Dhiraj Nayyar, New Delhi:
Posted: Mon Aug 30 2010, 04:42 hrs
Packed into what look like two medium-sized suitcases are eight essentials — an iris scanner, a fingerprint machine, a camera, a laptop, a computer screen linked to the laptop, an Internet data card, a pen drive and a printer.
Armed with kits like these, Nandan Nilekani and his team at the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will kickstart one of the most ambitious exercises in recent times — distribution of unique identification numbers to India’s 1.2 billion people.
And they hope to roll this out as early as the first week of September, in cities, towns and villages of Andhra Pradesh, the state chosen for the launch of this unique exercise.
Unlike in the Census that’s already on, there will be no paper-wielding government employees knocking at doors. Instead, enrolment officials, who are almost certainly not going to be government employees, will set up stations in different parts of Andhra Pradesh and turn to their kits.