India's ambitious UIDAI project launched

Published 9 November 2010

India’s ambitious UIDAI ID scheme aims to assign a biometric ID to country’s 1.2 billion inhabitants; Morpho helped the Indian prime minister officially launch to project by issuing the first 12-digit UIAID number during the inauguration ceremony

Morpho has issued the first 12-digit number for India’s ambitious UIDAI ID scheme — known in India as the Aadhaar project — which aims to equip 1.2 billion Indians with biometric IDs.

Morpho’s technology played a key role in the issuance of the first 12-digit UIDAI number during the inauguration ceremony for the Aadhaar project by the Indian prime minister. This marks the official launch of the world’s largest biometrics-based identity project and a major leap for India’s development.

Morpho, a Safran group company, has been the biometrics technology provider for de-duplication of the very first numbers.

As part of this project each Indian resident will be assigned a unique identification number. IIFL reports that this number will not only enable secure access to benefits and services (education, telecom, medical care, banking and financial services), but also unprecedented political and economic rights for the residents of India.

 

Among the project’s three successful bidders, Mahindra Satyam / Morpho is the only Indian company-led consortium that has already de-duplicated thousands of biometric records at the UIDAI center in Bangalore, using Morpho’s technology.

“We are very proud that our technology has been the first to de-duplicate biometrics for the issuance of the very first Aadhaar number,” commented Jean-Paul Jainsky, chairman and CEO of Morpho. “It is truly a remarkable achievement that the UIDAI authority has been able to accomplish in just a year. Morpho has been involved in the Indian government’s biometric projects since 2003 and we look forward to taking on the major technological challenges that come with this project.”