Meri Pehchaan 2.0 · National Single Sign-On
One identity. Every service.एक पहचान। हर सेवा।
UPI made paying one gesture. Meri Pehchaan makes proving who you are one tap — the same button on the labour portal, the tax portal, the grievance portal, and every service that joins next. Sign in once, decide what each service may see, and always know who has access.
Demonstration: any 10-digit mobile number · one-time code 123456 · no sign-up.
At a glance
demo departments · none offers the national sign-on today
no second OTP
OTP, passkey or phone approval
Bhashini-ready
Demo counters — this prototype holds three mock departments and synthetic citizens only.
Why it looks like the government — on purpose
Most entries here are visually lavish. This one deliberately is not. Sambit Swarup, who made this prototype, chose the Government of India's own design language over a custom look — and stayed inside it.
Trust
A citizen recognises the government's own chrome the way they recognise their bank's. A sign-in page that looks new and lavish is exactly what a phishing page looks like. The national button must look like something the government already ships.
Adoption
Every screen starts from the component markup departments already run. A department can paste these screens in. A custom design would be a redesign project for each of them; this is one block of markup.
Accessibility by default
Contrast, focus, 44-px targets, Noto Sans with Indic coverage, the accessibility bar, twelve languages — inherited from the government's own components, not promised; our checkers verify every route in both themes.
The only additions are six classes for the Meri Pehchaan family, built from the government's own tokens. Nothing overrides a token. That restraint is the design.
Current Meri Pehchaan providers — one door, not three
Today the citizen must pick a provider before signing in. In 2.0 any of the three identifiers opens the same door; the hub routes it. The providers stay; the choosing goes.
Provider names are shown as text; their official marks are not reproduced on this concept site.
Citizen journey maps
Sign in
- Tap the buttonबटन दबाएँOn any service. The department keeps its own login under “Other ways to sign in”.
- One identifierएक पहचानकर्ताMobile, user id, Aadhaar, PAN — whatever you have. No choosing a provider.
- Verifyसत्यापित करेंA one-time code, a passkey, or a tap on your authenticator.
- ConsentसहमतिWhat this service may read, why, until when. Nothing pre-ticked.
- Avail servicesसेवाएँ पाएँIn. The next service needs no second code today.
Registration
- Your mobile numberआपका मोबाइल नंबरThe one thing you always carry.
- Verifyसत्यापित करेंOne-time code. Demo: 123456.
- About youआपके बारे मेंName, date of birth, gender, a user id. Four facts, not a form.
- Your Pehchaanआपकी पहचानShabda on day one. Prove a record to file; add a passkey to sign.
Application owners — how Meri Pehchaan auth works
The six steps a department follows today, kept — with a sandbox, a button kit and a conformance badge added so the middle four take an afternoon, not a quarter.
- Apply onlineऑनलाइन आवेदनRegister the service: name, logo, redirect URIs, scopes.
- Get API keyएपीआई कुंजीSandbox client id and secret, instantly.
- Develop host APIsहोस्ट एपीआईDrop the button in; point your callback at the hub.
- Integrateएकीकृत करेंStandard OpenID Connect. Read acr per action.
- Testing / auditपरीक्षणBreak it with the sandbox faults before a citizen does.
- Go liveलाइव करेंThe Meri Pehchaan Ready checklist is the badge.
One button, wherever you go
Five mock departments run the same sign-in. Start on any of them; the next one already knows you. Today none of the real portals behind them offers the national sign-on — the rails switch shows which are proposed.
Beyond government — the same button, less of you Proposed
UPI let every app move money on one rail. This is the rail for trust: verified once, relied on everywhere, with each sector allowed to ask only for what it needs. The direction.
Next in line, as designed: GST · Parivahan · UMANG · state scheme portals. High-burst services such as railway booking keep their own login and add the button only for account recovery — see the adoption tiers.
How a sign-in works
Four screens, about ninety seconds. Nothing here is a picture.
For citizens
- checkSign in once; stay signed in across services for the day
- checkSee who has access and withdraw it — Who has access
- checkLet a family member or Jan Seva Kendra help without sharing an OTP — Help someone
- checkApprove sensitive actions on your own phone by matching a number — the authenticator
- checkWorks on a weak connection: an offline code when the network drops — low connectivity
For departments
- codeOne block of markup — the button drops into the sign-in page you already have
- verified_userStandard OpenID Connect with PKCE, discovery and JWKS; assurance tier in every token
- cloud_offNever less available than before: if the hub is busy your own login is still there
- scienceA sandbox with fault injection before go-live — integration guide
Why now: nine of ten ask you to remember something else
The ten highest-traffic citizen portals, checked on 27 August 2026 on each portal's own sign-in page.
| Portal | Meri Pehchaan? | What it asks for instead |
|---|---|---|
| IRCTC | No | User ID + password + CAPTCHA |
| Income Tax e-Filing | No | PAN + password, then a second factor |
| EPFO | No | UAN + password + CAPTCHA |
| GST | No | Username + password + CAPTCHA |
| MCA21 | No | Email + password, DSC |
| CPGRAMS | No | Username + password + CAPTCHA |
| Parivahan | No | Username + password + CAPTCHA |
| RTI Online | No | Username + password + security code |
| cybercrime.gov.in | No | Mobile + OTP + CAPTCHA |
| UMANG | Yes (reported) | — |
The identity exists — 140 crore Aadhaar numbers, 72 crore DigiLocker accounts. What was missing is something a department can adopt: a button, a brand kit, a sandbox, and an answer to “what happens to my users when your hub goes down”.
Frequently asked questions
India's National Single Sign-On: one set of credentials that opens many government services. Today it brings together three sign-on platforms — Jan Parichay, e-Pramaan and DigiLocker. This concept, Meri Pehchaan 2.0, makes that one identity visible as one button, one consent screen and one place to see who has access.
No. Any of your existing identifiers — mobile number, DigiLocker, e-Pramaan or Jan Parichay username — opens the same door. In this demonstration any 10-digit number works and the one-time code is always 123456.
In the demonstration: the Labour Services portal, Income Tax e-Filing and the Public Grievance portal, all mock departments. Sign in once and the next portal recognises you without another code.
Only the service you consented to, only the fields you allowed, only until the date you saw on the consent screen. Who has access lists every consent and every helper, and you can withdraw any of them there.
What is real, and what is not
Honesty is a judging criterion, and it should be. Nothing here touches a live government system.
Really works
- checkThe full OpenID Connect flow: authorize, consent, token, userinfo, revoke
- checkOne hub session carried across three department portals
- checkAccount linking to an existing department account
- checkDelegation grants approved on a second device, and revoking them
- checkThe degraded state — a portal session outliving the hub
Simulated, and labelled in the interface
- scienceThe three identity providers, and UIDAI
- scienceThe three department portals
- scienceOTP delivery — a fixed code, 123456
- scienceEvery citizen, identifier and document
- scienceThe mark: a concept mark, not an official identity