Global IT major Accenture today said it has bagged a contract from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to implement the core biometric identification system for the Aadhaar project.

Under the initial order, which will run up to two years or until 200 million enrollments (whichever comes first), the firm will build a new system to help manage identity-related de-duplication and verification requests from public and private firms delivering various services, Accenture said.

Accenture will also assist UIDAI in performance benchmarking and management of data quality, in addition to operating and maintaining the system, it added.

"We are confident of the opportunities in India and are scaling our capabilities to support this and other health and public service initiatives in the future," Accenture's Health and Public Service Group Chief Executive Stephen J Rohleder said.

The Aadhaar project aims to provide each Indian resident a unique identification number and enable efficient and secure access to government and commercial services.

The programme is designed to confirm the identity of the 1.2 billion residents of India, making it the largest identity management program in the world, it said.

The Accenture team includes Daon, a provider of biometric technologies, and Bangalore-based IT firm MindTree.