- India
- May 19
Saurabh Vijay takes charge as CEO of UIDAI
• Saurabh Vijay assumed charge as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on May 18.
• His appointment came following the elevation of former UIDAI CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar as Secretary of the Department of Tourism.
• After Kumar, UIDAI Deputy Director General Vivek Chandra Verma was given additional charge as UIDAI CEO on April 23.
• Vijay is an IAS officer of the 1998 batch of the Maharashtra cadre.
• He was Principal Secretary (Expenditure) in the Finance Department of the Maharashtra government, prior to joining UIDAI.
• Vijay has also served on central deputation in significant national and international roles, including as Director at the President’s Secretariat in New Delhi, and adviser to the Executive Director for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka at the World Bank in Washington DC.
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
• The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is a statutory authority established under the provisions of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 (Aadhaar Act, 2016) on July 12, 2016 by the government of India, under the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY).
• The Aadhaar Act, 2016 has been amended by the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019.
• Prior to its establishment as a statutory authority, UIDAI was functioning as an attached office of the then Planning Commission (now NITI Aayog).
• On September 12, 2015, the government revised the Allocation of Business Rules to attach the UIDAI to the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY).
• UIDAI was created with the objective to issue Unique Identification numbers (UID), named as Aadhaar, to all residents of India.
• UIDAI has its headquarters in New Delhi and functions through its eight regional offices situated in Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Mumbai, New Delhi and Ranchi.
• UIDAI has two data centres – one at Hebbal (Bengaluru) in Karnataka and the other at Manesar (Gurugram) in Haryana.
• UIDAI consists of a chairperson, two part-time members and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who is also the Member-Secretary of the Authority.
• At present, Neelkanth Mishra serves as the part-time chairperson of the UIDAI.
• The first UID number was issued on September 29, 2010 to a resident of Nandurbar in Maharashtra.
What is Aadhaar?
• Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique ID issued to an individual. Aadhaar uses demographic information (name, date of birth, gender and address), photograph of the face, fingerprints and iris to identify a resident. These items of information are mandatory.
• The objective of Aadhaar is to empower residents of India with a unique identity and digital platform only for the purpose of identity proof.
• Aadhaar number is a proof of identity. It does not confer any right of citizenship or domicile in respect of an Aadhaar number holder.
• Under the Aadhaar Act, 2016, UIDAI is responsible for Aadhaar enrolment and authentication, including operation and management of all stages of Aadhaar life cycle, developing the policy, procedure and system for issuing Aadhaar numbers to individuals and perform authentication and the security of identity information and authentication records of individuals.