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The Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) has become India's first school education board, and Maharishi Dayanand University (MDU), Rohtak, the first university, to onboard UIDAI's Offline Verification Seeking Entity (OVSE) framework.
OVSE lets an authorised organisation verify a person's identity locally, using digitally signed credentials, without querying UIDAI's Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR).
Verification is consent-based and selective: the holder decides what is shared, and the verifying entity is barred from storing the plain Aadhaar number.
PSEB will use it across registration, admission, examination and student verification services.
The legal base is Section 8A of the Aadhaar Act, inserted in 2019, and the Aadhaar (Authentication and Offline Verification) Regulations, 2021.
In online authentication the entity sends data to UIDAI's central repository and gets a yes or no back. In offline verification the holder hands over a digitally signed credential, and the entity checks UIDAI's signature on the device itself.
Simple Analogy: Checking a signed certificate in your hand instead of phoning the issuing office.
The parent statute that made UIDAI a statutory authority and governs the use of Aadhaar for identity purposes.
Inserted Section 8A, which created the concept of offline verification and the category of Offline Verification Seeking Entity, and required informed consent before any offline verification. In force from 25 July 2019.
Lay down how OVSEs operate - consent, logging of transactions, and the bar on accepting an Aadhaar number as proof of identity without first verifying UIDAI's digital signature in the secure QR code.
Issues Aadhaar and runs the authentication and offline verification ecosystem; a statutory authority under the Aadhaar Act, 2016
Administrative ministry for UIDAI and for India's digital public infrastructure
First school education board in India to onboard OVSE; will use it for registration, admission, examination and student verification
First university in India to onboard the OVSE framework
GS Paper 2 > Governance - e-governance and citizen charters; GS Paper 3 - digital infrastructure and privacy
General Awareness > Aadhaar, KYC and Digital India
Offline Verification Seeking Entity - an organisation authorised by UIDAI to verify identity offline using digitally signed credentials.
Central Identities Data Repository, UIDAI's central database of Aadhaar records; an OVSE does not query it.
The provision inserted into the Aadhaar Act by the 2019 amendment that created offline verification and the OVSE category.