29-09-2009 - Embassy new Delhi
Viewing cable 09NEWDELHI2013, New Delhi Weekly Econ Office Highlights for the Week of
Unique ID Program Taking Shape
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¶13. (U) Joint Secretary (Telecom) J.S. Deepak told Econoffs that the first meeting between Additional Secretary of Department of Telecom Subodh Kumar, Mr. Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and founder of Infosys, and Indian telecom service providers was held on September 24 to discuss the roll-out of the unique identification (UID) program.
Earlier this year, the GOI set up the UIDAI to implement a Unique Identification card project, which will own the database of residents along with their biometric information.
¶14. (U) The introduction of unique identification will be heavily based on India's wireless subscribers, currently estimated at about 480 million, which are already authenticated in terms of identity and address. The first UID is targeted for issuance in the next 18 months and it is expected that the nearly all wireless subscriber base voluntarily will join the program in the following 18 months. The biometric data will be collected by telecom outlets, who primarily sell pre-paid phone cards. There are over one million telecom outlets; however, only 30-40,000 vendors will provide this service through what GOI is calling a hub-and-spoke model.
¶15. (SBU) Joint Secretary Deepak noted that despite the inherent challenges posed by the massive scale of this program, the introduction of UID will transform the way Indians do business in the areas of Government-to-Citizen interaction. He said the ID would be useful for a multitude of purposes, including elections, taxation, national security, and banking. Deepak, a former USAID employee responsible for global social programs, was enthusiastic about the UID's potential to greatly reduce "leakage" in government subsidies and benefit payments, including the NREGA program, and for its ability to also transform provision of education and healthcare.