Identity Project's List: hindustan times

"Nandan Nilekani-headed Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) mandated to issue unique IDs or Aadhaar cards to every resident in India will get full "functional autonomy", but its future role in enrolment will be decided by the Union cabinet later this month. Planning
Commission's deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia is expected to inform the finance ministry on Wednesday that it is willing to delegate all powers to the authority and it should have full "autonomy" without any panel's monitoring.

Plan panel member secretary Sudha Pillai had raised doubts over the UIDAI's functioning and asked the finance ministry to allow the panel to monitor the authority. The authority is an attached office of the Planning Commission, required to seek financial approvals for it from the government.

"I am fully backing UIDAI on autonomy," Ahluwalia said, when asked about Pillai's letter to the ministry, but added that concerns raised by her were genuine as the panel's secretary.

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"The country's top planning body the Planning Commission is working on a national privacy policy following fears of the civil society that the government was trying to get private information of individuals without enough safeguards.

The plan panel has constituted an expert group
under the chairmanship of former chief justice of Delhi high court AP Shah to draft a legislative framework to ensure technical safeguards against misuse of the private information sought by the government for grounds of national security or delivery of welfare measures.

There are series of government projects that has privacy related issues.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is collecting biometric details of all residents under unique identification number or Aadhar scheme, which would eventually be linked to availing government's welfare schemes.

The home ministry has initiated National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid) programme with an intention to ask telecom and Internet service providers to compulsorily link their databases with that of the government to check cyber related terror threats."

"The country's top planning body the Planning Commission is working on a national privacy policy following fears of the civil society that the government was trying to get private information of individuals without enough safeguards.

The plan panel has constituted an expert group
under the chairmanship of former chief justice of Delhi high court AP Shah to draft a legislative framework to ensure technical safeguards against misuse of the private information sought by the government for grounds of national security or delivery of welfare measures.

There are series of government projects that has privacy related issues.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is collecting biometric details of all residents under unique identification number or Aadhar scheme, which would eventually be linked to availing government's welfare schemes.

The home ministry has initiated National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid) programme with an intention to ask telecom and Internet service providers to compulsorily link their databases with that of the government to check cyber related terror threats.

The Science and Technology ministry has drafted a DNA Profiling Bill for home ministry with an intention to create a genetic database of all persons arrested by police. If the person is acquitted, the draft law, says the DNA records of the person will be deleted from the official records.

The government's intention of creating Information Technology (IT) based database of individuals may be based on sound logic but many within the government had raised questions regarding it's misuse. Even the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has proposed a draft law on privacy has failed to convince the detractors within the government."

"The Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) has allotted five acres of land in Manesar to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for setting up of a data centre.

As part of the Aadhaar project, the Central Identification Data
Repository (CIDR) will be established with an investment of Rs 275 crore, an official release said here on Monday.

While Rs 160 crore would be spent on the data centre infrastructure development and building, R115 crore would be incurred on civil and other miscellaneous works, it said.

The total built up area would be more than two lakh sq ft and the green data centre would be in addition to the existing centre at Bangalore."

"The Union Cabinet could next week decide who will conduct the biometric enumeration for preparing the National Population Register (NPR), Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Friday. The Home Minister said there were two points of view on who will do the biometric enumeration and the
Planning Commission, the Department of Expenditure and other agencies concerned have expressed their views on it.

"Therefore, we have advised (Unique Identification Authority of India Chairman) Nandan Nilekani to bring a paper to the (union) cabinet. I think the UIDAI will bring a paper to the cabinet very soon, even as early as next week," he said. Nilekani had on Thursday said he would approach the cabinet.

The Home Ministry had earlier, along with the Planning Commission, resisted the UIDAI proposal to independently collect the biometric details - photograph, iris image and ten fingerprints - of all residents.

Home Secretary RK Singh had told a finance ministry panel that this would lead to duplication since the Census Commissioner would need to carry this exercise under the law."

"Under the Unique Identification (UID) — Aadhar project of the government, 27% of the city's population has been covered so far.
However, the slow pace with which the project is moving has raised concern among authorities about meeting the project deadline. In a review meeting
held on Friday, state revenue minister AK Walia instructed the agencies concerned to speed up the enrollment work. Instead of the current average of enrolling 69,763 people in a day, Walia asked to increase the number of enrollments per day to at least 1.25 lakh people.

The early completion of the process will provide unique identification to residents for a number of purposes. It will also put an end to duplication in claiming benefits under various welfare schemes.

Walia said that stern action will be taken against non-performing agencies. The revenue minister has already instructed to forfeit the security deposit of the agency in-charge of enrollment work in east and south districts. These two districts are at the bottom of the list as far as the percentage of enrolment done is concerned. In all, 10 agencies have been involved in the project."

The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) is set to become the first educational campus in the country to function through unique identification (UID) numbers. The UID-enabled campus will work towards making a cashless environment where all transactions from buying a notebook to a
parantha in the canteen will be done through UID numbers and biometric (fingerprint) authentication.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), a government agency headed by Nandan Nilekani, former co-chairman of Infosys Technologies, is working towards providing a unique 12-digit number called Aadhaar to all Indians. The IIT-B initiative will be a pilot project that will test if a cashless environment, where all transactions are via e-payments with biometric identification, is sustainable."

"A government panel has refused to fund the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to independently collect biometric details of 1.1 billion Indians a second time, and asked the authority to stick to 200 million residents as decided earlier. The Nandan Nilekani-led UIDAI had
asked for Rs 14,840 crore to enable the authority to collect biometrics – scan Iris and ten fingerprints – of residents by 2017, independent of the National Population Register (NPR).

The UIDAI proposal would have duplicated the efforts of the census commissioner, who has already collected identity details of all residents and is in the process of collecting their biometrics. The census commissioner has the mandate, by law, to create a register of all residents and issue them cards."

"The home ministry has raised concerns that a fresh proposal of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to independently collect biometric details could lead to duplication of effort and lead to wastage of public funds.


The Cabinet had earlier mandated the census
commissioner to create the national population register (NPR), a biometrics-based identity system. This required the census commissioner to create a data-base of all residents through door-to-door enumeration and pass this database to UIDAI that will take care of duplication and issue number of each unique resident."

"Every Delhiite will have Unique Identification (UID) number by October 2011. Delhi divisional commissioner Dharmendra, who is also the implementing officer for the UID project in Delhi, said the exercise to enroll the residents of Delhi has been put on the fast track and the time during the
summer vacations would be utilized to achieve the target.

"The enrolment of people is already on in north-west and south-west districts. We have finalised enrolment agencies for the remaining seven districts and enrolment work shall start in first week of June. Efforts are being made to utilise the summer vacations for maximum number of enrolments by using the space available in schools," Dharmendra said

According to officials, the process to allot UID to 5.4 lakh people who have already registered themselves is on and the number shall reach them soon, he added.

Delhi government had started giving out UID to the city's 70,000 homeless in October 2010. For the rest of the city the process was started in January 2011. "

"In order to boost the poor performance in registering people for the unique identification card (UID) project, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has proposed to set up additional UID centres in private societies, educational institutions, railway stations and in corporate
offices.

The proposal has been sent to the state government on Saturday. In the last six months, only 22.60% of the city’s population, which amounts to 30 lakh, has been registered.

Currently, there are 144 registration centres and 14 multi-registration agencies involved in the process.

“The most frequent complaints of people regarding the process of UID registration is that it is very time consuming and mismanaged. With this proposal, we are trying to simplify the procedure and cover maximum ground,” said a civic official."

"MindTree, Bangalore based mid-sized IT company after beating off competition from international IT giants IBM and Accenture, to partner the Unique Identification Authority of India’s (UIDAI) ambitious Aadhar project, is excited about the possibilities and the magnitude of the whole
thing.

The company established by a group of ex-Wipro employees in 1981 has developed the application that will allow the government agencies to issue and authenticate 1.2 billion Indians who will be issued the unique identity numbers (UID).

“We started working since May last year and since then there has been 30 hours of work each day for the entire team. Two weeks back the system processed half a million UID in a single day,” said Krishnakumar Natarajan, managing director and CEO, MindTree.

