[Reader-list] UID will aid delivery of flagship schemes- 193

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear All

A philosopher once said, 'daydreaming is original contemplation'. As
the council of ministers go into a huddle for an exercise in
collective reverie, we on the margins of the discourse, get a sense of
its scale, its monumental proportions and we choose not be awed by it.
For the sake of participation in a collective memory do we sometimes
not grant our elders the right to choose our collective nightmares? We
are repeatedly persuaded to go and sleep. Yet we choose to not to go
to sleep. Or at least we pray that may some of us suffer from an
insomnia while others lie with a dream-induced sleep.

600 million is the figure which we are promised that would be made
visible to the digital eyes of the state. 600 million is the figure
which we are led to believe will not suffer from the injustices of the
state. 600 million is the figure which will get their random numbers.
The angel of back office automation has now become an archangel of
random numbers will be the one to shower us all with names bearing a
code  ABCD oblique 1234. The test really lies in how this daydream
play itself out when we wake up.

Please read the story below for more.

Warm regards

Taha

http://www.hindu.com/2009/08/13/stories/2009081361501100.htm
The Hindu
Thursday, Aug 13, 2009

‘UID will aid delivery of flagship schemes’
Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI: Reiterating his government’s high priority to the Unique
Identification project, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday
said lack of identity proof resulted in harassment and denial of
services to the poor, and led to leakages in various government
programmes.

Chairing the first meeting of the 11-member council formed to advise
the newly created Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI),
Dr. Singh said the project would specifically improve delivery of the
flagship schemes of the Centre.

The Authority is being headed by the co-founder of Infosys, Nandan Nilekani.

Dr. Singh said providing identities to the poor and the marginalised
would enhance access to government services, both in the State and at
the Centre, and would enable delivery of benefits to the poor and the
under-served.
“Active participation”

He emphasised the need for the “active participation” of all
government departments for the success of the project.

The council endorsed “in principle” the draft strategy of
implementation and resolved to provide a legal framework to the UIDAI
in course of time.

It decided to make it the apex authority to set standards in
demographic and biometric data in order to ensure inter-operability.
Eliminate duplication

A single, universal identity number will help eliminate fraud and
duplicate identities, resulting in significant savings to the State
exchequer. The government undertook an effort to provide a clear
identity to residents first in 1993, with the issue of photo identity
cards by the Election Commission.

Government sources said the UID number would only guarantee identity,
not rights, benefits or entitlements. It was proof of identity and did
not confer citizenship.

The Registrars that the Authority plans to partner with in its first
phase — the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the Rashtriya
Swasthya Bima Yojana and the Public Distribution System — will help
bring large numbers into the system.

The Authority will ensure that the Know Your Resident standards do not
become a barrier for enrolling the poor, and will devise suitable
procedures to ensure their inclusion without compromising the
integrity of the data.

The UIDAI approach leverages existing infrastructure and private
agencies across India. It will be the regulatory authority, managing a
Central ID Data Repository, which will issue UID numbers, update
resident information and authenticate the identity of residents as
required.
Number, not a card

The UIDAI will issue a number, not a card. The number will not contain
intelligence, as loading intelligence into identity numbers makes it
susceptible to fraud and theft.

The UID will be a random number, the sources indicated, and the single
source of identity verification.

The Authority will collect only basic information on the resident.
Once residents enrol, they can use the number as identification proof
to open a bank account, to obtain a passport, driving license, and so
on.

Eliminating duplication under various schemes is expected to save the
exchequer upwards of Rs. 20,000 crores a year.

The Authority is likely to start issuing the numbers in 12-18 months.
It plans to cover 600 million people within four years from the start
of the project.

The meeting was attended by Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Veerappa
Moily, C.P. Joshi, Kapil Sibal and Deputy Chairman of the Planning
Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, among others.