Aadhaar adds face authentication for ration shops, and four other changes
At Aadhaar Samvaad in Kolkata, India's identity authority launched five initiatives aimed at people whose fingerprints fail and at small organisations that need to verify identity.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) announced five initiatives at the Aadhaar Samvaad in Kolkata on 29 September, which coincided with the 17th Aadhaar Day.
Face authentication at the ration shop
The most practical change is at the point of distribution. UIDAI, the Department of Food and Public Distribution and the National Informatics Centre launched face authentication for the Electronic Public Distribution System, the network through which subsidised food grains are handed out. The consent-based, contactless option is meant for cases where fingerprint authentication is difficult, a long-standing problem for manual workers and older people.
The other four
An upgraded SWIK Portal 2.0 streamlines how non-government entities seek approval to use Aadhaar authentication under the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance framework. A new Sub-AUA/Sub-KUA (LITE) framework lets government and eligible organisations with low volumes use the infrastructure of an existing authentication agency instead of building their own. UIDAI also unveiled a Token Management System, and Minister of State Jitin Prasada launched a revamped UIDAI website.
Research desk, Online
Stories by the IQGov research desk are written from public documents, official data and on-record statements, which are listed and linked at the end of each piece.
