While India is conducting what is probably the largest census in history, the country’s unique identification authority Aadhaar/UIDAI is working on making that data usable. It has released version one of its Aadhaar Authentication Application Programming Interface (API), which contain API data format, protocol and security specifications. The way it will work is: a user’s Aadhar number, alongwith other data (including biometric information) will be submitted to the Central Identities Data Repository for verification: authentication will only be in the form of a ‘yes’ or no response, and no personal identity will be released.
The first Aadhar numbers would be issued between August 2010 and February 2011, and over five years, the UIDAI intends to issue 600 million UIDs. Source: