The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIADI) has launched this facility. A tweet by UIDAI dated 2nd April clearly states that service providers will start accepting VID in place of Aadhaar number.
Now you don’t need to worry about the misuse of your 12-digit Aadhaar number, because now there is no need for you to provide your aadhaar number to avail any government services, instead provide your VID to authenticate transactions and to avail other Government services.
In general VID is a 16-digit random number mapped with aadhaar number which isrevocable and temporary. This VID can be used for authentication in exactly the same way aadhaar number is used. As per the official statement issued by UIADI one’s aadhaar number cannot be derived from a VID that is generated.
VID can be generated on UIADI portal. This VID can be generated multiple times by the aadhaar holders. The validity of VID is one day with no expiry period defined. A new VID can be regenerated by the aadhaar holders after generating the first VID. A VID will be valid till the time a new VID is generated by the aadhaar holder. This facility can be accessed on the UIDAI website only when an aadhaar holder has got his mobile number registered with the UIDAI database. Since all the aadhaar related services are one-time password (OTP) enabled, hence registration of mobile number with UIDAI is mandatory.
VID could be useful in
• Opening a new bank account
• Applying for tatkal passports
• Buying new insurance policies
• Availing other government services
You can provide your 16-digit VID instead of your 12-digit aadhaar number if you want to open a new bank account or applying for tatkal passports.