Preparation for facial recognition in Aadhaar instead of fingerprints:Govt seeks of 100 crore authentications per month; move to enhance security with AI and quantum technology

The government has begun work on major changes to Aadhaar’s technical system. A document called ‘Aadhaar Vision 2032’ has been prepared for this purpose. It suggests using new technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, blockchain and quantum computing. The goal is to make Aadhaar faster, more secure and free from fraud. Under the proposed system, facial recognition will replace fingerprints as the main method of identification. Aadhaar CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar said Vision 2032 is the current target, but planning is being done with future technologies in mind. He said the technology landscape is changing quickly, especially with the rise of AI and quantum computing. Three major changes Around 9 crore Aadhaar authentications take place every day. Of these, about 1 crore are done using face authentication. The government now aims to reach 100 crore face-based authentications every month. With the new system, facial data will be updated regularly through AI. This means people will not need to submit their biometrics again and again. So far, the biometrics of 5 crore children and adolescents have been updated by December. This service will remain free until September 2026. Preparation of technical framework The committee’s draft will be finalized next month and submitted to UIDAI in March. Based on this, a new technical framework for Aadhaar will be prepared for the next five years. The current contract ends in 2027, and a new contract will be signed for the period up to 2032. The committee was formed in October last year under the chairmanship of UIDAI Chairman Nilakanth Mishra. Its members include Sarvam AI co-founder Vivek Raghavan, Nutanix founder Dheeraj Pandey, Dr P Poornachandran from Amrita University, Prof Anil Jain of Michigan State University, and IIT Jodhpur’s Mayank Vats.