IT industry body Nasscom has announced an initiative to collaborate with UIDAI to accelerate development of software-related application and services involving Aadhaar.

With over 460 million Aadhaar numbers being issued, a digital identity infrastructure provides a unique identity number to a resident of India that can be verified anywhere, anytime using fingerprint, iris and OTP authentication. The resident authorised electronic KYC (Know your Customer) acts as a gateway to several services such as bank accounts and insurance policies with intentions of helping the Indian citizen.

Talking about the initiative, Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, UIDAI said: “The goal is to achieve widespread diffusion of Aadhaar platform knowledge across new entrepreneurial ventures and existing software companies to assist and nurture Aadhaar capabilities across a broad range of software applications and services to benefit residents, government and enterprises.”

The announcement was made at the sidelines of Nasscom's product conclave. Som Mittal, President, Nasscom said, “With the ‘Aadhaar

Diffusion Project’, our vision is to create a vibrant technology ecosystem that brings together key stakeholders and build on the identity infrastructure. We are hopeful that this initiative will help residents move towards a unique identity that can be authenticated anytime, anywhere”.

Further, as part of the initiative, Nasscom plans to hold a number of activities to evangelise software developers that includes annual developer conference, hackathons, app contests and bootcamps. The Aadhaar Diffusion Project’ will also run awards in varied categories as well as have certification programs in partnership with a leading industry certification organisation and leveraging existing UIDAI programmes, according to Nasscom.

venkatesh.ganesh@thehindu.co.in

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