The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has reportedly expanded the scope of voluntary Aadhaar authentication to private sector services such as hospitality, travel and tourism, e-commerce, and healthcare.

According to an Economic Times report, this intimation came in accordance with the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance Amendment Rules, 2025 under the Aadhaar Act, on Friday (January 31).

Through this extension, private businesses across various sectors are made eligible to perform the authentication with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) platform.

This authentication was so far available to only banks and telecom companies.

Aadhaar may be proposed as a verifiable means to do that for both government and private entities, one of the lawyers was quoted as saying in the report.

The report added that the private sector operators will have to comply with the privacy standards and security requirements specified under the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016.

“The amendment seeks to enhance the scope and utility of Aadhaar authentication to further promote good governance, social welfare, innovation, and knowledge dissemination allowing the usage of Aadhaar for improving service delivery,” said the report citing MeitY’s statement.

The applications of these private businesses will be examined by the UIDAI and MeitY will issue the approval based on its recommendation.

This comes at a time when the government is working to boost the private sector’s growth in the country.

To note, in the Nirmala Sitharaman in August 2024, a proposal to develop Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) applications at a population scale was announced to drive productivity gains, create business opportunities, and foster innovation within the private sector.

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