THURSDAY, 24 FEBRUARY 2011 19:37
KERALA IT NEWS
Tvm: Aadhaar, the Unique Identification (UID) project of the Central Government was finally launched in Kerala today by Chief Minister Shri V S Achuthanandan at a function held in Thiruvananthapuram. The enrolment for UID in Kerala was delayed because of the use of proprietary software by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which has now been resolved.
In her welcome speech, Ishita Roy IAS, Director, Kerala State IT Mission said, “It’s a matter of pride that Kerala is the first State to implement Aadhaar using Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). The launch of Aadhaar is in complete compliance with the Kerala Government’s IT Policy of using FOSS in all aspects of governance”.
Launching the project the Chief Minister said that enrolment for Aadhaar would be voluntary in the State. While expressing his concern on the citizen’s privacy violation by using the UID number, the CM added that the Government would like to enhance efficiency in delivery of government’s benefits and services through accurate identification of beneficiaries and to have uniform standards and processes for verification and identification of beneficiaries.
According to Dr. Ashok Dalwai IAS, Deputy Director General, UIDAI, there are 221 enrolment agencies throughout the country. Bharti Airtel has set up a data centre in Bangalore and MindTree is the application software development, maintenance and support services agency. CMC is the content provider for the 15 training agencies selected. Sify is the training certification agency. STQC is the device certifying agency and India Post is the first mile and last mile partner. 1-800-180-1947 is the toll-free number for the UID project.
In Kerala the IT Department has been designated as nodal department for the UID project and Akshaya, IT@School and Keltron are the enrolment agencies. Adv. K Chandrika, Thiruvananthapuram Mayor was the first person to be enrolled.
Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique number which will be linked to the basic demographics and biometric information based on photograph, fingerprints and iris mapping of each citizen. The UIDAI was established in 2009 by the Government of India, with the developmental mandate of setting up the infrastructure to provide a universal way of uniquely identifying Indian residents.
Anil Philip
Kerala IT News