Jun-15-2011
The UIDIA's Aadhaar project, the world's largest scale biometric identification initiative, is off to a fast start. In a country where 500 million people don't have a reliable form of identification, it might seem like the 4 million registrations in the first 6 months of a 5 year project is a failure, but this number surpasses initial milestones by quite a bit. As of July 2009, chairman Nandan M. Nilekani's goal was to initially issue the first million IDs within 12-18 months, but the UIDAI hit that mark by January 2011. When one considers that the United Kingdom's universal ID program, was hindered due to costs and privacy concerns, it's clear that India is on its way to becoming a biometric identity management trailblazer.
The project is a reaction the problems inherent in providing social services to the people of India. Without identification, the poorest populations in the country are not assured the benefits of these federal and state programs. Identification is required to cut down on fraud by increasing transparency and accountability, to assure that funds are actually going to those in need. Biometric data is much more reliable than traditional forms of identification, and will result in less overhead in the long run. The biometric IDs will serve a dual purpose as well, doubling as access to bank accounts, as many residents of India lack formal economy.
Each registered citizen has images of both irises, a complete set of fingerprints, and a photo collected, all of which are checked against the existing database, resulting in the assignment of a unique 12-digit number. A single fingerprint or iris scan will then be able to positively identify them. The technical design and development fell upon a group of specialists with start-up experience in Silicon Valley. For six months, they lived and worked out of a three bedroom flat in Bangalore, fleshing out the core design of the biometric system. They modeled the system after NIST, ISO, and FBI specifications, prompting them to adopt the use of existing devices and data interchange formats. This should allow the Aadhaar project to avoid the legacy issues which have arisen in other projects, which initially relied on a single private biometrics equipment vendor or proprietary format.
Much of this can be attributed to the early success of the program. In avoiding the pitfalls of previous projects, chosing sensors which can enroll up to 50 people per day, and piggybacking on existing government infrastructure, the Aadhar project has scaled up quite quickly. It's been indicated that this speed may have come at the cost of accuracy, but as the program matures, the adoption of better training practices will undoubtedly remedy this.
That the first phase of the Aadhaar project has been such a success thus far, is an indication of the rate at which biometric technology is maturing. If the UIDAI's early success here is any indication of things to come, India will no doubt be the success required to propel the other nations of the world into adopting biometric IDs.
Each registered citizen has images of both irises, a complete set of fingerprints, and a photo collected, all of which are checked against the existing database, resulting in the assignment of a unique 12-digit number. A single fingerprint or iris scan will then be able to positively identify them. The technical design and development fell upon a group of specialists with start-up experience in Silicon Valley. For six months, they lived and worked out of a three bedroom flat in Bangalore, fleshing out the core design of the biometric system. They modeled the system after NIST, ISO, and FBI specifications, prompting them to adopt the use of existing devices and data interchange formats. This should allow the Aadhaar project to avoid the legacy issues which have arisen in other projects, which initially relied on a single private biometrics equipment vendor or proprietary format.
Much of this can be attributed to the early success of the program. In avoiding the pitfalls of previous projects, chosing sensors which can enroll up to 50 people per day, and piggybacking on existing government infrastructure, the Aadhar project has scaled up quite quickly. It's been indicated that this speed may have come at the cost of accuracy, but as the program matures, the adoption of better training practices will undoubtedly remedy this.
That the first phase of the Aadhaar project has been such a success thus far, is an indication of the rate at which biometric technology is maturing. If the UIDAI's early success here is any indication of things to come, India will no doubt be the success required to propel the other nations of the world into adopting biometric IDs.