country touched an all-time high of 10.6 million in May, up from 7.9 million in January, showed government data released on Thursday.

Launched in October 2021, the Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based face authentication by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is now being used by 47 entities, including state government departments, ministries in the central government and some banks.

This is the second consecutive month to register more than 10 million face authentication transactions. Usage of face authentication transactions has grown 38 per cent in the past four months.

The transactions include authentication of beneficiaries of government schemes like Ayushman Bharat, Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, registrations for the PM Kisan scheme as well as for generating digital life certificates at home by pensioners. It is also being used for marking staff attendance at several government departments and for opening bank accounts at a few leading banks via their business correspondents, as per a press note by the government.

Face authentications are aimed at providing ease of usage, faster authentication and are preferred as additional modality to strengthen the authentication success rate along with fingerprint and OTP authentications. It captures live images for authentication. The technology has helped the UIDAI as an alternative for authenticating senior citizens and those who have issues with the quality of their fingerprints.

The UIDAI has also executed around 14.86 million Aadhaar updates in May. Aadhaar holders who have not updated their information for more than 10 years can update the document online free of cost from 15 March to September 14.

Aadhaar-based e-KYC transactions crossed 254 million e-KYC in May. The total Aadhaar e-KYC transactions has grown to over 15.2 billion. Continued adoption of e-KYC is significantly reducing customer acquisition cost of entities like financial institutions, telecom service providers among others, the ministry of electronics and IT said in the press note.