Three consortia to ensure UID numbers aren’t duplicated
Surabhi Agarwal & Jacob P. Koshy Tue, Jul 27 2010
The nodal agency for India’s unique identity numbers project has selected three consortia to set up and run systems that will ensure the biometrics-based IDs are not duplicated.
The consortia are led by Accenture Ltd and MindTree Ltd; Mahindra Satyam and Sagem Morpho Security Pvt. Ltd; and Hewlett-Packard Co., L-1 Identity Solutions Inc. and 4G Identity Solutions Pvt. Ltd, said an official from one of these firms, who did not want himself or his company to be identified.
An email was sent to the winning bidders by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) last week, he added. “A formal contract will only be signed later this week.”
Another official from an information technology (IT) firm that bid for the contract but did not qualify earlier identified the winners. “Instead of choosing one vendor, the authority has chosen three,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Rajesh Mashruwala, coordinator of biometrics at UIDAI, said the agency had selected three vendors. The contracts will be announced in a few days, he said, without elaborating.
Spokespersons for MindTree, Mahindra Satyam and Hewlett-Packard refused to comment. Accenture did not reply to questions sent by Mint.
The project, known as Aadhaar, aims to provide unique IDs based on biometric data such as fingerprints and eye scans to all residents of India. The first set of IDs are expected to be rolled out next month.
The selected consortia will develop and maintain systems that will cross-check every new application by sifting through the biometrics database, preventing accidental or fraudulent duplication and ensuring that each number is unique.
While Accenture, MindTree, Mahindra Satyam and Hewlett-Packard are information technology (IT) firms, L-1 Identity, Sagem Morpho and 4G Identity Solutions provide biometric solutions. The contract is expected to be worth at least Rs300 crore, making it Aadhaar’s second biggest contract after the one for the managed service provider, which is expected to be worth Rs1,000 crore.
“Biometrics is not a precise mathematical science and can be error-prone,” said R.S. Sharma, director general of UIDAI. “So we are mitigating the risk by appointing multiple vendors for the job.”
Sivarama Krishnan, executive director of the consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the systems to be developed by the selected companies will form the backbone of the Aadhaar project. “UIDAI has factored in the risk as well as the practical aspects by following the multi-vendor strategy as once a substantial database of UID holders is in place, the number of transactions to be done for every verification will become too huge for one single vendor,” he said.
The number of times cross-checking is required will go up further once UIDAI starts offering verification for banks and other services, as planned.
Vendors will be paid at Rs2.75 for every verification request. “All vendors will now be paid at the rate which was bid by the lowest bidder,” said the first company official quoted above. The consortium of Accenture and MindTree emerged as the lowest bidder, he added.
Initially, the systems developed by the consortia will be used to de-duplicate the database of 200 million biometric samples that have been collected by UIDAI through various pilot projects across India as proof of concept.
Mashruwala listed out several benchmarks for the systems. Their false positive error rate, when a system incorrectly rules that a person has enrolled although he hasn’t, should be less than 0.1%. The false negative error rate, or not showing a person who has enrolled in the records, should be less than 1%.
False acceptance rates, or allowing imposters to successfully fake identities, have to be below 0.01%, and false rejection rates, or marking genuine applicants as imposters, ought to be less than 2%.
UIDAI has so far awarded two major IT projects. While an application development contract was won by MindTree, business process outsourcing firm Intelenet Global Services Pvt. Ltd has been awarded the contract to operate the Aadhaar call centre.
surabhi.a@livemint.com
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
