Government Employees at Work and on Time? The Website is Live

Announced just a few weeks ago, the Indian government's new online biometric attendance system is now online, with nearly 50,000 employees attendance across 147 government organisations (at the time of writing) including the Cabinet Secretariat, and other government bodies like the Central Vigilance Commission and the Planning Commission.
On the website the attendance of employees can be tracked online - this serves as a centralised management system for the government, but it should also increase transparency as anyone can access the site for a broad overview.
On the site, you can see the attendance activity over time, the number of registered employees and the number of employees present today. You can even see the number of active devices, and clicking on any of these tabs takes you to a spreadsheet where you can see a breakdown of the information.
In this way, for example, you can see that the Ministry of External Affairs has 195 devices, and at the time of writing, 159 are active. You can see that eight out of 34 biometric terminals are currently inactive, and that 1,358 MEA employees have marked their attendance today. Click the detail button on the right, and you can see the breakup between the Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan, South Block and Patiala House offices of the MEA. Clicking detail on this page shows you the device ID, the type of device (tablet or desktop) and even which gate the employee entered the building from.
Further details include the name of the employee, designation, division and the exact time the employee arrived for duty. You can even use the search function on the dashboard to find an individual employee - and his or her email id. That's an incredibly detailed system, and you can use the export button to download the data on your screen to an Excel sheet as well.
The website shows a dashboard you can track this information, but this goes beyond just transparency. Government employees will be able to mark their attendance at any Central Office, which is also useful for tracking movement. This is done using biometric reading devices in the offices, and uses the Aadhaar to verify the data. Each government organisation has to enrol itself for the system to work, and on the dashboard, you can see that of the 49,141 employees registered so far, 32,487 have been verified.
As noted in the FAQ section of the website, the system relies on network connectivity at all times, and for this reason, the government will be ensuring Wi-Fi connectivity on NICNET, and SIM-based connectivity for employees using tablets.

How to Download a Copy of Your Aadhaar Card

If you've misplaced your Aadhaar card, don't panic because you can easily download a fresh copy. It needs you to know your Aadhaar number, but you can easily look that up online.
The unique 12-digit government identification is not compulsory to have, but it serves as an identity proof on most forms that you'll fill, and some government agencies also require the Aadhaar these days. It is issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India on behalf of the Indian government.
The good thing about Aadhaar is that unlike some other identity cards, its digital copy, downloaded from the UIDAI website, is as valid as the original card. So whether you've misplaced your card and need a new one, or just wanted to get a digital copy of the card to submit with a form online, the official website has you covered.
Enrolling for Aadhaar is free and so is the process to obtain a digital duplicate; just follow the steps below and you're done.
(Also see:How to Submit PAN Card Application Online)
Getting your UID number
To download a copy of the Aadhaar card, you need to know your UID number or your Enrolment ID. If you've gotten your Aadhaar already, then it's generally a good idea to note down the number somewhere. If you've misplaced the Aadhaar, then look for the enrolment form to check your Enrolment ID. In case you don't have either, then you need to look this number up first. Here's what you need to do:

1. Go to the UIDAI website.
2. Make sure that Aadhaar No (UID) is selected from the two options near the top of the screen.
3. Type in your full name, as printed on the Aadhaar card.
4. Type either the email address or phone number that you used to register for Aadhaar.
5. Enter the characters you see in the image above Enter the Security Code.
6. Click Get OTP.
7. A one-time password will be sent to your email address or phone number, whichever you entered in the form. Enter this password in the form next to Enter OTP.
8. Click Verify OTP.
9. Now you'll receive your Aadhaar number on via SMS or email.

Getting your Aadhaar card
Once you have the UID number, you can use it to download a copy of your Aadhaar card. This part is also simple:

1. Head to the e-Aadhaar page on the UIDAI website.
2. Select Aadhaar next to I have.
3. Enter your Aadhaar number, full name and the PIN code of your residential address.
4. Key in the characters in the image in the field Enter above Image Text.
5. Click Get One Time Password.
6. This one-time password will be sent to your phone number if you click Confirm in the pop-up. Alternatively, you may click Cancel and have it sent to your email address.
7. Enter the password you received into the form next to Enter OTP.
8. Click Validate & Download.

Now your Aadhaar card will be downloaded in a password-protected PDF file. The password is the simply the PIN code of your residential address. You can now print this file, and it is a fully valid Aadhaar card. Let us know if this tutorial helped via the comments. For more tutorials, head to our How To section.