IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

"Today we will be giving the 21st crore Aadhaar number to a resident of Dudu here in Rajasthan and also launch the Aadhaar Enabled Service Delivery across the country so that benefits of various schemes reach residents. I would like to compliment Unique identification Authority of India UIDAI chairman Shri Nandan Nilekani and his team for achieving so much in such a short duration," said the Prime Minister, in a release.

In a meeting of National Population Register (NPR) under state Chief Secretary Alok Kumar Jain yesterday, it was informed that the identity card would be a smart card based on biometric system in which the photograph, finger prints as well as pupil details will be printed, official sources said.

According to sources, there will be camps to carry out the process in the state with a target of 300 per day.

Also, in order to prevent blackmarketing of grains, the office would be sending group SMSes to citizens as soon as trucks loaded with grains leave for the shops from the godowns.

Singh along with Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi handed over the 210th million Aadhaar card to a villager in Dudu village on Saturday (October 20).

India gears up to build the largest biometric database in the world with the aim of providing most of its 1.2 billion citizens a Unique Identification (UID), perhaps the biggest challenge is smudged fingerprints.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has dealt a body blow to the Unique Identification (UID) project.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was set up under the Planning Commission by an executive order on January 28, 2009. The scheme involves the collection of demographic and biometric information to issue ID numbers to individuals. The first numbers were handed to the tribal residents of Tembhili village in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra on September 29, 2010. The National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010, was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on December 3, 2010. On December 10, 2010, it was referred to the Standing Committee.

According to a report in Sunday Guardian of 18 September, 2011, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and P. Chidambaram have recommended cut in the budget of Unique Identification Authority of India because of “unnecessary spending” by it. Operating under the Planning Commission, UIDAI has filed an affidavit in Supreme Court in PUCL vs Union of India & others saying any citizen spending more than Rs 965 a month in urban India (about Rs.32 a day) and Rs 781 in rural India (about Rs.26 a day) “at June 2011 price level” would be considered not to be poor.

This hasn’t been a good weak for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. First it was his ill-timed move to introduce FDI in multi-brand retail that had to be shelved in the absence of any political support, including within the UPA and the Congress, for this ill-conceived policy.

Now it is the turn of the much-publicised Unique Identity, or UID, project, pushed by Mr Singh and executed by his hand-picked technocrat Nandan Nilekani, to be rejected by the Parliamentary Standing Committee.

• NO FEASIBILITY STUDY:

  No comprehensive feasibility study -- including cost-benefit analysis, comparative costs of aadhar number before approving such an expensive scheme vis-avis various forms of existing identity such as hologram-enabled ration card to eliminate fake and duplicate beneficiaries -- carried out.

• IN: State Bank of Patiala becomes registrar for UIDAI

  The State Bank of Patiala (SBOP) today said it has signed a MoU to become a Registrar for the Unique Identification Authority of India.

  The bank has become a partner in the efforts of UIDAI in enrollment of residents under the UID Project and will assist the authority at various stages of the project, SBOP Managing Director Ashok Nayar said.

  SBOP will engage enrollment agencies approved by UIDAI for capturing biometric and demographic data of the residents and for issuing UID numbers, he said.

• IN: States keen on making Aadhaar number ‘ubiquitous’

  Nandan Nilekani has reportedly advised people to tattoo Aadhaar number as it would become ''ubiquitous''. You better take him seriously.

  Various state governments have begun to collect information over and above required by Aadhar to create local ‘resident data hubs’, say officials. The exercise has already begun in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and is expected to be replicated in other states eventually. Aadhar has officially maintained that it collects details of name, gender, birth date and address besides photograph, iris and fingerprint samples. In return, it issues a unique 16-digit number which can serve as proof of identity to Indian residents. But people, who queue up to enroll for the number, are being asked to provide additional information such as bank account and LPG connection numbers.

• IN: States warn of massive data duplication in UID project

  Many states have complained to the Union Home Ministry of inherent dangers of a massive duplication because biometric attributes of citizens are being collected for the national population register (NPR) as well as the unique identification (UID) project.

  Inundated with requests from states and Union territories seeking clarifications, the ministry has told them to stick to collecting data for the NPR only.

  It has clarified that the 'Aadhaar' campaign of the Unique Identification Authority is purely voluntary in nature, whereas NPR is mandatory and state governments and Union territories are legally obliged to create the NPR.

• IN: Tamil Nadu: 3 new passport centres to handle 1,400 applications

  The three new passport seva kendras launched in the city on Friday will handle 1,400 applications daily. Launching the swank kendra on Bhanumathi Ramakrishna Road in Saligramam, chief passport officer, Muktesh Kumar Pardesi said it would handle 800 applicants a day, while the other two centres at Navin's Presidum on Nelson Manickam Road and Durasamy Reddy Street in Tambaram would process 300 applications each daily.

  The regional passport office has been shifted from Shastri Bhavan to Rayala Towers on Anna Salai, which will serve as a back office to the Kendras. The new Kendras will drastically bring down the time taken in getting a passport. Front office staff at the kendras would receive applications, feed in biometric data and issue orders on passports. Printing and dispatch of passports would be done at Rayala Towers, manned by staff of the ministry of external affairs and Tata Consultancy Services.

