New Delhi, April 10: With an aim to facilitate better offline verification of an individual, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)- the authority that issues Aadhaar has replaced existing QR code on e-Aadhaar with a secured digitally signed QR code. With the recent update in place, the secured feature will now contain a photograph of the Aadhaar holder too, in addition to demographic details.

A UIDAI official was quoted by PTI saying that UIDAI has recently replaced existing QR code on eAadhaar having resident’s demographic details now with a secured digitally-signed QR Code which contains demographics along with a photograph of the Aadhaar holder.

What is a QR code?

  1. A QR code is a form of barcode label which contains machine-readable information, while eAadhaar is the electronic version of Aadhaar that can be downloaded from UIDAI website.

  2. The UIDAI’s eAadhaar QR Code reader software has been made available on the nodal body’s website from 27 March 2018.

  3. Offline verification facility would add yet another option to the exception-handling mechanism at the ground level for ensuring that no denials on Aadhaar-based services take place.

What will the new feature provide?

  1. The new feature, the digitally-signed QR code, will contain a photo of the Aadhaar holder in addition to existing facility of demographic details.

  2. This move would allow various user agencies like banks to verify the authenticity of Aadhaar card offline.

UIDAI chief executive officer (CEO) Ajay Bhushan Pandey was quoted by PTI saying that this is a simple offline mechanism to quickly verify the genuineness of the Aadhaar card. The UIDAI Chief said that to ensure that a person is a bona fide owner of the Aadhaar card, there has to be a manual check of the photo with the individual’s face or through use of agency-specific authentication scheme, he noted.

The newly launched facility is very useful and secure facility on e-Aadhaar where anyone, whether an Aadhaar holder or a user or service agencies like banks can do offline verification of the data in eAadhaar along with the photograph.

As per reports by Pi, In an eAadhaar, there will a small QR code on the front side of a cutaway portion, with demographic data only, and large ones on the top portion of the front side and the back (containing demographic data and the photo). A person aware of the development informed that to make this information more secured and tamper-proof, it will be signed with UIDAI digital signature.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 10, 2018 04:57 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).