New Delhi, Jan 8 (IANS) The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Thursday launched the Aadhaar mascot — a new “resident-facing communication companion” to simplify public understanding of Aadhaar services.

The Aadhaar mascot named ‘Udai’ will be helpful in making Aadhaar-related information more relatable, and people-friendly, said the Ministry of Electronics and IT.

Bhuvnesh Kumar, CEO, UIDAI said that by inviting people for designing and naming this mascot through an open national competition, UIDAI reaffirmed a core principle of Aadhaar: participation builds trust and acceptance. The overwhelming response demonstrated how deeply people connect with Aadhaar as a public good.

It will simplify communication of Aadhaar services – whether it is about updates, authentication, offline verification, selective sharing of information, new technology adoption, responsible usage and many more, it added.

To bring this vision to life, UIDAI chose an open and inclusive route by launching national design and name competitions on the MyGov platform.

UIDAI received 875 entries from across the country – students, professionals, designers, etc. – each offering a unique interpretation of what Aadhaar represents to them.

A multi-tier evaluation process was adopted to ensure fairness and rigour in the selection process. What emerged from this process is a beautiful creation – that is shaped by public imagination and refined through institutional diligence, said the ministry.

Arun Gokul from Thrissur, Kerala bagged the first prize in the mascot design competition, Idris Dawaiwala of Pune, Maharashtra, and Krishna Sharma from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh were the second and third prize winners respectively.

Riya Jain of Bhopal won the first prize in the mascot name competition, followed by Idris Dawaiwala of Pune and Maharaj Saran Chellapilla of Hyderabad in the second and third position respectively.

Neelkanth Mishra, Chairman UIDAI unveiled the mascot and felicitated the winners at a UIDAI function in Thiruvananthapuram.

The launch of the mascot marks another step in UIDAI’s ongoing efforts to make Aadhaar communication simpler, more inclusive, and more relatable for over a billion residents of India, said Mishra UIDAI Chairman.

–IANS

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