The Aadhaar-issuing body UIDAI has delayed the introduction of face recognition facility for authentication by one month to August 1 in order to get enough time to prepare for a smooth rollout.
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey told PTI that some more time will be needed to prepare for the rollout of the new facility which was earlier planned to be introduced from July 1.
The authority in charge of the national identity system had earlier this year announced it will include face recognition alongside iris or fingerprint scan as a means of verifying users, helping those who face issues in biometric authentication or have worn-out fingerprints.
“We are working on that. From August 1, we should be able to do it. All this is technology, and while we target a date this is not something as if we are buying things off-the-shelf. These things are being developed...,” Pandey said.
The UIDAI wants to be fully prepared, he said adding, “We are trying out best to have this released from August 1”. The UIDAI had said that face authentication would be allowed “only in fusion mode” meaning along with either fingerprint or iris or OTP to verify the details of Aadhaar holder