Aadhaar to cover 600 million Indians by 2014
20 Oct 2012
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) proposes to bring 600 million resident Indians under 'Aadhaar' cover by 2014, against the nearly 210 million people who have been issued the unique 12-digit identification number, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today.
Since the first Aadhaar card was issued in a tribal village in Maharashtra two years ago, the UIDAI has registered over 240 million residents under the Aadhaar project so far.
"Aadhaar has become one of the biggest projects of its kind in the entire world," Singh said at a function to launch Aadhaar-enabled service delivery in Rajasthan.
Aadhaar-enabled service delivery leverages the Aadhaar platform to identify and authenticate residents for delivery of benefits and services by various government or private agencies.
Aadhar will benefit the poor thye most as it would help the government correctly identify beneficiaries of various social sector schemes based on the Aadhaar number.
There are many benefits associated with such integration for various stakeholders, ranging from better compliance management to reduced leakages and increased efficiency and accountability in service delivery, official sources said.
