UID project: Dry run in 2 Andhra villages………Sreenivas Janyala
Hyderabad Dry run for the Unique Identity Number (UID) project has started in two districts of Andhra Pradesh. Eight villages four each in Medak and Krishna districts and one semi-urban centre in both districts have been identified for the process.
Once the results of the dry run are declared, decision will be taken on when to launch the pilot project in other parts of the country.
Once the results of the dry run are declared, decision will be taken on when to launch the pilot project in other parts of the country.
Over two months, biometric data, including face image, fingerprints and iris scans of 25,000 individuals living in these eight villages and two semi-urban centres, would be collected and fed into a system.
Andhra Pradesh has been chosen for the trial because the Civil Supplies Department here has one of the most comprehensive and largest databases in the country and the department has issued iris-based biometric cards to over 4 crore people between 2006 and 2008.
An MoU was signed between Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and the Andhra Government on March 10 to implement the UID project in the state. A state-level Empowered Committee has been set up under the chairmanship of Chief Minister K Rosaiah while a state UID Implementation Committee has been set up under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary S V Prasad to oversee the implementation of the project.
The UIDAI has roped in Hyderabad-based 4G Identity Solutions (4GIS), which has expertise in providing biometric and identification solutions for security and public applications, to conduct the trails.
This test project is called Proof of Concept in which we will be validating our software, devices and process being used for the UID. We will be assessing whether our processes meet the best practices standards, whether the devices function properly or not under certain conditions and also see if there is a chance of duplication in spite of using biometric technology. The first phase of Proof of Concept, which started on April 10, will cover 26,000 individuals who already have been issued biometric technology-based ration cards by the Andhra government. This project will also tell us if we need to make changes in the design and structure of the project and improve or enhance the software and devices being used to collect the data, said V S Bhaskar, deputy director general, Hyderabad regional office, UIDAI.
The project borrows biographic data from the Civil Supplies Department, provided in the bar code on the ration cards, and attaches biometric data like face image, finger prints and iris scans to that data. During the second round of data collection from the same population, we will be testing whether duplication is possible and how authentic the data acquired the first time is, Bhaskar said.
The project will test for the first time if the biometric technology being used in the UID project is possible to be implemented in rural areas or not. We have already made a few changes in innovations in the technology to adapt to rural conditions, said Dr Tripuraneni Sreenivas, chairman and CEO, 4GIS.
A doctor trained in England, Sreenivas has the experience of working with the National Health Services (NHS), UK, on Electronic Patient Records. Collection of data and enrollment in rural conditions is very difficult. The technology that is used for biometric data collection has been tested only in clean and controlled environments. We have to see its efficiency in rural areas. The biometric data of about 25,000 people in these 10 villages would be collected twice and collated during this test phase, said Dr Sreenivas.