10/12/14
India is planning a vast digital identity database that will store public records for each of its 1.2 billion citizens and enable them to access a range of e-government services.
R.S. Sharma, secretary of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology told Bloomberg in an interview that the database will integrate police, court and criminal files, and that the government will also build a platform for uniform payment, property registration and social assistance systems.
The Department of Electronics & Information Technology will develop new software for the database itself, because existing applications are a decade old and aren’t integrated, he said.
Every citizen will be given access to cloud storage connected to their digital identity, enabling them to access services if they move to a different state, apply for a job or request assistance.
Sharma said the biometric-based Aadhaar ID numbers will be used in the databases, without giving more details. Some 720 million have so far been enrolled in that programme, with the rest targeted to the part of the system by March 2015.
The level of integration between the Aadhaar database, which is maintained by the Unique Identification Authority of India, and the new government database remains unclear at this stage.