Thaindian News

Bangalore, June 23 (IANS) A whopping one million Indians will be enrolled each day by October for issuing unique identification number (UID) under the Aadhar scheme to cover about 60 percent of the population by 2014, a top official said Thursday.

“We have set a target of enrolling one million citizens a day by October to issue the UID number for about 600 million people over the next three years,” state-run Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan N. Nilekani said at an event here.

Under the scheme, the authority will issue a 12-digit unique number to billon-plus citizens across the country.

The unique number will store basic demographics and biometric information of each individual such as photograph, ten fingerprints and iris in a central database and can be used for various government and private services and benefits.

“We have issued the Aadhar number to 9.5 million people during the last nine months after the scheme was launched in September 2010. With more enrollment stations being set up across the country, we will be scaling daily enrollment to a million in the next three months,” Nilekani said at a day-long conference on the “Next Generation Service Delivery Enabled by Aadhar”, organised by the IT industry body Nasscom.

The authority is also scaling up its technology back up and ramping up enrolment stations across the country on the front end to achieve the ambitious targets and create an eco system for driving innovations.

“Due to lack of identity, a majority of Indians, especially the poor and marginalised, have no acknowledgement of existence and remain excluded from the India development story. The Aadhar number will benefit them in many ways such as having access to basic services, various government schemes, insurance and pension,” Nilekani told members of the industry, officials and entrepreneurs.

Noting that the UID scheme would be a game-changer for technology firms as it was the first of its kind product the world over, the former Infosys vice-chairman said in the next phase of the exercise, the identity of a person would be authenticated online through a mobile phone or internet.

“The verification of identity will be available on an open application programme where an authorised partner can embed the identity management we will provide in their applications,” Nilekani pointed out.

Exhorting the Indian IT industry to become part of the Aadhar eco system, Nilekani said the scheme would have enough vertical and horizontal space for leveraging the emerging technologies in developing a range of applications, solutions and services.

Earlier, Nasscom president Som Mittal said the UID was a project of great national importance and had great potential ahead.

“As Aadhar rolls out across the country and gathers momentum, it will create huge opportunities for the IT industry to innovate solutions that can be adapted to other uses,” Mittal said.

Extending the industry support to the scheme, the former HP India executive said Nasscom had high stakes in propagating the project and partnering with its authority.

“The UID project should be treated as a national infrastructure like highways and airports. As a key enabler and differentiator, it can create an ecosystem for even small and medium IT firms. Being the first of its kind, the whole world is looking for its success so that it can be replicated in other countries as it is very secure,” Mittal asserted.