Morocco Adopts India’s Aadhaar System for National Population Census

"Morocco and the Philippines have adopted the Indian open source technology architecture Aadhaar to build similar unique identification systems for their citizens," said a senior official in New Delhi to The Economic Times, stating that other countries such as Kenya, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Mexico, Singapore and Egypt are showing interest in the system and have already addressed their requests to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). According to him, this sudden interest in Aadhaar is explained by the concern of these countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) published in 2016, one of which provides that all people have a legal entity by 2030.

"At the moment, the number of countries that have a good legal identity for all is still very limited. That’s why all these countries are interested in it. And Aadhaar is a digital legal identity. So it goes further. And that also means that it is much more flexible and usable to a higher degree," said the same source. Aadhaar provides each inhabitant of India with a 12-digit number based on its biometric and demographic database. New Delhi had set up this system in 2010 to census the country’s population.