Everything You Want To Know About Aadhaar-based Offline KYC

In our last blog post, we attempted to debunk many misconceptions that arose because of a poor comprehension of the Hon. Supreme Court’s recent landmark judgment on the constitutional validity of Aadhaar. You can read the blog post here.

Analyzing the rationale used by the Hon. Supreme Court while ruling that private entities should not be permitted to access UIDAI’s e-KYC services, we conclude that there were three main concerns of the petitioners that led to this judgment:

1. Private entities are permitted capture the biometric data of the Aadhaar Card holders.

2. Private entities get an unrestricted access to UIDAI’s Aadhaar database to validate the identity of Aadhaar Card holders and download their demographic details.

3. Govt. of India / UIDAI could potentially act as a ‘Big Daddy’ and profile citizens by snooping on their transaction history and demographic data.

While we are very optimistic on the possibility that the Govt. of India may introduce appropriate remedial amendments to the new governing laws in order to enable regulated private sector entities to access UIDAI’s Aadhaar platform, we foresee that these legal amendments may be a time consuming affair as the government will have to tread very carefully to ensure adherence to the Supreme Court’s verdict in letter and spirit.

In order to ensure that the business models of private sector entities (Authentication Agencies like AUAs, KUAs and Sub-AUAs) are not adversely impacted in light of the recent Supreme Court verdict, UIDAI has started actively advocating the implementation of Offline KYC services that facilitate digital KYC without capturing the biometric data of the Aadhaar Card holder or hitting UIDAI’s Aadhaar database.

This is indeed a welcome move by UIDAI as it has attempted to allay the fears of private sector entities. Below is everything you need to know about UIDAI’s Offline KYC services:

Offline KYC: Quick Overview

UIDAI has rolled out two important features to seamlessly facilitate initiation and completion of Offline KYC transactions:

1. Digitally Signed QR Codes in e-Aadhaar:

UIDAI has introduced an updated, digitally signed QR Code that is now embedded in an Aadhaar Card holder’s e-Aadhaar copy. This QR Code contains the photograph and other non-sensitive details like Name, Address and Date of Birth of the Aadhaar Card holder.

Aadhaar Card holders can now download their new e-Aadhaar and share it with Authenticating Agencies for verification. All that the Authenticating Agencies need to do now is scan the QR Code to extract the Aadhaar Card holder’s demographic details and complete the KYC process.

2. Downloadable Password-protected KYC XML Document:

UIDAI has launched an Aadhaar Paperless Offline e-KYC service that enables Aadhaar Card holders to download a secure, password-protected, shareable document that Authenticating Agencies can use for offline verification of their identity.

Below is an easy step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Visit UIDAI’s Paperless Local e-KYC Page here and enter the Aadhaar number and Security (Captcha) Code to generate an OTP.

Step 2: Submit the OTP and enter the Full Name (as it appears on the Aadhaar Card) and the Pin Code (of the residential address mentioned on the Aadhaar Card).

Step 3: Select the type of data that the Aadhaar Card holder wishes to include in the KYC XML document that can be shared with the Authenticating Agencies for verification.

Step 4: Create a password to encrypt the KYC XML document and download it as a password-protected ZIP file.

Step 5: Share the ZIP file and its password with Authentication Agencies for Aadhaar verification.

As India’s leading Aadhaar-based e-KYC Solutions Company, we had anticipated that UIDAI would sooner or later rollout an Offline KYC mechanism and had started developing a cohesive solution for the same.

We are happy to inform you that our Offline KYC solution is now fully ready and successfully tested for the seamless processing of both the QR Code-based and Downloadable KYC XML Document-based features rolled out by UIDAI. Please click here to read more about our Offline KYC solution.

Feel free to get in touch with our colleague Amit Joshi on 9820875525 or 7208155528, or email him on amit@eastcs.com if you have any queries, or want to know how ECS can help your organisation in its Offline KYC implementation.

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Regards

Team ECS.