The UIDAI Ecosystem

Enrolment & Update Ecosystem

Enrolment Ecosystem consists of Registrars and Enrolment Agencies. Registrar is an entity authorised or recognized by UIDAI for the purpose of enrolling individuals. Enrolment Agencies are appointed by Registrars and are responsible for collecting demographic and biometric information of individuals during the enrolment process by engaging certified Operators/Supervisors.

In co-ordination with the Registrars, the Enrolment Agencies set up Enrolment Centres, where residents can enrol for Aadhaar. Multiple fingerprint scanners, iris scanners, and cameras used for enrolment are certified by STQC and UIDAI, and all connect to the UIDAI designed standard Application Programming Interface (API). Appointment of multiple registrars, multiple enrolment agencies, and multiple technology providers has created an environment of healthy competition within.

Authentication Ecosystem

The UIDAI has set up a scalable ecosystem for instant authentication of residents. The Aadhaar authentication ecosystem is capable of handling hundred  millions of authentications daily and can be scaled up further as per the demand. The UIDAI has appointed several Authentication Service Agencies (ASAs) and Authentication User Agencies (AUAs) from various Government and non-Government organisations. The UIDAI, in partnership with STQC, has also laid down the technical standards for biometric devices (L0, L1 compliant), and certified a numerous of them.

Since the authentication service is provided online and in real-time, the UIDAI has also established two data centres where authentication and other online services such as e-KYC are deployed in active-active mode to ensure high availability. Banks and payment network operators have embedded Aadhaar authentication into micro-ATMs in order to provide branch-less banking anywhere in the country in a real-time, scalable and interoperable manner.