Centre plans to enable Aadhaar authentication by entities other than govt depts

New Delhi: The Centre plans to allow entities other than a central or state government ministry or department that plan to use Aadhaar for providing various public services to authenticate it.

The Ministry for Electronics and IT proposes to amend the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance Rules, 2020 for this purpose and has posted the amendments on its website, seeking comments on them from stakeholders and the general public by May 5, 2023.

“It is proposed that any entity other than a government ministry or department that desires to use Aadhaar authentication for the purpose of enabling better access to services, usage of digital platforms to ensure good governance, preventing dissipation of social welfare benefits, enabling innovation and spread of knowledge, shall prepare a proposal giving justification as to how the authentication sought is for one of the above purposes and in the interest of state and submit the same to the concerned ministry or department of the central or state government,” a statement issued by the IT ministry said.

“If the concerned ministry or department is of the opinion that the proposal submitted fulfils such a purpose and is in the interest of the state, it will forward the proposal along with its recommendation to the IT ministry,” it added further.

At present, the ministries and departments are allowed to undertake Aadhaar authentication under the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Rules, 2020 in the interest of good governance and to prevent leakage of public funds and enable innovation and the spread of knowledge.