The Hindu : Front Page : Decision on biometric marker soon

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Friday, Nov 13, 2009
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Decision on biometric marker soon

V. Sridhar

Bangalore: Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Nandan Nilekani on Thursday said the organisation was “in the process of deciding on the biometric attributes it plans to use for identifying citizens.”

Delivering a lecture, ‘The UID Project: issues and challenges,’ at the Platinum Jubilee celebrations at the Indian Academy of Sciences here, Mr. Nilekani said the UIDAI’s biometrics committee would decide soon whether to use fingerprints, iris recognition “or a combination of other physiological attributes that will provide an individual’s biometric signature.”

Every biometric signature would be compared at the time of entry with every other existing entry in the UIDAI’s “centralised database” to check its authenticity. However, Mr. Nilekani cautioned that the process of verification had to be “considerate and sensitive, taking into account the reality that many poor people do not have documentation to back their claims to an identity.” An open-access platform would enable “online authentication” of entries in the database.

Mr. Nilekani said the UID would be a “number, not a card.” The Authority was “committed” to issuing the first UID within 12-18 months from August 12, 2009 when the UIDAI held its first meeting. It hoped to “roll out” 600 million UIDs within six years from that date. “Full coverage of the population may take longer.”

A large number of people “have no means of proving their identity.” The UID was “only an instrument.” Although it “guarantees an identity, it does not guarantee entitlements to people. Having an identity is the first step for a citizen to avail of benefits from the state.” This, he said, could be used to “promote inclusive growth.”

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