JOIN USUIDAI Deputy Director General K Ganga, said the Aadhar project had already laid the foundation to enroll and give a unique 12 digit number to individuals. “Developing applications to find innovative uses for the Aadhar number was the next wave of the project,” she said, while addressing the delegates at the Nasscom meet on Next Generation Service Delivery.
The Aadhar project which started in 2009 enrolls individuals by collecting their fingerprint and iris details, name, gender, date of birth and address proof. Aadhar chairman Nandan Nilekani said all certified partners would be able to embed authentication features in their applications. He described applications as the game changer for the project. The growing use of Aadhar number is expected to prompt developers to start building applications, which will further find new uses for it. Sujeet Pillai of Feecounter.com said the core need of any application developer was a user base, which Aadhar offered. Giving an example of the kind of services that may emerge, he said a company can develop an application to record medical history of individuals and tie to the Aadhar number. “If you consult a new doctor, at the click of a button, he can get to know about your medical condition and previous treatments,” he said.
A senior developer at a Bangalore-based accounting product firm said the immediate opportunities were in developing applications for e-governance. Different schemes of central, state and district governments were making payments to people. “IT companies can build applications to facilitate direct bank transfers to beneficiaries of these schemes,” he said.