UIDAI Launches Five New Aadhaar Initiatives at Aadhaar Samvaad Kolkata

Aadhaar Samvaad was held by UIDAI in Kolkata on 29 September 2026, in conjunction with the celebration of the 17th Aadhaar Day. There were over 600 participants, which included policymakers, technocrats, industry experts and professionals, at the stakeholder event. Guest of honour for the event was Minister of State for Commerce and Industry and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Jitin Prasada. UIDAI launched five initiatives that would ensure convenience, authentication, security and good governance to residents, including Face Authentication for ePDS, SWIK Portal 2.0 and a new Sub-AUA/Sub-KUA scheme.

5 New Initiatives by UIDAI

The initiatives announced at Aadhaar Samvaad, Kolkata, touch upon various aspects of the Aadhaar ecosystem relating to authentication and delivery of services.

Initiative and It’s Primary Objective

• Face Authentication for ePDS: Additional mode of contactless authentication for beneficiaries
• SWIK Portal 2.0: Faster approval for permissible usage of Aadhaar authentication
• Sub-AUA/Sub-KUA (LITE): Approach Makes it easier for qualified entities with lower volume needs to join
• Token Management System: Makes it easier to access UIDAI’s services
• New UIDAI Website: Better access to services and information

All these initiatives together aim at expanding the scope of Aadhaar usage while ensuring its security and privacy.

Face Authentication for e-Public Distribution System

UIDAI, the Department of Food & Public Distribution (DFPD) and NIC together launched the Face Authentication for Electronic Public Distribution System (ePDS).

This consent-based and touchless authentication system allows beneficiaries another form of authentication especially when fingerprint authentication is not feasible. States and UTs can adopt this Face Authentication for their respective ePDS.

UIDAI’s authentication eco-system facilitates biometric, demographic and OTP based authentication via authorised requesting entities.

SWIK Portal 2.0 and Aadhaar Good Governance

UIDAI has introduced the SWIK Portal 2.0 as a facility to process proposals that are required to be approved for Aadhaar authentication under the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Rules, 2020.

Non-Government eligible entities can file their proposals for permitted use cases via the portal to the concerned Ministry or Department as per the guidelines of the framework. The Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance Rules are maintained by UIDAI.

Sub-AUA/Sub-KUA (LITE) Framework

The Sub-AUA/Sub-KUA (LITE) Framework has been created for Government as well as eligible non-Government entities which have lower volumes of Aadhaar authentication requirement.

As per the framework, the eligible entity will be able to make use of the authentication infrastructure of another existing AUA/KUA and hence there will be no requirement to create a separate infrastructure for the same.

The UIDAI authentication ecosystem considers Sub-AUAs and Sub-KUAs as entities who provide Aadhaar authentication or e-KYC services through an existing AUA/KUA.