UID: A Door to open Doors for the marginalized : Nandan Nilekani
India Infoline News Service / 15:49 , May 11, 2010
The schemes would also be able to achieve better targeting and greater enrolments.
Elaborating on the benefits of ‘unique identification’, Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Planning Commission, Government of India, said that the Project would help the marginalized and the migrant access public services. It would address issues of multiple identities & ghost identities plugging in leakages in various welfare schemes. The schemes would also be able to achieve better targeting and greater enrolments. Mr Nilekani was speaking at a CII interactive session today at Delhi.
Sharing the concept of the Unique Identification Project, Mr Nilekani said that the project has two aspects – one to provide a unique identification number to all Indians and second to provide online authentication. Once the unique identification number starts to be accepted as an identity proof, it will benefit millions of poor Indians without any identification, access public services. It will reduce the transaction costs in the economy as the need for establishing identity for every individual service will get eliminated. The online identification process will enable re-engineering of different applications to deliver public services in a different and more efficient manner.
Explaining the security features, Nilekani said that the identification would be biometrics based and the database would be a private database which could be used only for authentication. The draft UIDAI act would soon be ready for public comments and would define the framework for the entity, he added. The first set of identifications are expected to be rolled out by February 2011 and around 600 million Indians would be enrolled over the next four years, said Mr Nilekani.
Mr Nilekani also presented the CII President’s awards to Mr U K Sinha, Chairman CII National Committee on Mutual Funds & CMD, UTI AMC ; Mr R S Sharma, Chairman CII Public Sector Enterprises Council, and CMD ONGC; Mr P S Bhattacharya, Chairman CII Sub Committee on Sustainable Development & CMD, Coal India Ltd; Mr Harpal Singh, Immediate Past Chairman CII Northern Region and Mentor & Chairman Emeritus, Fortis Healthcare Limited; Dr Naushad Forbes, Immediate Past Chairman CII Western Region & Director, Forbes Marshall Pvt Ltd; Mr Mukul Somany, Immediate Past Chairman CII Eastern Region & Joint Managing Director, Hindustan National Glass & Industries Limited and Mr C R Swaminathan, Immediate Past Chairman CII Southern Region & Chief Executive, P S G Institutions. President CII Awards are an annual feature and are presented to individuals making outstanding contribution to CII.
Earlier while delivering the opening remarks Mr Venu Srinivasan , President CII said that the UID project was indeed a very complex project because of its sheer scale and the complex technology platforms. CII welcomes the project and believes that it would immensely benefit the common man.