New Delhi: The Biometric SDK Benchmarking Challenges conducted by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) have successfully concluded, with the authority recognising winners across face and iris modalities in collaboration with the International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIIT Hyderabad).
Building on the success of its earlier fingerprint initiative, UIDAI organised the Face and Iris Age Variance Challenges between December 2025 and February 2026 as part of its broader Biometric SDK Benchmarking Challenges programme.
The competitions attracted a combined total of 531 registrations, reflecting strong participation from technology providers and research institutions worldwide.
Following a series of comprehensive performance evaluations, Innovatrics of Slovakia secured the first position in the Face Challenge. IDBio from the United States finished second, while Neurotechnology of Lithuania claimed the third position.
In the Iris Challenge, IDBio emerged as the top performer, followed by Neurotechnology in second place and Innovatrics in third.
Also Read: Anterra Capital Raises $100 Million for Fund III Focused on AI and Agricultural Innovation
Beyond the winning organisations, the Biometric SDK Benchmarking Challenges also witnessed participation from several Indian companies and academic institutions, including Perfios, Ooru and IIIT Hyderabad.
The initiative forms part of UIDAI’s ongoing efforts to develop indigenous Biometric Software Development Kit (SDK) solutions while advancing biometric research.
The face and iris competitions were designed to identify high-performing one-to-one face and iris matching solutions from leading technology providers and research institutions from India and abroad.
The assessments under the Biometric SDK Benchmarking Challenges were conducted using large anonymised datasets within a controlled execution environment.
A distinctive feature of the programme was the use of unique long-term biometric datasets of children aged between five and ten years, with a five-year interval between samples.
These datasets enabled testing to evaluate how effectively verification systems perform as children grow over time.
According to UIDAI, this challenge represents a unique global initiative where such datasets were utilised to address a real-world problem related to the biometric identity verification of children across age variance.
To encourage continued innovation and broader participation from the biometric ecosystem, UIDAI recognised the top-performing participants while also acknowledging the sincere efforts of all organisations involved in the Biometric SDK Benchmarking Challenges.
More details about the initiative are available on the official challenge portal.