• IN: Tamil Nadu: Census department says it will speed up collection of data for resident ID cards

  The Census Department is taking steps to speed up the recording of biometric details and demographic data of residents to generate Resident Identity Cards (RIC), as part of the National Population Register (NPR) project.

  The details of 32 lakh persons in nine districts including Tiruchi, Pudukottai, and Cuddalore, have been recorded so far, since the recording process began in June last year.

  In January – February, the work to record details was initiated in Perambalur, Ariyalur, Thiruvannamalai, Erode, Karur, Madurai and Ariyalur districts.

• IN: Tamil Nadu: Chennai: Resident ID cards to arrive by year-end

  Biometric camps on in 14 locations; collection of details to be completed by June

  Residents of the city will get their resident identity cards (RIC) by the end of this year or early next year.

  The Directorate of Census Operations, Tamil Nadu, which started enrolling people through biometric camps, will complete collecting biometric and demographic data of the residents in Thousand Lights, Purasawalkam, Egmore and Nungambakkam by the end of this month. The collection of biometric data for all areas in the city will be completed by June.

• IN: Tamil Nadu: Tiruchi: Residents can get Aadhaar card from head post office

  All residents of Tiruchi city will get ‘Aadhaar card' issued by the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI), at the head post office here. The card aims at providing a foolproof identity and even children are eligible for the card.

  Jayashree Muralidharan, District Collector, inaugurated the special technical counter at the head post office where the biometric data of residents will be recorded.

  The Collector said though different ID cards are being issued by various institutions such as banks and companies, the Aadhaar card would be more authentic as it establishes the correct identity of the person.

• IN: Tamil Nadu: UID teams record fingerprints, iris reading

  The directorate of census operations has begun compilation of biometric parameters, including fingerprints and iris reading of individuals in different parts of the state for the Unique Identification (UID) project. The census department will distribute resident identity cards later, based on the unique number created for every person.

  In the first phase, the department has engaged Bharath Electronics to capture images and fingerprints in select villages of Cuddalore, Puddukottai and Trichy. Armed with scanned sheets of the National Population Register (NPR), the enumeration for which was held in June last year, the teams have spread out in seven taluks in these districts, including Kurinjipadi, Panruti, Chidambaram, Srirangam, Aranthangi, Pudukkottai and Thirumaiyam.

• IN: UID Aadhar: Why Aadhar needs to succeed

  The Aadhar debate has been settled for now. With an consensus emerging on the biometric data, there seems to be an agreement with the establishment on the way forward. While the recent criticism on Aadhar has been forthcoming, as a common apolitical citizen, I feel that Aadhar has to succeed and the success of it has important ramifications for us as a whole. Here are the reasons why:

  Time and money spent:

  The UID Aadhar scheme was started a couple of years ago and it had a steady start when the UID numbers were issued a couple of years ago. This month, the UID Aadhar is going to enroll its 200th million number. By the end of the year, it is expected to touch 400 million which accounts for almost 1/3 of the population of the second most populated country in the world. It costs us less than half a billion dollars over a period of 5 years. A significant portion of resources and energy has been spent on this project. The project has been also projected as the next big thing in our attempt to reach the poor of India. With so much money spent and so many resources spent, wont it be diabolical for us if we didn't succeed in it? Beyond the monetary resources involved in this project, the impact potential of the project is immense.

• IN: UID enrolment agencies make beeline at the Ministry of IT & Communications for NPR tender

  Enrolment agencies empanelled with Unique ID Authority of India are making a beeline at the Ministry of IT & Communications, which is starting a similar citizen biometric data collection project for 1.2 billion people for making a National Population Register.

  The empanelled agencies are in a dilemma as the end of their mandate with the UIDAI is nearing with no decision by the government to extend the enrolments beyond 20 crore being in sight. "Despite being empanelled as an agency in September, we are still in a dilemma whether to invest in starting enrolments for UIDAI, as there is little clarity from the government on what will be our status post March 2012," said JK Saxena of Accel Frontline, a newly enrolment agency empanelled with UIDAI.

• IN: UID in trouble as Home Ministry raises questions

  The UPA government's Unique ID (UID) project has run into trouble after the Home Ministry raised questions about the security of data collected. A Parliamentary Standing Committee has also proposed a new bill in its place.

  Sources say that this is a last ditch attempt at saving the UPA's favourite project.

  CNN-IBN has accessed the planning commission's draft cabinet note pushing for the project. This despite a thumbs down from Parliament Standing Committee as well as the Home Ministry.

• IN: UID launch in Bangalore delayed

  Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI), will have to wait longer before he gets his Aadhaar. For, the rollout of the UID project in Bangalore has been delayed.

  "I have a trail number and I have not been able to get a UID number as enrolment is yet to start in Bangalore," Nilekani, a resident of Bangalore, told reporters on the sidelines of a talk on the Aadhaar project, at the National Institute of Advanced Studies here, on Friday.