The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), in collaboration with the International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIIT Hyderabad), has recognised the winners of its Face and Iris Biometric SDK Benchmarking Challenges. The initiative is part of UIDAI's continued efforts to promote indigenous biometric solutions and strengthen research and innovation in biometric technologies.
Following the success of the fingerprint challenge, UIDAI conducted the Face and Iris Age Variance Challenges between December 2025 and February 2026. The two challenges received a total of 531 registrations from technology providers and research institutions.
Based on comprehensive performance evaluations, Innovatrics of Slovakia secured the first position in the Face Challenge, followed by IDBio of the United States and Neurotechnology of Lithuania. In the Iris Challenge, IDBio emerged as the winner, with Neurotechnology and Innovatrics securing the second and third positions, respectively.
The competition also witnessed participation from several Indian companies and academic institutions, including Perfios, Ooru, and IIIT Hyderabad. The challenges were designed to identify high-performing 1:1 face and iris matching solutions from leading technology providers and research organisations in India and abroad. Performance assessments were conducted using large anonymised biometric datasets in a controlled testing environment.
A distinctive feature of the benchmarking exercise was the use of long-term biometric datasets of children aged 5 to 10 years, with samples collected five years apart. This enabled the evaluation of how accurately biometric verification systems perform as children grow. The use of such datasets to address real-world challenges related to children's biometric identity is considered a unique initiative at the global level.
To encourage continued innovation in the biometric ecosystem, UIDAI recognised the top-performing participants while appreciating the contribution of all organisations that took part in the challenges.
