Over 127 crore Aadhaar IDs generated as on January 15: Dhotre

Over 127 crore Aadhaar biometric IDs have been generated as on January 15, against the projected population of about 137 crore, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

The actual number of Aadhaar holders is, however, lesser due to deaths, and hence the concept of 'Live Aadhaar' has been introduced to estimate the number of persons holding the biometric ID who are alive, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Sanjay Dhotre said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

It is estimated that the number of 'Live Aadhaar' stands at 123.49 crore, he added.

"As on 15th January 2021, a total of 127.83 Crore Aadhaar have been generated against the projected population (2020) of about 137.05 crore," the minister said.

Overall, 'Live Aadhaar' saturation in the country is 90.1 per cent.

As on January 15, 2021, more than 50,000 Aadhaar counters are operational, that includes 23,706 of state registrars, 11,270 of banks, 10,003 of India Post, 4,617 of Common Service Centres e-Gov, and 488 of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Aadhaar Seva Kendras.

Aadhaar is a twelve-digit identification number that enables holders to establish their identity.

To another question, Dhotre said there is no proposal to incorporate caste and domicile details in the Aadhaar card of a resident, including students.

Replying to a separate question on Aarogya Setu, Dhotre said the contact tracing app has more than 16 crore registered users.

"This makes Aarogya Setu the largest app based contact tracing platform in the world," he said.