UID - Aadhaar

This acronym stands for Unique Identification. This is a new scheme started by the government to provide a unique 12-digit identification number to each and every citizen of the country. It was later renamed to "Aadhaar". The scheme is headed by Nandan Nilekani, a graduate from IIT Bombay who is the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Also the author of "Imaging India", he was the co-chairman of Infosys before becoming associated with this project. This card would be linked to all the existing identification cards such as ration card, passport, driving licence, etc. The main purpose listed behind this is to check terrorists and immigrants from coming into Indian territory. It also aims to come to direct aid of poor by making schemes such as NREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) accessible to them directly once they have registered their geographic and biometric details with the government through these UIDs.