UIDAI has amended Aadhaar regulations to introduce Aadhaar Verifiable Credential (AVC), enabling secure offline identity verification without revealing full Aadhaar numbers, while also tightening rules for verification-seeking entities. Under the new rules, AVC is defined as “a digitally signed document issued by the Authority to the Aadhaar number holder which may contain the last 4 digits of Aadhaar number, demographic data, like name, address, gender, date of birth, and photograph of Aadhaar number holder… which may be shared by Aadhaar number holder in full or part with an OVSE… (Offline Verification Seeking Entity)for verifying the demographic information or photograph of the Aadhaar number holder.” The amendments also introduce ‘Offline Face Verification’, enabling entities to verify identity by matching a live facial image with the Aadhaar photograph stored in the Aadhaar application. In addition, the regulations now include an official definition of ‘Aadhaar Application’ to cover UIDAI’s apps and portals, while removing older references that explicitly mentioned ‘mAadhaar’.