Birth, death data to be Aadhaar-linked

New Delhi: Newborns will soon receive a temporary Aadhaar number, to be upgraded with biometric data on attainment of majority, top officials told ET, as the Unique Identification Authority of India ( UIDAI) prepares to launch two ambitious pilot programmes aimed at plugging misuse and deepening its reach. It will also integrate its data with death registration records to prevent misappropriation of government benefits by using Aadhaar numbers of deceased citizens.

The world’s largest biometric identity database, which has enrolled nearly all of India’s adult population since its launch in 2010, is now looking to expand the ambit of Aadhaar to cover a person’s entire life cycle from birth to death.