In the next few weeks MindTree team will start work on identifying which applications can be linked with the UID. Maharashtra has chosen us as their partner to help them identify what applications can be linked to the UID, Natarajan said. "

"Acting against unauthorised Unique Identification (UID) registration centres operating from offices of political parties in the city, the state government recently issued a circular outlining the rules which need to be followed for operating these centres. In a circular issued on July
20, the state information technology (IT) department has asked the municipal corporations, councils and collectors to issue prior permission to all the UID enrolment agencies in their jurisdiction for continuing UID registration.

Private enrolment agencies were roped in by the Unique Identification Authority of India to complete the registration process. Some political parties too started running registration centers at their offices.

The registration centers being run at offices of the political parties lent a political connotation to the whole registration drive. What invited the ire of the authorities was the fact that most of them were operating without proper permission. "

"Life may became a bit easier for your domestic staff. According to a recent notification by the Reserve Bank of India, job cards issued by the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) duly signed by a state government officer and letters issued by the Unique Identification
Authority of India containing the name, address and Aadhaar number of the applicant can also be used as officially valid documents to open a bank account. However, accounts opened only on the basis of either or both these, will be treated as small accounts.

What are small accounts?
A small account is nothing but a savings account that can be opened with any bank. In order to open such an account, all you need is a self-attested copy of your passport size photograph, apart from the NREGA card or UID number. However, the designated officer at the bank who processes the opening of your account has to certify under his signature that the signature or thumb impression of the account holder was affixed in his presence. Though the documentation is relaxed, the account comes with many limitations."

"The state’s directorate of information technology, the agency spearheading the unique identification (UID) card programme, on Monday issued directives to the civic body to inspect all UID centres to keep a check on irregularities. A surprise inspection by IT officials at a centre in Fort
on Friday revealed violations that could jeopardise the security of the information stored.

The officials found that the IT company Tera Software had violated the norms and sub-contracted the enrolment process to another firm, M/S Infotech.

“Sub-contracting of enrolment s could endanger the security of the entire process. It would be more dangerous as the details of millions of citizens are stored in one machine,” said an official said on condition of anonymity,

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"An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to consider on Tuesday limiting supply of subsidised domestic LPG cylinders to 4-6 per household in a year. The EGoM meeting is slated for tomorrow to consider recommendation of the Task
Force on Direct Transfer of Subsidies on Kerosene, LPG and Fertiliser.

Sources said if approved, every household will get only 4-6 LPG cylinders at subsidised price of Rs 395.35 in Delhi and they will have to pay market price of about Rs 710 per bottle for any requirement beyond that.

The limited supply of subsidised LPG would be for those who own a car, two-wheeler, house or figure in the income-tax list."

"Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said that the government would conduct its borrowing for the year in a manner that would leave enough funds to finance the private sector’s investment needs. “So far the borrowing programme is concerned, always we match it in such a way that
the others in the market of borrowing are not elbowed out,” he said after a meeting with chief executives of public sector banks and financial institutions.

The government has set out a medium-term roadmap to return to fiscal prudence, targetting to reduce to fiscal deficit to 4.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011-12 The fiscal deficit for 2011-12 of Rs 4,12,817 crore is proposed to be financed through market borrowings of Rs 3,43,000 crore and the balance through a mix of treasury bills, external debt and other instruments."

"In order to make the enrolment process easy, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has roped in nationalised banks as registrars. These banks will be able to do enroll customers and staff members in their own premises. Some of these banks include Bank of India, Bank of
Maharashtra, State Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank.

“Allowing these banks to enroll their customers will reduce the burden on UID centres run by the state government considerably,” said Gurudutta Ray, assistant director general, UIDAI regional office, Mumbai. "

"In nine months, the Unique Identification (UID) Authority of India, also known as Aadhaar, has issued one crore UID numbers.

The record was achieved with issuing of UID to 52 year-old NK Chheda from Maharashtra, the state where first UID number was issued to Ranjana Sonawane on
September 2010.

“It took three months to cross the ten lakh mark and only another six months to reach the one crore Aadhaar enrolments mark. This is yet another milestone, en-route to our goal of issuing 60 crore Aadhaar numbers by 2014” Nandan Nilekani,"