IDEMIA Facial Recognition in India

IDEMIA, the identity technologies and biometric solutions provider, has been selected by the airport operator, GMR Group, to implement Digi Yatra’s facial recognition technology-powered boarding system at India’s Delhi, Hyderabad, and Goa airports.

Under this contract, Digi Yatra will use IDEMIA’s facial recognition technology to verify the identity of domestic flyers, making terminal entry and security clearance at the airport a seamless, hassle-free, and paperless process. IDEMIA technology is already being used for Digi Yatra passengers at Delhi International Airport and the French company has also deployed biometric systems and other technologies at over 250 airports globally.

‘Digi Yatra’ is an industry-led initiative coordinated by the Aviation Ministry in line with Indian Prime Minister Modi’s Digital India vision. It is a biometric-based mobile application facility for airport entry. Its main goal is to improve the passenger experience by eliminating the need for manual ticket and ID verification at numerous contact points and to achieve better throughput using the existing infrastructure and a digital framework.

The government plans to launch the facility in the coming months at seven more airports, including Chennai, Mumbai, Jaipur, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Guwahati and Cochin. The Digi Yatra facility was initially launched at three airports – New Delhi, Bengaluru, and Varanasi in December 2022. It was later introduced in Vijayawada, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Pune airports in April 2023.

As of 20 June 2023, the total number of Digi Yatra app users stood at over 1.74 million.