In a significant digital push, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has enabled Universal Account Number (UAN) generation and activation through Aadhaar-based Face Authentication Technology (FAT) on the UMANG mobile app. This step, under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, aims to simplify and digitise the UAN process for crores of Indian employees, ensuring real-time, error-free onboarding into the EPFO system.

In fact, the above move is part of EPFO’s new ‘EPFO 2.0’ push to simplify its services and processes. Now, both employers and employees can generate a UAN by simply using facial recognition via the government’s UMANG app. This is expected to solve common problems such as incorrect personal details or missing mobile numbers, which often delayed UAN generation in the past.

According to the circular dated Aptil 9, 2025, released by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), “This contactless and secure service marks a major leap in providing hassle-free and fully digital experiences to crores of EPFO members.”

“Biometric authentication using Face Authentication provides a higher level of security compared to traditional methods such as demographic or OTP-based authentication. It ensures accurate and tamper-proof identity verification at the very entry point into the EPFO system,” stated the circular.