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UNIQUE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER
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UNIVERSAL
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IDentity
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FORMULA = SYSTEM
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Nandan Nilekani
"IT'S ABOUT THE NUMBER, NOT THE CARD.
A UNIQUE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER"
"THE MAN WHO WILL END THE IDENTITY CRISIS"
Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani on Thursday took over as head of the unique Identity Authority of India (UIAI), tasked with creating a national database of identity details of citizens.
Quick facts about the project:
* Number of new ID Cards: 1.2 Billion
* Cost: $5 Billion
* Project duration: 18 months
* Project boss: Nandan Nilekani (ex-InfoSys)
* Height of all ID Cards stacked together: 150 times taller than Mt Everest
Purpose
To avoid multiplicity of identity cards needs by citizens to avail of govt service, or for private needs auch as opening savings accounts or applying for telephone connections
* To enhance national security by helping identify illegal aliens.
Nandan Nilekani:
the 'Bill Gates of Bangalore' with a social conscience to match
Co-Founder of Infosys, shares his views on open markets and the failure of public systems
Nilekani mulls monetising UID project
It's India’s most ambitious project for all its residents—giving each individual, be that an infant or an adult, a unique identification number.
Nandan Nilekani, who is in charge of making this happen, has a plan that goes beyond just getting the numbers together. He plans to monetise it.
“Lets say there is a bank or a mobile company, which is opening a new account. Normally they use a KYC process and spend about Rs 100-200 crore. If we are able to reduce this cost then it’s reasonable they pay us something for that. So we will monetise this for agencies that use it for commercial purpose,” said Nilekani.
Well, this is undoubtedly one of UPA government's most ambitious projects and the big man of IT and now the head of the project is giving a corporate angle to it. -profit.ndtv
"First batch of ID numbers in next 18 months"
Updated: January 1, 2012
“The entirety of our economic livelihood in the 21st Century is going to turn in large measure upon our ability to verify identity for those who want to transact business, and, finally, our reputation and our privacy depends on our ability to control our identity".
-former U.S. Department of Homeland Security Sec. Michael Chertoff.
“I like to say that the issue of identity authentication, determining that you are in fact the person you claim to be, really rests potentially on what I call the three Ds: description, device, and digit.”
Unique ID for Indians - Boon or Bane?
THIS WEEK: Debate on whether India's Unique Identity card project will provide a basis for a positive and accurate identification of its citizens or infringe their privacy and human rights.
INTRODUCTION: Nandan Nilekani was recently handpicked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to head the newly created Unique Identification Authority of India. No one doubts the immense potential of the project nor does one doubt the impeccable credentials of the man chosen to lead it. But given the powerful nexus of entrenched politicians and bureaucrats who stand to lose their power and influence, will this project really see the light of the day? Mr. Nilekani's bold endeavor may mark the beginning of a new era where distinguished private citizens take on challenges of national importance or he may end up becoming a disillusioned man in the same way as Sam Pitroda when the latter tried to usher in the telecom revolution to the country. We look at the underlying dynamics that may make or mar this project. Is this the right project at the right time in the history of our nation or should we scale back our ambitions to focus more on what is achievable rather than merely aspirational? -WSJ
More than numbers
"And yet, the other day as a couple of dozen of us came away from a meeting with Nandan’s team, we were looking at each other, nodding our heads and saying with a mixture of awe, admiration, hope and tautened expectation something along the following lines: “Their plans are intriguing — modest at one level and therefore eminently do-able, simply breathtaking in its audacity at another level and therefore absolutely desirable from the country’s point of view.”
The new Agency is not planning to issue a card as most of us have been thinking. In one utterly brilliant stroke, they have redefined the purpose and the outcome of their endeavour. Each Indian resident is going to be eligible for a single Unique ID Number, not a card. This means that others who issue cards, be it in the state sector (the Election Commission, the passport office, the NREGA authority, the Income Tax Department, etc) or in the private sector (banks, cell phone operators, etc) have nothing to fear and therefore no incentive to resist or sabotage the new approach.
On the contrary, they are free (as and when they choose — no compulsion) to leverage the fact that there will be a unique number associated with a unique individual — a symmetric relationship which cannot be violated or subverted as it will be based on non-replicable biometrics. Leveraging this facility can only help various card-issuers and if they choose not to make use of the unique IDs they are no worse off than they are today."
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Nandan Nilekani gets higher role in government
Nandan Nilekani, the former head of the leading technology firm Infosys Technologies has been given more responsibilities in the government works.
Mr. Nilekani is heading the innovative unique identity card (UID) project which aims at providing an identification card to every Indian. He will now also be in charge of a technology advisory group for projects "to ensure effective tax administration and financial governance" so that the IT projects are tamper-proof and reliable.
"A Technology Advisory Group for Unique Projects (TAGUP) is proposed to be set up under the Chairmanship of Nandan Nilekani for creation of reliable and secure IT projects," said Finance Minster Pranab Mukherjee.
The new responsibility shows the confidence the UPA has on the in him in executing innovative plans to bring transparency and accountability to the government projects in order to make them effective.
The new project directly challenges the way in which bureaucracy often delays projects. Some are surprised with the appointment of Mr. Nilekani instead of Mr. Sam Pitroda who was appointed adviser to the PM on innovation.
The technology advisory group aims at developing more efficient tax administration and financial governance through projects in the information technology sector in an efficient manner.
In his role in the group Mr. Nilekani will oversee technological and systemic issues of the projects in information technology in the areas of Tax Information Network, New Pension Scheme, National Treasury Management Agency, Expenditure Information Network, Goods and Service Tax.
The finance minister has made appropriate allocations in the Union Budget for the ongoing UID project which will start rolling out Id numbers this year.
-stockwatch
Nilekani gets a bigger tag
NEW DELHI: Former Infosys chief Nandan Nilekani's responsibility in the government has expanded. He is now tasked with a technology advisory group for projects "to ensure effective tax administration and financial governance," along with heading UPA's ambitious unique identity card (UID) project.
The fresh responsibility entrusted to Nilekani, considered a raw hand in thegovernment set-up after his appointment as chief of the UID Authority, reflects UPA leadership's confidence in him to deliver on plans for institutional innovations, to infuse transparency and accountability, while ensuring benefits reaching the intended targets.
The job at hand is a challenge as it aims to change how India's powerful, and often stifling, bureaucracy works. It is also interesting that it is Nilekani and not Sam Pitroda, another IT brain who was recently appointed adviser to the PM on innovation, who has been chosen to lead the prestigious project.
The FM made a handsome allocation to UID project which is set to roll out the first set of UID numbers to citizens this year. "It (UID) would provide an effective platform for financial inclusion and targeted subsidy payments. Since UID will now get into an operational phase, I am allocating Rs 1,900 crore for 2010-11," the FM said.
The new technology advisory group will develop initiatives to better tax administration and financial governance through IT projects that are reliable, secure and efficient.
