India to issue i.2 Billion Indian citizens with Biometric Cards
Every Indian will soon be numbered. The government has prepared the ground for what could be the world's biggest project to provide unique identification (UID) numbers to citizens.
A new body will give all Indians UID- based smart cards with their personal details embedded in them. Even infants will have tag numbers, and will get smart cards in due course.
The permanent identifiers will be place of birth, date of birth and name of parents.
A gazette notification will soon be issued to set up a national UID authority under the Planning Commission.
The headquarters for the mammoth project will be in Delhi with offices in all states and Union terrtories
When in place the proposed UID system, which has parallels in developed countries, would be the world's largest database of citizenry. China has a bigger population, but the system of identification of citizens followed by it continues to be under wraps.“The UID project is really for the huge number of people who are outside the system. For the poor, this is a huge benefit because they have no identity, no birth certificates, degree certificates, driver’s licence, passport, no address. There are 75 million homeless people in this country, 75 million tribals. So if we are able to help them get the number then we can actually empower them,” Nilekani says.