NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

New Delhi: Aadhaar, India’s biometrics-based identification system, may have its detractors at home, but governments overseas have shown interest in adopting the model or some form of it.

Russia, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia have evinced interest in Aadhaar, under which the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has enrolled more than 1 billion people.

The department of information technology, the ministry of external affairs and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman R.S. Sharma, who served as UIDAI director-general from 2009-13, are part of an effort to promote the Aadhaar model overseas. The World Bank is acting as a facilitator in the process.

The ministry of external affairs also included Aadhaar on the agenda of Indian vice-president Hamid Ansari’s recent visit to Morocco and Tunisia. “Morocco wants to do what India has done in the space,” Sharma said in an interview on Wednesday after returning from Russia.