Identity verification in India
Executive summary. India is the most consequential identity-verification market on the planet: 1.44 billion people, 1.4 billion Aadhaar numbers issued, and the first country where state-built digital public infrastructure — Aadhaar + DigiLocker + PAN + UPI + Account Aggregator + CKYCR — pushed the dominant KYC modality from document scanning to database-only verification. KYC/AML sits on the Preve
Documents supported
(Government IDs from 220+ countries)
Average verification time
Countries covered
(Government-issued IDs validated)
Market overview
India is the world's most populous country (≈1.44 billion), the fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP, and by most measures the single largest KYC-by-volume market on Earth. The numbers that matter for identity verification are staggering: 1.4 billion+ Aadhaar numbers issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), over 2.6 billion financial accounts enabled on the Account Aggregator (AA) framework as of 2025, more than 126 financial institutions live on AA as FIPs or FIUs, ~400 million DEMAT accounts, and a UPI network processing 18+ billion transactions a month — more retail real-time payments than the rest of the world combined. Financial inclusion has been reshaped by the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, which opened 530 million+ basic savings accounts since 2014, most of
Supported documents
Didit templates cover national IDs, passports, residence permits and regional documents — plus 14,000+ documents globally for cross-border flows.
Regulators
AML supervisor
UIDAI
regulated
1.4B+ records, biometric (fingerprint + iris + face). e-KYC, authentication, offline XML. World's largest biometric identity system. India Stack (Aadhaar + UPI + DigiLocker) is global benchmark.
Income Tax Department / Protean
regulated
ECI
restricted
State RTOs via Vahan/Sarathi
regulated
MeitY
regulated
Digital document repository
Ministry of Corporate Affairs
open
GSTN
open
Government & regulated databases
Compliance framework
AML framework
Supervised by PMLA 2002
Indian KYC/AML is a genuinely layered, multi-regulator regime. The load-bearing instruments are:
Data protection
Supervised by National DPA
- RBI Payment System Data Storage Directive, 6 April 2018. "The entire data relating to payment systems operated by system providers is stored in a system only in India." Operative since 6 October 2018. Mirroring (storing a copy abroad) was initially ambiguous; RBI's June 2019 FAQ clarified that for
Penalties for non-compliance
- Paytm Payments Bank Ltd — RBI action, January-March 2024. RBI imposed a INR 5.39 crore monetary penalty on 10 October 2023 under Section 47A of the Banking Regulation Act for non-compliance with KYC directions, cybersecurity framework and operating guidelines for Payments Banks. The specific faili
Use cases
Neobanks, EMIs, payment institutions, lenders, brokerages.
RBI Master Direction on KYC Chapter IV lays out the permitted onboarding modalities for banks, NBFCs, prepaid payment instrument issuers, wallet operators, and HFCs. A modern Indian fintech flow typically chains several of these:
Exchanges, custodians, wallets, on/off-ramps.
India does not have a standalone crypto licensing regime. What it has is the Ministry of Finance Gazette Notification S.O. 1072(E) of 7 March 2023, which inserted a new clause into the PML Rules defining, as a new class of person carrying on designated business or profession, anyone engaged in:
Sports betting, online casinos, age-gated platforms.
iGaming in India is a fragmented, state-regulated patchwork overlaid with a federal intermediary regime:
Gig platforms, delivery, creator economy, e-commerce.
Marketplaces (e-commerce, gig, delivery, creator economy) are governed by a different logic than financial services. The load-bearing instruments are:
Biometric liveness
Two parallel liveness regimes matter in India. Aadhaar-based liveness. For biometric and face authentication against UIDAI, the underlying capture devices must be STQC-certified (Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification) and the authentication must route through a UIDAI-certified AUA/ASA + KUA with the operator recognised under Section 11A of the PMLA. UIDAI's Aadhaar Face Authentication API enforces liveness server-side.
CERTIFICATIONS
Our platform meets the highest international standards for information security, data privacy, and biometric accuracy.
Full EU data protection compliance
Information security management
PAD (liveness + face match)
TRUSTED WORLDWIDE
Join thousands of companies that trust Didit for their verification needs
Didit’s NFC + active biometrics technology blocks the most advanced fraud scenarios, offering a level of security equivalent to or superior to in-person verification.
Spanish Financial Sandbox
CNMV, SEPBLAC & Spanish Treasury — Conclusions Report
Didit is an exceptionally valuable partner, delivering a stable and highly adaptable solution”.
Vuk Adžić
Head of the E-Business Department at Crnogorski Telekom
Didit offered us a robust technology with a simple implementation and adaptability to different markets”.
Fernando Pinto
CEO & CoFounder at TucanPay
Thanks to Didit we have been able to reduce manual processes and improve data extraction accuracy”.
Diana Garcia
Trust & Safety Executive at Shiply
Didit’s integration slashed verification times and costs, freeing resources for other projects”.
Guillem Medina
COO at GBTC Finance
Didit removed KYC costs, enabling faster scaling with high verification standards and less fraud.”
Paul Martin
VP Marketing & Growth at Bondex
Didit’s secure, user-friendly verification boosts customer trust and optimizes our process.”
Cristofer Montenegro
Executive assistant to the CEO at Adelantos
Didit ensures a precise, secure digital onboarding without slowing negotiations or client time.”
Ernesto Betancourth
Gerente de riesgos at CrediDemo
FAQ
Yes. India permits remote KYC onboarding under its national AML framework, including document verification, biometric liveness and video identification where required by regulation.
Didit verifies all major national IDs, passports and residence permits issued in India, plus 14,000+ document types globally for cross-border flows.
Didit charges $0.30 per verification with 500 free checks per month. No contracts, no minimums. Competitors typically charge $1.00–$2.50+ per verification.
Yes. Didit screens against 1,000+ global watchlists including PEP databases, sanctions lists (EU, UN, OFAC, OFSI), and adverse media — covering all AML obligations in India.
Most regulated sectors in India require or strongly recommend biometric liveness detection for remote onboarding. Didit provides ISO 30107-3 PAD Level 2 certified liveness.
Yes. Didit supports document verification, liveness, AML screening and ongoing monitoring aligned with India’s crypto regulatory framework, including EU Travel Rule compliance where applicable.
Yes. Didit provides document-based age verification and identity confirmation suitable for India’s iGaming regulatory requirements.
500 free verifications per month. No contracts, no minimums. $0.30 per verification after the free tier.
