NEW DELHI, INDIA: The appointment of Nandan Nilekani, the co-chairman of Infosys, as the chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India is significant, not only because it marks a departure from the traditional government way of working — of looking at bureaucrats and ex-bureaucrats to head projects of national importance, but also because it shows that the government has actually put out effort to hunt the right person for the job.

Apart from being a globally respected business leader and visionary, Nilekani is known to be passionate about the UID concept and the need to implement it as soon as possible in India. In fact, in the Dataquest Awards 2007, where he headed the jury that decided the Dataquest IT Person of the year, his entire speech was on the need to implement unique ID system for India.

Once the project is rolled out, each Indian citizen will have one unique identification number that will identify him/her. This will not just help the government track down individuals as is highlighted by the media, but will make life far easier for citizens as they will not have to submit so many documents each time they want to avail a new service — private or government.

This will be the equivalent of the social security number in the US. Interestingly, many of the ideas like pension and social security would also be easier to roll out. If used properly, this will also channelize the government subsidies to the right recipients.

It may be recalled that an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM) headed by the then External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherji, had approved the establishment of a Unique Identity Authority for all residents of the country in November 2008. The UID Authority would be under the Planning Commission. The Home Minister and ministers for IT and Communications, Law and Panchayati Raj were members of the EGOM while the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, was a standing invitee. The proposed system envisages collaboration among several government agencies backed by intensive use of information technology.

"There has been a long-felt need in the country for a system of unique identification of every individual for a variety of purposes such as better targeting of government's development schemes, regulatory purposes (including taxation and licensing), security purposes, banking and financial sector activities, etc. In the absence of such a nationwide system, each sector of the economy or department/ agency of the government adopts its own system of identification such as PAN card, ration card, Electoral Photo Identity Card, credit cards, etc," the government had said in a press note while announcing the project in November.

"Such specific purpose identities were often found to have inherent limitations in accuracy and currency levels on account of low frequency of usage. Moreover, the multiplicity of such systems renders it impossible to correlate information across sectors and even across institutions within the same sector for providing better services to people. Similarly, different agencies of government are unable to correlate their data relating to any particular individual," it added.

At that time, the UPA government had said that unique identity (UID) number of each individual would remain a permanent identifier right from birth to death of the individual. It would obviate the need for a person to produce multiple documentary proofs of his identity for availing of any government service, or private services like opening of a bank account, etc.

This would end needless harassment that people face for availing of basic government services like issuance of passports, driving licences, Electoral Identity Cards, etc.

The government had said that it would extensively use technology — something that Nilekani understands thoroughly — to facilitate easy verification of a person's identity and enable a single communication to trigger address changes in all relevant agencies records.

It would also serve as the basis for many e-governance services incorporating online verification of a person's identity. UID would enable the government to ensure that benefits under various welfare programmes reach the intended beneficiaries, prevent cornering of benefits by a few people and minimize frauds. It would enable financial institutions to exchange information regarding defaulters and encourage responsible borrower behaviour.

The scheme envisages that at the inception, the UID number will be assigned to all voters by building on current electoral roll data and progressively adding other persons including persons below 18 years of age who are not a part of the voters list in the country. Over a period of time, through fail safe procedures backed by intensive use of technology and with the help of multiple government agencies, the currency and comprehensiveness of the database will be perfected.

The scheme is designed to leverage intensive usage of the UID for multiple purposes to provide an efficient and convenient mechanism to update information. Photographs and biometric data will be added progressively to make the identification foolproof. Easy registration and information change procedures are envisaged for the benefit of the people.

The UID Authority, the government had said at that time, will be responsible for creating and maintaining the core database and to lay down all necessary procedures for issuance and usage of UID including arrangements for collection, validation and authentication of information, proper security of data, rules for sharing and access to information, safeguards to ensure adequate protection of privacy and all aspects related to all of these issues.

Any agency, public or private, which deals with individuals and incorporates the UID number of each such individual in its databases, will be able to share information with other agencies which do likewise. The government had said that the UID would become available to an initial set of users by early 2010.

The BJP, in its IT vision document, also promised to set up a unique ID system, calling it Multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC). It had said that, if it came to power, it would amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to combine the offices of the Registrar General of the Census of India and that of the UIAI to set up a Citizenship Regulatory Authority of India (CRAI).

The CRAI would be responsible for maintaining a National Register of Citizenship (NRC), and keeping it current up to the minute. Based on the NRC, CRAI would issue each citizen an MNIC with a unique Citizen Identification Number (CIN).

BJP had also promised that CRAI would maintain a 24x7 online presence and enable government, law enforcement and authorized private institutions to let their computer systems "look up" the MNIC database in real time.