The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) today said it has issued as many as 56 crore Aadhaar numbers to the residents in the country and likely to complete its mandate of covering population of 60 crore people in a few weeks time.
"UIDAI has completed issuance of 56 crore Aadhaar numbers. With generation of about 13-14 lakh Aadhaar numbers every day, the flagship programme appears all set to complete its mandate of covering 60 crore population in the next few weeks," the authority said in a statement.
UIDAI was established as an Attached Office of the Planning Commission, through a government notification in January 2009.
The authority issued the first Aadhaar Number on September 29, 2010, after completing necessary preliminaries including establishing various standards relating to collection of data and biometric information such as finger prints and iris images.
It issued 25 crore Aadhaar Numbers in the period up to December 2012 at an average rate of almost one crore Aadhaars per month.
During 2013, UIDAI issued a total of 29.1 crore Aadhaar numbers at an average rate of over 2.4 crore per month.
With an increased capacity of Aadhaar generation, it is currently generating more than three crore Aadhaar numbers every month. It has a capacity to process 15-16 lakh enrolment packets every day leading to generation of 13-14 lakh Aadhaar numbers per day.
