Is UPA’s UID project in jeopardy?

MUMBAI, INDIA: When it was rolled out in 2006, the UID project was  meant to provide unique identity for below poverty line (BPL) families, but was later extended to all Indians. And a year after the process of issuing the unique IDs began, the project is now faced with grave concerns that have posed a big question mark on its continuity.  

The Parliamentary Committee on Finance has rejected the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) bill based on some of key concerns.

The panel found that UIDAI’s action of information gathering and issuing identity (ID) numbers was unethical and it violated parliament’s executive rights as the bill is yet to be cleared. UIDAI has been issuing the Aadhar numbers for the past one year without the bill being passed by the Parliament.

Giving the instance of UK’s national ID project and why it was called off based on a study by the London School of Economics, the panel pointed that the UID project also involves high costs, is complex in nature, has unreliable technology and poses safety risks.

While the core project planning was to find a mechanism to identify and reach out to targeted beneficiaries, the panel raised its doubts on identification of beneficiaries , even if they are linked with Aadhar number.    

Besides, the panel raised several concerns related to information privacy, technical and financial feasibility of UID project and asked the government whether the UID should be given to Indian citizens or every resident, who might benefit from various government schemes.

The panel said there’s a possibility that illegal residents could try to get UID cards via false affidavits or other means.

According to the panel, privacy issues should be covered by enacting data protection law and as it remains a pre-requisite with collection of information from individuals and its linkage across separate databases. 

Critically, the panel disapproved the UID project due to lack of study on financial implications of UID scheme that involved the cost of rolling out UID cards.

Further referring to Biometrics Standards Committee’s report, the panel also found the project lacked technical feasibility in the context to the accuracy and efficacy norms when the database scales up from 50 million to one billion.

Moreover, panel’s concern related to the eligibility of issuing UID cards to all Indian residents or citizens is likely to push the UPA government into a tight spot of bother and may force to change the policies of the project or put it on the back-burner.