UIDAIs SITAA program to boost Indias Identity-Tech ecosystem and secure Aadhaar innovation

UIDAI's SITAA program seeks to strengthen India’s identity-tech ecosystem by enabling startups, academic institutions, and industry players to co-develop secure, scalable, and globally benchmarked Aadhaar solutions. Focusing on data privacy, biometrics, authentication frameworks, and AI, it aims to advance indigenous technology and build public trust in digital IDs. UIDAI partners with MeitY Startup Hub for mentoring and NASSCOM for global industry outreach.

Applications for the SITAA pilot challenges are open until 15 November 2025.

The pilot will kick off with three major innovation challenges:

Face Liveness Detection: Startups are invited to develop SDKs to detect spoofing attempts like deepfakes, masks, morphs, and photos. Solutions must be robust across devices, demographics, and lighting, support edge and server deployment, and prioritize user convenience through passive-first detection.

Presentation Attack Detection: Academic and research institutions are encouraged to design AI/ML systems to identify print, replay, and adversarial attacks in real or near-real time. Solutions must comply with privacy, be interoperable with Aadhaar APIs, and adhere to the Aadhaar Act.

Contactless Fingerprint Authentication: Innovators are invited to create SDKs using smartphone cameras or low-cost imaging devices for fingerprint authentication, including real-time capture guidance, liveness detection, AFIS-compliant templates, and efficient performance on mobile or edge devices.

Objective: The program emphasizes India’s commitment to a secure, inclusive, and self-reliant digital identity framework aligned with Digital Public Infrastructure and Atmanirbhar Bharat.