UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — One Crore Mandatory Biometric Updates (MBUs) for schoolchildren completed by UIDAI

Q1. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was constituted as a statutory authority under which one of the following provisions?

  • A. Section 11 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016
  • B. Section 7 of the Information Technology Act, 2000
  • C. Article 300A of the Constitution of India
  • D. Section 3 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969

Q2. The Act under which UIDAI is established is correctly and fully titled as which one of the following?

  • A. The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016
  • B. The Aadhaar (Unique Identification and Digital Governance) Act, 2016
  • C. The Unique Identification Authority of India (Enrolment and Authentication) Act, 2016
  • D. The Aadhaar (Biometric Identity and Welfare Delivery) Act, 2016

Q3. With reference to UIDAI's rules on biometric capture and Mandatory Biometric Updates (MBU) for children, consider the following: 1. Fingerprints and iris are not captured at Aadhaar enrolment for children below the age of five. 2. The first MBU is required when the child attains the age of five years. 3. The second MBU is required when the child attains the age of fifteen years. 4. A third MBU is mandatorily required when the person attains the age of eighteen years. Which of the above is/are correctly identified?

  1. Fingerprints and iris are not captured at Aadhaar enrolment for children below the age of five.
  2. The first MBU is required when the child attains the age of five years.
  3. The second MBU is required when the child attains the age of fifteen years.
  4. A third MBU is mandatorily required when the person attains the age of eighteen years.
  • A. 1 and 2 only
  • B. 2, 3 and 4
  • C. 1, 2 and 3
  • D. 1, 2, 3 and 4

Q4. Which one of the following bodies is responsible for operationalising the Mandatory Biometric Update (MBU) for children in Aadhaar?

  • A. Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
  • B. National Informatics Centre (NIC)
  • C. Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC)
  • D. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)

Q5. The fee waiver for Mandatory Biometric Update announced with effect from 1 October 2025 was newly extended specifically to which single age group of children?

  • A. 7 to 15 years
  • B. 5 to 7 years
  • C. 15 to 17 years
  • D. 0 to 5 years

Q6. The MBU fee waiver effective 1 October 2025 was officially estimated to benefit approximately how many children?

  • A. About 6 crore
  • B. About 1 crore
  • C. About 12 crore
  • D. About 24 crore

Q7. With reference to UIDAI's special MBU drive for schoolchildren, consider the following statements: 1. Unlike the earlier walk-in model, the drive launched in September 2025 used UIDAI–UDISE+ integration to identify children due for MBU and to hold update camps in schools. 2. The one crore MBU milestone was achieved across about 83,000 schools in roughly five months. 3. This drive was the first ever biometric update programme run by UIDAI, as no biometric updates existed for any Aadhaar holder before it. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. Unlike the earlier walk-in model, the drive launched in September 2025 used UIDAI–UDISE+ integration to identify children due for MBU and to hold update camps in schools.
  2. The one crore MBU milestone was achieved across about 83,000 schools in roughly five months.
  3. This drive was the first ever biometric update programme run by UIDAI, as no biometric updates existed for any Aadhaar holder before it.
  • A. 1 and 2 only
  • B. 2 and 3 only
  • C. 1 only
  • D. 1, 2 and 3

Q8. The completion of over one crore Mandatory Biometric Updates for schoolchildren, announced in February 2026, was achieved by which authority (working in integration with UDISE+)?

  • A. Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
  • B. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)
  • C. Department of School Education & Literacy (DoSEL)
  • D. National Informatics Centre (NIC)

Q9. UIDAI's special MBU drive for schoolchildren was enabled by integrating the Aadhaar database with which single platform to gain school-level visibility of MBU-due children?

  • A. UDISE+ (Unified District Information System for Education Plus)
  • B. DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing)
  • C. PM eVidya
  • D. APAAR (Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry)

Q10. The UDISE+ platform with which UIDAI integrated for the MBU drive is maintained by which one of the following?

  • A. Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education
  • B. Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education
  • C. Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
  • D. Ministry of Women and Child Development

Q11. As per the latest (2025-26) UDISE+ database of the Department of School Education & Literacy, approximately how many schools are covered?

  • A. About 14.7 lakh
  • B. About 83,000
  • C. About 1.03 lakh
  • D. About 24 lakh

Q12. In the context of the benefits secured by keeping children's Aadhaar biometrics updated, the term 'DBT' refers to which one of the following?

  • A. Direct Benefit Transfer — routing of subsidies/benefits directly into beneficiaries' accounts
  • B. Digital Biometric Token — a one-time code generated during Aadhaar authentication
  • C. Data Bridge Transfer — sharing of Aadhaar data between two government databases
  • D. Direct Biometric Tagging — linking of fingerprints to school enrolment records