e-Aadhaar – what is it?

E-Aadhaar can be called the electronic variation of the physical Aadhaar card. You can easily download it online by submitting your Aadhaar number as well as enrolment ID. You would be happy to know that it happens to be just as valid as the actual physical card itself.

What information do you get from it?

The e-Aadhaar card contains demographic and biometric information pertaining to the user such as the following:

• Aadhaar number
• Address of the cardholder
• Photograph of the cardholder
• Sex of the cardholder
• Name of the cardholder
• Biometric details such as fingerprint of the individual
• Date of birth of the cardholder

How can the e-Aadhaar card be downloaded?

There are certain steps that have to be followed by you in order to download your e-Aadhaar card. First of all you need to note down your enrollment number, and the date and the time provided in the acknowledgment slip that you had received at the time when you had applied for Aadhaar. The second step is to visit the official website of UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) and enter all the details that have been mentioned just now. Then you would need to click on the option that says ‘Get One Time Password’. They will then receive the One Time Password (OTP), which they will need to enter in the relevant field.

As part of the final step applicants will need to enter their pin code, which will act as their password to open the PDF (portable document format) file of e-Aadhaar.

What are the benefits of e-Aadhaar?

e-Aadhaar is an electronic card and as such it happens to be available online. This means you can access it any time of your choice and download it. Since it is a virtual document you need not worry that it would get misplaced or you would lose it as such. This means that you can take it with you just about anywhere you want to. All you need is a smartphone and proper internet connection. This also means that you can keep your physical Aadhaar card safe. This universal identity card can be availed by every Indian. It acts as an identity proof aside from being an address proof. This is not something that you can say of too many documents out there. The national government of India offers several benefits such as subsidies on LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) to all individuals in India. However, in order to avail such facilities it is important that the concerned person is able to produce his Aadhaar card. You would also see that it is easier to get other official documents such as passport in case you have an Aadhaar card already.

These days, people are also using Aadhaar cards in order to open bank accounts or avail mobile SIM (subscriber identity module) cards. The e-Aadhaar card can be regarded as a valid address proof as well as identity. This is something that UIDAI makes very clear and there is a rather good reason for such an assertion. The document has been certified digitally and that is what makes it so important. Apart from that, what also helps is the fact that you get the same data on these cards as you get in the physical Aadhaar cards.

Resident Portal and other information pertaining to e-Aadhaar

The government of India is expected to launch a Resident Portal from which individuals would be allowed to download their e-Aadhaar cards. It is also supposed to set up Common Service Centers across all the states and union territories in India so that people are able to download these e-Aadhaar cards on their own.