The Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has issued a stringent directive making the implementation of the Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) mandatory for all PCI-approved pharmacy institutions across the country. This direction, issued on June 13, 2025, aims to ensure transparency and accuracy in attendance records for faculty and staff.
In a circular addressed to approved pharmacy institutions, examining authorities, and State Governments, the PCI reiterated its previous instructions regarding the AEBAS rollout. Institutions had already been directed to procure AEBAS devices and initiate their onboarding process through the dedicated portal.
The Council has emphasized the critical need for immediate compliance, stating that “all institutions must complete the cited activity on immediate basis to avoid any withdrawal of decision letter due to non-compliance.” This underscores the serious repercussions for institutions that fail to adhere to the mandate.
Once an institution completes its initial onboarding steps, a unique URL will be shared on its registered email ID. This URL will facilitate the registration of individual faculty members and the setup of a “Nodal Admin” within the AEBAS portal. To assist with this process, the circular includes detailed user manuals: Annexure A provides guidelines for the Nodal Admin role, while Annexure B outlines the process for faculty registration and usage.
Key Roles and Functionalities within AEBAS
The AEBAS system, designed to streamline attendance management, offers extensive functionalities for the nominated Nodal Officer at each institution. This Nodal Admin will be responsible for:
- Managing master details such as divisions, employee designations, office locations, device locations, and office timings.
- Overseeing biometric devices, including adding biometric administrators, generating activation codes for device installation, and monitoring active and inactive devices.
- Managing employee profiles, which includes processing new requests, verifying Aadhaar status, activating/deactivating employees, facilitating transfers, searching employee details, and blocking/unblocking employees from marking attendance for various reasons.
- Generating comprehensive reports, including attendance registers, advanced reports based on various parameters (daily, weekly, monthly), date-wise attendance, customized reports, and various BAS-specific analytics.
- Managing employee leaves (adding, approving, viewing requests) and tour details.
- Adding official holidays into the system.
- Managing other user roles within the attendance system.
- Configuring settings like daily SMS and email notifications for attendance.
For individual Faculty Members (Employees), the system provides a user-friendly interface to:
- Register their profile on the institution’s dedicated attendance portal.
- Log in, reset passwords, and update personal and organizational information.
- View their attendance status through graphical, register, and detailed reports, including punch-in and punch-out times.
- Apply for and view leave requests.
- Apply for and view tour details.
