Govt approves Aadhaar face authentication for private companies

The Indian government approved the integration of Aadhaar-enabled facial authentication into private companies' mobile applications to allow users to easily and securely verify their identities. It is expected that making this process available will increase accessibility, quality of life, electronic transactions, and improve digital transactions in several industries, including service aggregator providers, health care, e-commerce, credit rating agencies, and educational institutions. 

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)  asserts that the initiative conforms to the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Amendment Rules, 2025, aimed at expanding the application of Aadhaar in a bid to improve service delivery and governance efficiency and transparency. Furthermore, MeitY launched the Aadhaar Good Governance portal (swik.meity.gov.in), which offers information to businesses interested in authentication on how to apply and onboard Aadhaar authentication services.

Private companies will now be able to employ Aadhaar face authentication for processes such as staff attendance, exam enrollment, e-KYC verification, and customer onboarding following this change. By avoiding the use of OTPs or paper documents, this biometricauthentication method aims to provide customers with an easy and secure means of accessing services.

The CEO of UIDAI, Bhuvnesh Kumar, underlined how Aadhaar is helping India's digital economy flourish. He claimed that UIDAI is resident-centric and that Aadhaar facilitates good governance. The Aadhaar good governance site was created to make it easier for institutions to submit and approve ideas in compliance with established guidelines. 

"Aadhaar is the world's most trustworthy digital identity. More than a billion Indians have proven their trust in Aadhaar in the past decade by verifying themselves over 100 billion times.The amendment to the use of Aadhaar authentication would further improve the quality of life of people and facilitate them to access the newer services they want," the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said.

The amendment makes it possible for both governmental and non-governmental organisations to use the Aadhaar authentication service to offer a range of services in the public interest for related specific purposes, such as facilitating innovation, disseminating knowledge, improving residents' quality of life, and facilitating improved access to services. This would facilitate trustworthy transactions for both service providers and service seekers," MeitY continued.