India seeks domestic face biometric liveness, contactless fingerprint capabilities

The Unique Identification Authority of India is introducing a new initiative and seeking deepfake and liveness detection technologies to protect Aadhaar authentication from biometric spoof attacks.

UIDAI’s Scheme for Innovation and Technology Association with Aadhaar (SITAA) calls for startups, academia and industry players to develop software domestically that can protect against deepfakes and biometric presentation attacks in real-time or close to it. The program is intended to align with India’s digital public infrastructure priorities, the authority says.

The first step in the SITAA initiative is a pilot consisting of multiple challenges, for which interested entities can apply for participation by November 14, 2025.

One challenge is to develop SDKs for active and passive face liveness detection that can prevent spoofs with photos, videos, masks, morphs, deepfakes and adversarial inputs. The software should support edge and server deployments and work with various demographics and devices. User friction should be minimized with a passive liveness-first approach, UIDAI stipulates.

Advanced presentation attack detection (PAD) solutions for Aadhaar-based face authentication are sought from academic and research institutions. The solution should be accurate, compliant with privacy requirements and scalable, and interoperable with Aadhaar APIs, as well as meeting similar criteria to the SDKs above.

Aadhaar face authentications reached 2 billion in August, just six months after the system surpassed a billion biometric transactions.

UIDIA is also seeking SDKs for authentication with contactless fingerprint biometrics using standard smartphone cameras and low-cost devices. The technology should ensure high-quality images are captured with real-time guidance, build in preprocessing and image quality checks, and apply liveness detection. The fingerprint templates generated must be interoperable with AFIS software and run efficiently on mobile and edge devices. A demo mobile app for enrollment and authentication and a quality checking and testing tool are among the required deliverables.

Under the initiative, MeitY Startup Hub will provide technical mentoring, incubation, and accelerator support. Non-profit industry group NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies) will provide industry networking, global outreach, and entrepreneurial support, according to the announcement.

The initiative is the latest in a series of steps by UIDAI to increase the use and effectiveness of biometric liveness detection within the Aadhaar ecosystem. Other recent developments along the same path include a five-year research and development deal with the ISI, and new requirements including PAD capabilities added for certification of biometric devices for use with Aadhaar at the beginning of this year.

Article Topics

Aadhaar  |  biometric liveness detection  |  deepfake detection  |  India  |  passive facial liveness  |  presentation attack detection  |  Scheme for Innovation and Technology Association with Aadhaar (SITAA)  |  UIDAI