UIDAI expands Aadhaar authentication to private sector for public interest services

Rules on how Aadhaar authentication should be conducted by private sector entities for services described as being in the public interest have been officially communicated.

These guidelines are contained in the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Amendment Rules 2025, and are part of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016.

In a January 31 news release announcing the notification, the government said the new rules will not only boost innovation, knowledge and public service engagement, but also expand the scope of Aadhaar authentication by private firms for services in the domains of digital trade, tourism, travel, hospitality and health. The objective is also to create an atmosphere of trusted transactions.

The rules come to complement guidelines which had been unveiled on the issue in 2020.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), which notified the rules, says they generally aim to “enhance the scope and utility of Aadhaar authentication to further promote good governance, social welfare, innovation, and knowledge dissemination, allowing the usage of Aadhaar for improving service delivery and thereby enhancing ease of living for residents and enabling better access to various services for them.”

The amendment allows government and non-government entities to carry out Aadhaar authentication in order to provide services in the public interest for related specific purposes like “enablement of innovation, spread of knowledge, promoting ease of living of residents and enabling better access to services for them.”

Per the amendment, private entities seeking authentication using Aadhaar biometrics are required to make requests to the relevant central or state government department. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will review, and then MeitY issues the approval for the authentication to proceed if the request is granted.

The move follows previous measures taken by the government of India to allow private entities such as those in the financial sector to perform Aadhaar biometric authentication after they showed proof of compliance with safety and security standards.

It would be recalled that the proposed changes to the Aadhaar authentication rules, as reflected in the recently notified amendment, had sparked data privacy and security fears from concerned groups.

India has issued more than 1.38 billion Aadhaar digital IDs as of July 2024, with an average of 1.5 billion monthly authentications.

Article Topics

Aadhaar  |  biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  India  |  KYC  |  UIDAI