Bangalore, Mar 3 (PTI): The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) would start enrolling 40 crore people for issuance of Aadhaar numbers next month, its Chairman Nandan M Nilekani said today.

The UIDAI has enrolled 20 crore people so far, of which 13.5 crore have already been issued Aadhaar numbers, while the process is on to clear the backlog for the remaining 6.5 crore people.

For issuing an Aadhaar number, it requires each person’s details to be checked against all others to remove duplications, and UIDAI is processing 10 lakh data a day to clear the backlog.

After enrolling 20 crore people, UIDAI has taken a break for checking and fine-tuning the data if necessary.

Nilekani said UIDAI has got necessary funds, noting that the Expenditure Finance Committee of the Finance Ministry has at its last sitting approved Rs 8,000 crore.

He said many applications are possible under the Aadhaar project, including in the fields of financial inclusion and public distribution reforms. “We have integrated Aadhaar with Aakash”, Nilekani said, in reference to the low cost tablet PC.