V. Shoba : Bangalore, Sat Jan 21 2012, 22:05 hrs
There was no shadow of the controversy over the collection of biometric data under the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) scheme today as its project coordinators rattled numbers to show that it was a success.
By Saturday morning, 12 crore Aadhaar numbers would have been generated and by March, the programme would have delivered on its original mandate of registering 20 crore people, it was announced. It will need the government’s nod to go on further.
Addressing a press meet at the UIDAI Technology Centre in Bangalore, Pramod Varma, chief technology architect for UIDAI, said: “We are now the largest and the fastest biometric identification system in the world in terms of processing. We process 10 lakh enrolments and trillions of biometric matches every day.”
“We have found that 99.86 per cent of the population can be uniquely identified by our biometric system. And the accuracy is improving because of our competitive model of working with three different companies,” said Srikanth Nadhamuni, head of technology at UIDAI.
“So far, the UIDAI has been able to get things done at the lowest prices ever,” added Ram Sewak Sharma, director general and mission director, UIDAI. “Abroad, the cost of enrolling a single person with iris and fingerprint scans is Rs 20. When we put out tenders, we got quotes for Rs 2.75.”
Incidentally, questions have been raised about the security of data collected by the UIDAI as well as duplication of its cost with the National Population Register programme. “We have demonstrated scale,” said Nilekani. “Now we will wait for the Cabinet's decision once we hit 20 crore.”