Aadhaar is a unique 12-digit identification number issued to all Indian residents by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Linking over 1.2 billion people across India represents an unprecedented challenge. Aadhaar involves collecting biometric data like fingerprints and photographs from each person, amounting to petabytes of data that must be stored and queried quickly. This qualifies Aadhaar as a big data problem due to its volume, velocity, and variety. By linking subsidies, welfare programs, and bank accounts to Aadhaar numbers, the Indian government hopes to realize significant cost savings by reducing duplication and leakage in these systems. Aadhaar could help empower women, improve healthcare surveillance

1. What is Big Data?
Any data which is humungous in size and incomparable to the data getting stored in traditional data
bases. Big data spans three dimensions -
1. Volume - Enterprises are awash with ever-growing data of all types, easily amassing
terabytes—even petabytes—of information.
2. Velocity - Sometimes 2 minutes is too late. For time-sensitive processes such as catching
fraud, big data must be used as it streams into your enterprise in order to maximize its value.
3. Variety- Big data is any type of data - structured and unstructured data such as text, sensor
data, audio, video, click streams, log files and more.
For our country, India, one of the major question pertaining to the Big data is - Why is India’s UID
Aadhaar a Big Data challenge and opportunity?
What is Aadhaar UID ?
Aadhaar is a 12 digit individual identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of
India on behalf of the Government of India. This number will serve as a proof of identity and address,
anywhere in India. Any individual, irrespective of age and gender, who is a resident in India and
satisfies the verification process laid down by the UIDAI can enrol for Aadhaar.
Linking a population of 1.2B, across 640,000 villages is vision and that is UID-Aadhaar. It gives
Unique identity to all the people. The scale of the project is incomparable to any other project taken by
any agency state or private anywhere in the world. Nandan Nilekani summed it up immaculately ”The
goal, says Mr Nilekani, is to help India cope with the past decade's expansion of welfare provision, the
fastest in its history: “it is essentially about better public services”.
How Aadhaar UID is essentially the Big Data ?
The scope of UID is to capture 12B finger print, 1.2B photograps,1.2 B eye scan. The file size for
each individual would be 5Mb and when this data is collated for 1.2B people it would require
petabytes for storage capability only.
Another challenging part of implementing UID is that the Aadhaar team wants to ensure non-
duplication of identity, thus the data has to be compared with the old records every time a new UID is
created. Till date, UID of India (UIDAI) has issued approximately 25 crore UIDs. Also, on a daily basis,
the UIDAI issues over 1 million Aadhar cards. This means that each day, 1 million records have to be
checked against the existing database of 25 crore IDs. This is only going to get larger every day. Also,
imagine in future as more and more of Government department start using the platform to
authenticate the stake holders, the number of queries on the UID data would go up exponentially. The
queries would demand faster response time. Hence data categorization in storage and analytical
retrieval becomes important. The search would not filter through the data bank but would look at
categories to get the result which would make the system leaner, meaner and faster.
Aadhaar has all the 3Vs of the Big data: Volume, Variability and Velocity. The size of the data is
huge and it is estimated that this database will be ten times larger than the largest existing biometric
database, which is created by FBI from the US. And hence Aadhaar's UID qualifies to be a big
data.
Opportunities for India
Big data analytics is the process of examining large amounts of data of a variety of types to uncover
hidden patterns and other useful information. Such information can provide competitive advantages

2. over rival organizations and result in business benefits, such as more effective marketing and
increased revenue.
In a country where 60% lives under $2 a day, 75% literacy, <3% pays income tax, < 20% banking,
800 million telecom subscribers, 200-300 million migrant workers UID could be the giant leap towards
better public life. As suggested in the 12th 5 year plan Aadhaar would play a significant role in
achieving a faster, sustainable and more inclusive growth. Benefits of UID seem countless, few
mentioned below -
1. Public Distribution System
2. MGNREGA
3. Education
4. Health Sector
5. Women Empowerment
India’s GDP for F11-12 was approx 1900 billion dollars. We spend 2% of the GDP on direct subsidies
which is suppose to dwindle to 1.75% in the next 3 years. 35-40 billion dollars are spent through PDS
to aid various communities in India. Subsidies are in the form of food distribution, fertilizer distribution,
loan waiver etc. It is anticipated that the system efficiency is 60-70% and the balance is eroding away
through leak in the system. If the PDS is linked though Aadhaar to a bank account then the size of the
distribution system would shrink to a level where we would accountability in the system. A quick
calculation indicates that we were planning to save 12.5% in the next 3 years and with the
implementation of Aadhaar in the PDS we save almost 30-40% of the subsidies. This is what
reformation is about. Similarly, in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
the loss of payment/leakages amount to around 12% on the account of ghost workers can be plugged
through wage disbursement using Aadhaar-enabled bank accounts.
In India, men often manage financial resources that belong to women. By requiring the woman's
presence, Aadhaar helps her exercise her right and empowers women. UID could help build a GIS-
compatible health information system, and establish nationwide surveillance and diagnosis facilities
for service and research on infectious diseases.
Going forward, as more government-based systems access this platform (UID's big database) to
authenticate their customers, the number of authentication-based queries will also shoot up
exponentially. The possibilities are limitless given that the platform’s usage is limited to the
imagination of government agencies who can develop innovative applications on top of the platform.
From providing insurance to the poor, ensuring healthcare to the bottom of the pyramid and providing
banking facilities to the unbanked population, UID can be the game changer that a country like India
wants today.