Making a unique impression
Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee
It's for U and I: Work on India's Unique Identification Project is gaining momentum. Here's a wrap-up of the action..
Overall, the project is expected to give the much-needed fillip to the domestic IT and BPO market.
The UIDAI hopes to give out the first set of numbers by February 2011, and cover 600 million residents in 4.5 years.
The engines of the unique identification project, which have been revving up for the last few months, seem all set to move full throttle ahead.
The UID project has visibly shifted into higher gear in the past few weeks. Not only is it sporting a brand new logo — Aadhaar — but also shaking up the local IT market, thanks to a slew of contracts pertaining to consulting, application development & maintenance, contact centre services, biometric solutions and training services.
Going forward, these contracts will form the core technological backbone of the nation-wide project — it will enable Government to hand out unique identification numbers to 1.2 billion residents in coming years, and also process hundreds of thousands of simultaneous authentication requests each day.
Overall, the project is expected to give the much-needed fillip to the Rs 66,200-crore domestic IT and BPO market, where growth rate is projected to touch 15-17 per cent in FY11.
Speaking at a UID conference last month, Anirudha Dutta, Executive Director – Equity Research, CLSA, had pointed out that the UID opportunity over the next five years aggregate could be a staggering $20 billion.
This would entail pieces such as strategy, IT consulting, hardware, business process re-engineering, analytics, business intelligence, as well as commercial scope for mobile telecom firms, banks and other organisations.
Ambitious scale
For the record, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will provide, to every resident, a unique identification number that will serve as a universal proof of identity, allowing residents to establish their credentials anywhere in India.
This ID will be assigned on the basis of the uniqueness of the resident's biometrics. Accordingly, the project proposes to capture fingerprint and iris-related biometrics of each resident. This will enable the Centre to correctly establish the identity of an individual by linking the UID number to the demographic and biometric information.
“It is a computing-intensive task. And it has never been done before on this scale…The largest database so far has been 120 million, and so in that sense we are going to an uncharted territory. But it is doable,” said the UIDAI Chairman, Nandan Nilekani, at a recent CII event.
Putting tech blocks in place
The UIDAI hopes to give out the first set of numbers by February 2011, and cover 600 million residents in 4.5 years.
So it is on a war-footing that the UIDAI is putting together the technological blocks that will ultimately shape India's grandiose plans. In February, the authority roped in a leading consultant to develop the roadmap for the UID project. Ernst & Young edged out other contenders such as Booz & Allen, PA Consulting and Capgemini to win the mandate.
Around the same time, it also invited bids for the development, support and maintenance of UID application software. Although the contract value was relatively small (it ultimately worked out to Rs 19 crore), the tender created quite a buzz in the market as it was the first IT project from the UID stable.
Nineteen bids for application software development came in, and 10 players were shortlisted.
The top IT vendors such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro, IBM and Accenture slugged it out for the mandate, but it is mid-sized IT firm MindTree that looks set to bag the application development deal.
Another key IT contract is for implementation of biometric solutions. The UIDAI has invited Expressions of Interest for implementation of biometric solutions (functions such as de-duplication and biometric verification) for up to 20 crore records in the very first phase of the UID project.
Close to 14 players, including global giants such as Cogent, L-1 Identity Solutions, NEC, and Sagem as well as Indian IT firms such as TCS, Wipro and Bartronics have evinced interest in the order, whose value is being widely estimated at over Rs 100 crore. The companies have already made a detailed presentation before the UIDAI and a shortlist is expected soon.
“The biometric solution will need to support up to one million de-duplication and verification requests a day.
Given the magnitude involved, all biometric companies are trying to bring UID-specific solutions to meet the local requirements,” says one of the bidders.
Procurement of IT-enabled services
Meanwhile, the authority has set the ball rolling on procurement of IT-enabled services that would support the UID project.
Recently it floated the request for proposal (RFP) for setting up contact centres and spelt out the technical and financial criteria for interested bidders.
The call centres' services would offer the central point of contact for assistance or queries on the UID programme and have already caught the attention of Indian and global BPO companies. Genpact, Wipro BPO, Firstsource, TCS, Spanco BPO and many others are expected to jump into the fray on June 1, the last date for submission of bids.
“There is clearly a lot of excitement around all the UID projects and given that the Budget allocation for the UIDAI for the current fiscal is Rs 1,900 crore, we are likely to see quite a bit of movement on the various IT orders this year,” says Rajiv Agarwal, CEO (e-governance), of Spanco.
Training of enrolling agents
Besides this, work has also started for empanelment of training institutes with a view to create trained workforce for UID enrolments.
The empanelled institutes will train the enrolling agency's staff to ensure a standardised enrolling process.
As per initial estimates, this would involve training of over one lakh enrolling agents in four years' time.
Players such as NIIT Ltd, Aptech and HCL Infosystems are eyeing the project, for which the last date of submission of bids is May 17.
“Generally, training contracts tend to be more regional, but this is a tender that has a country-wide repercussion. We will definitely bid,” says the Aptech CEO and MD, Ninad Karpe.
Stiff criteria ring
While the overall UID opportunity promises to be huge, the going would certainly not be a cakewalk for potential bidders. Despite the wide interest to participate in the UID project, only a handful will make it to the final cut.
Already, players are talking about the stiff criteria ring fencing some of the contracts. Another issue being flagged by the industry pertains to the frequent modifications in EoIs and RFPs that are being invited.
“Typically in contracts, partners first get into discussion with players and take their inputs before inviting EoI or RFP. But here, the discussions are taking place after the RFP is floated.
As a result we are seeing frequent revisions and modifications in various documents. This is a little discomforting,” says an industry observer.
moumita@thehindu.co.in
Why this Blog ? News articles in the Wide World of Web, quite often disappear with time, when they are relocated as archives with a different url. Archives in this blog serve as a library for those who are interested in doing Research on Aadhaar Related Topics. Articles are published with details of original publication date and the url.
In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.
On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.
In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.
In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.
In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.
"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi
Ram Krishnaswamy
Sydney, Australia.
Aadhaar
The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018
When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi
In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi
“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi
“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.
Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.
Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha
“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh
But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP
“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.
August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"
“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden
In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.
Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.
Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.
UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy
1) Denial
2) Issue fiats and point finger
3) Shoot messenger
4) Bury head in sand.
God Save India
