National ID Project

Recently the government has announced the prestigious National ID project,appointed Mr Nandan Nilekeni, Former CEO, Infosys as the chairperson of Unique Identification Authority,and allocated Rs 150 Crore in the Central Budget 2009-10 for the project. The Unique ID Authority of India (UIDAI), under the aegis of the Planning Commission, is aimed at providing a unique identity Card to every citizen in the country.

Some of my thoughts in this regard is as follows:
1. National ID is one of the most progressive project proposed by the Country in recent years, which can have wide spread impact in population management.
2. It is not a project unique to India, as many countries across the world have already gone ahead with similar project. But what makes the Indian project different is the huge population involved making it logistically and physically impossible to reach each and every citizen of India, and the UIDAI, should take steps to overcome this hurdle.
3. As per the initial reports, UID is going to be biometric enabled photo smart card. If the card is biometric enabled ie the finger print of every citizen is captured in the card, why can't the card be a replacement of all the current national ID's including passport, pan card,ration card etc. In addition, if a law can be brought in to include all major events in the persons life, including date of birth, date of marriage, spouses name, spouses' date of birth, parents name & date of birth,physical details like blood group, distinguishing marks etc. as well as all medical records,credit history and scorings etc so that the card can be used as a complete encyclopedia about a citizen,it will be of advantage in the following manner:
a. It can serve as a one point reference point about a person,which can be the basis of every commercial transaction with the person.
b. If the card be made in such a way that it is ATM enabled, all bank accounts (Credit and debit) can be linked to the UID card, which will dispense with the need of multiple plastic cards to hold the credit and debit information of the person. Since the data can be decrypted only with the finger print of the holder of the card, which would make it the most private card ever made available in the country and at the same time the most comprehensive record of the monetary transactions of a person. On a citizen front it would save the citizen from hazzles of keeping multiple records of his monetary transaction. Slowly it can become the starting point of moving into plastic currency, which is fully accountable. Such a step would end the menace of black money market as well.