Parliament Question: Expenditure on Aadhaar and related services

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2479 TO BE ANSWERED ON 13.03.2026 EXPENDITURE ON AADHAAR AND RELATED SERVICES 2479. SHRI DEREK O' BRIEN: Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state: (a) the total expenditure on Aadhaar since its inception, year-wise and head-wise; (b) the total amount spent on data centres, cybersecurity, authentication/e-KYC services of Aadhaar services; and (c) the amount spent on payment of the employees of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and other organisations that are involved with Aadhaar and funded by Government? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI JITIN PRASADA) (a) to (c): Aadhaar is the world's largest biometric identity system with approximately 134 crores live Aadhaar holders. Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) commenced functioning in 2009 as an attached office of the then Planning Commission (now NITI Aayog). Subsequently, UIDAI became a statutory authority under the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016. Consequent to its statutory status, UIDAI has been preparing its annual accounts from financial year 2017–18 onwards. The details of year-wise expenditure on Aadhaar since its inception are given at Annexure-1. The total amount incurred on data centres, cybersecurity, and Aadhaar authentication/e-KYC services is not maintained separately as distinct components. ******Annexure-1 Year-wise expenditure on Aadhaar (Amount Rs. in crores) Year Total Expenditure 2009-10 26.21 2010-11 268.41 2011-12 1187.5 2012-13 1338.72 2013-14 1544.44 2014-15 1615.34 2015-16 1680.44 2016-17 1132.84 2017-18 1149.38 2018-19 1181.86 2019-20 856.13 2020-21 893.27 2021-22 1564.54 2022-23 1634.44 2023-24 1396.22 2024-25 1286.36 ******