Aadhaar has proved to be one of the biggest innovations of the country, says Anand Wardhan

Dehradun, 31 July ( UH). Aadhaar has proved to be one of the biggest innovations of the country. Quite interestingly, Aadhaar has given identity to a large number of people who did not have any identity whatsoever earlier. The scale and facilities extended by Aadhaar are unheard of in the entire world.

As part of an effort to promote Aadhaar usage by states, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
Delhi Regional Office (RO) organized a State Level workshop on the ‘Recent Initiatives for Simplifying
Aadhaar Usage’ at the Civil Services Institute, Dehradun on July 29, 2022

The workshop was chaired by Shri Anand Bardhan, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of
Uttarakhand. Over 60 Senior Officers of the State Government, Banks, BSNL, Department of Posts,
National Information Centre (NIC) and the Central Government attended the workshop.
Notable amongst the Senior Uttarakhand State officers were Sh. Amit Sinha IPS, Director ITDA, and Smt.
Sowjanya IAS, Chief Electoral Officer, Secretary IT& Finance, and Sh. Ahmed Iqbal, IAS, I.G., Stamp &
Registration.
The four sessions of the workshop deliberated on the latest Authentication features added in the Aadhaar
ecosystem, Innovative use cases of Aadhaar and best practices implemented in Uttarakhand, Data Privacy
& Information Security, related Legal aspects and Direct Benefit Transfers & Aadhaar Enabled Payment
System. The sessions also elaborated on m-Aadhaar app, Aadhaar online services and how the UIDAI has
made efforts to make Aadhaar enrolment and updation services, a frictionless experience for the residents.
Speaking on the occasion Shri. Sanjay Kumar Sohani ITS, Deputy Director General, UIDAI explained
how Aadhaar has become the core of India’s digital public infrastructure. Bridged the digital divide,
enabled e-KYC services, provided banking at the doorstep through mobiles, and facilitated cash transfers
directly into the bank accounts of the needy and deserving recipients of various welfare schemes of the
Government. He further mentioned the recent initiatives like Face Auth, Offline Verification &
reduction of authentication fees taken by UIDAI.
Shri Anand Bardhan, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Uttarakhand applauded the efforts of UIDAI team
and said that sharing of best practices & recent initiatives taken by UIDAI is one of the important features
of this workshop and should be regularly done. He further said society has very well accepted the Aadhaar
and Aadhaar has actually contributed to systemic improvements. He further emphasized ALBR so as to
further improve penetration in 0 to 5 years group. Sh. Bardhan advised on State Govt. Departments to take
steps for improving the authentication success rate in PDS as already 99% seeding of Aadhaar in PDS has
been done. He noted that the benefits of Aadhaar extended not only in monetary savings to the state but
also stimulated responsible behavior and transparency in various schemes of the Government.
Shri Amit Sinha, IPS, Director ITDA in Uttarakhand state shared success stories of Aadhaar and discussed
roadmap incorporating the latest technologies and network integration in the State for expanding Aadhaar
usages in Uttarakhand state.
Shri Dhrubojyoti Roy, Senior Associate, National Payment Corporation of India gave a presentation on
leveraging the payment gateway for Direct Benefit Transfer schemes of the State Government and backend
integration with IT infrastructure of the Banks.