Aadhaar


The ambitious Unique Identity Project of Indian Government is rechristened as "Aadhaar" on Monday, 26 April, 2010.

In this project all citizens will get a unique 16-digit identity number. This project is headed by Nandan Nilkeni (Infosys fame) with Unique Identification Authority as the concerned authority.

The new logo, with a sun in yellow and a fingerprint in the centre, was also made public at a seminar organised by the UIDAI here.

UIDAI Director General R S Sharma said the first 16 digit number would be rolled out by February next year.

Nilekani said the project was aimed at the under privileged and the poor who are left out of the government's social schemes because of lack of identity proof.

R Chandra Shekhar, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, said, "AADHAAR is the first identity project which is aiming at the poor and marginalised. Earlier all such schemes use to cater only to security but AADHAAR caters to both."