March 07, 2010
Unique ID cards for 30 lakh in pilot project
56-day pilot to cover 30,000 people..
The reason for selecting Andhra Pradesh for the initiative is because of the State’s experience in implementing the country’s largest biometric programme.
K.V. Kurmanath Hyderabad, March 12.
The ambitious project to give a unique identity number to every Indian citizen has made a humble beginning in two districts of Andhra Pradesh, with the testing of the basic, raw model on 30,000 people in the villages..
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDA), headed by Mr Nandan Nilekani, has identified 10 villages and two urban centres in Medak and Krishna districts. What the Authority is doing in these villages is called a ‘Prelude to the Pilot’ where it will put to test the solutions and technologies. The difficulties in data gathering and having quality data too will be the focus. The 56-day project will see the collection of samples twice in order to cross-check veracity and accuracy.
The reason for selecting Andhra Pradesh for the initiative is because of the State’s experience in implementing the country’s largest biometric programme. The State had issued Iris-based biometrics cards for 4.2 crore citizens through its Civil Supplies Department.
The initial UIDA project has two major components – identifying the right kind of devices to capture the 4+4+2 (four fingers of both hands and two thumbs) digital images and the behaviour of the biometric system, Mr N Ramachandra Rao, Vice-President (Corporate Affairs), 4Gid Identity Solutions Private Ltd, told Business Line. The Hyderabad-based company, associated in identifying duplication in the State’s Civil Supplies Department cards, is taking up the project in the two districts.
The project includes two basic components. While one component will look into standardising the devices, the other will prepare a Proof of Concept, as UIDA prepares for the pilot programme and the subsequent scale-up for the whole country.
