Aadhaar Virtual ID now operational: UIDAI

New Delhi, June 30: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which has the authority to issue Aadhaar cards, on Saturday said that its Virtual ID (VID) system is now operational.

Meanwhile, UIDAI has also classified its AUAs in 'Global' and 'Local' categories for providing authentication facility for VID through UID Token and Limited KYC. Telecom companies and E-sign provider AUAs not using API version 2.5 and e-KYC API 2.5 starting July 1 shall be charged Rs. 0.20 for every transaction performed, read a statement.

"It has been observed that a number of AUAs have already migrated to production environment using APIs 2.5 for Virtual ID implementation and most of the remaining AUAs have tested Virtual ID and UID Token in pre-production environment APIs 2.5. We are requesting with these agencies to fully migrate to production environment by the stipulated date," UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey said in a statement.

The Virtual ID, which would be a random 16-digit number, together with biometrics of the user would give any authorised agency like a mobile company, limited details like name, address and photograph, which are enough for any verification.

He further reiterated that VID is a critical security measure for protecting residents' privacy and their Aadhaar numbers. With the introduction of Virtual ID, an Aadhaar holder will have an option of not sharing his/her Aadhaar number and can generate a Virtual ID to share with AUAs to perform Aadhaar based authentication.

Pandey further explained that the authentication ecosystem varies from AUA to AUA. It is observed that in certain AUAs, the authentication is always done in a controlled environment in the presence of their own regular staff while in case of some AUAs, the authentication is performed in the presence of their agents who many a time cater to more than one AUA.

Officials said a user can generate as many Virtual IDs as he or she wants. The older ID gets automatically cancelled once a fresh one is generated. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has also introduced the concept of 'limited KYC' under which it will only provide need-based or limited details of a user to an authorised agency that is providing a particular service.