The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) announced a new milestone in the implementation of the Aadhaar project with the enrollments crossing the 1.25 billion mark. This means that over 1.25 billion residents of India have the 12-digit unique identity.
The achievement comes along with the rapidly increasing use of Aadhaar as the primary identity document by the Aadhaar holders. This is evident from the fact that Aadhaar-based authentication services have been used close to 370 billion times since inception. At present UIDAI receives about 30 million authentication requests every day.
Also, residents are more inclined on keeping their details in Aadhaar updated. UIDAI recorded close to 3.31 billion successful Aadhaar updates (biometric and demographic) till date. At present UIDAI receives about 3-4 lakh Aadhaar updates request every day.
The 12 digit identity number, which was launched from Tembhli, Nandurbar in Maharashtra in September 2009, has been linked with government welfare payments along with income tax returns and Permanent Account Number. It has also been allowed to be used by banks and telecom companies as a means for customer identification through electronic means.