UIDAI, SETS Join Hands To Enhance Cybersecurity In India And Reduce Dependence On Foreign Tools

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and the Society for Electronic Transactions and Security (SETS) on Thursday (23 March) agreed to collaborate on joint research and development projects in deep tech domains.

The collaboration is part of the ‘Make in India’ initiative, which aims to improve self-reliance on information and cyber security and reduce dependence on tools developed outside the country.

As part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), both organisations will conduct joint research in areas such as cyber security, IoT security, mobile device decurity, financial network slice security, and hardware Security.

Scientists and officers from both organizations will work together on Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain Technology for cyber security, quantum security, and cryptography. The focus will be on innovations such as Quantum Random Number Generator, Crypto API Libraries, Quantum Safe Cryptography, and more.

The officers of SETS and UIDAI will propose and execute joint research projects and develop tools/products for use not only in UIDAI's ecosystem but also in other critical IT infrastructure.

In a statement, the Ministry of Electronics and IT said that as a tool of good governance and foundation of India’s expansive digital public infrastructure, technology has been an integral part of Digital India initiative.

Technology adoption and continuous upgradation is a key element of UIDAI’s functioning and is a prime focus area of its Aadhaar 2.0 roadmap as well, it added.

UIDAI has issued over 1.36 billion Aadhaar numbers to residents.  More than 70 million Aadhaar based authentication transactions are taking place every day. Close to 1,700 schemes of the central and state governments for welfare and good-governance that use Aadhaar, the ministry said.