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Unique ID
numbers to half the population by 2014: Nilekani
Nearly half
the Indian population will get their unique identity number by 2014, Nandan Nilankeni, who is spearheading the drive, said Sunday.
"We will generate about a million numbers per day and our plan is
to have nearly half the population in our system (unique
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New Delhi: With a
mammoth exercise on to issue an Aadhar number to each of India's
1.2 billion citizens and interested residents, IANS tracks the
process involved for getting what will become a unique identity
for people in India to access all public or private services.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) - under the
chairmanship of Nandan Nilekani - is the nodal agency, which had
appointed registrars across the country to facilitate the
enrolment process.
Nilekani was one of the co-founders and previously headed IT
bellwether Infosys. He enjoys cabinet rank in his present status.
Registrars are typically government departments and public sector
organisations. They in turn appoint the agency to collect data.
Currently, over 200 such agencies have been named including Wipro,
Comat Technologies, Alankit and Virgo Softech.
"Aadhaar guarantees uniqueness and a universal identity. At its
core is a centralised online identity verification process," said
Atul P. Anand, director at Virgo Softech, which is one of the
enrolment agencies involved in the process.
"Biometric information like iris and fingerprints ensure this
uniqueness. This is also embedded and hence tamper proof. The
authority uses data de-duplication process, which also makes sure
that only unique data is stored," Anand told IANS.
Officials explained the enrolment is done in four stages --
verification of documents including address proof, on-the-spot
capture of photos, iris and fingerprint scanning -- after which
people are given acknowledgment slips at the time of enrolment.
A 12-digit unique identification number is then delivered in 20-30
days at the person's address through speed post after verification
of biometrics and demographic data. Data verification is done by
the authority under a centralised system.
The system ensures duplicate data is deleted, leaving only one
copy to be stored.
"If you try to enrol yourself for the second time by using some
different demographic information or data, you cannot do it.
That's also because you can't change your iris and fingerprint. So
duplicate data automatically gets deleted," said Anand.
There is also no age bar to enrol for the number.
But the unique number of a child up to five years of age is linked
to that of his or her parents or guardians. On completion of 15
years of age, biometric data is updated, but the number remains
the same.
The people who don't remember their date of birth and have no
documents to back it can provide approximate age. Transgenders
have also been included; so under gender options, there are three
categories -- male, female and transgenders.
"The number can be issued to even a new-born and it remains the
same throughout the life. The system is also versatile. Both
biometric and demographic data can be updated," a Virgo official
said. But the authority has not started the updation process.
On concerns over security and privacy issues, officials said it
was, indeed, a rather big challenge and that the authority was
trying to make sure that the unique identity number is not
misused.
Many analysts have raised concerns that the number can be misused
by anti-socials such as terrorists, since they can get it issued
through fake identities during large-scale enrolments.
And once it is issued, a person can easily apply for a passport
and open bank accounts.
The authority issued the Aadhaar number in September 2010 and
targets 600 million people over the next four years. It has to
issue every resident a unique identification number that can be
used to establish the identity of the person anywhere in India.
Currently, on an average 150,000 enrolments are done each day. The
number of enrolments is expected to reach six million per day by
October. The task, therefore, is daunting, since the latest data
places the country's population at 1.21 billion.
(Gyanendra
Kumar Keshri can be reached at gyanendra.k@ians.in)
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