Unique identity project gets Rs1900-crore boost………..Praveena Sharma
Bangalore: Governments unique identity (UID) project, headed by Nandan Nilekani, got a big boost with the allocation of Rs1900 crore announced by Finance Minister (FM) Pranab Mukherjee in his budget speech on Friday.
The FM also said Nilekani will head the technology advisory group proposed to be set up for creating reliable and tamper-proof IT projects.
The FM also said Nilekani will head the technology advisory group proposed to be set up for creating reliable and tamper-proof IT projects.
Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO of Infosys Technologies, said setting up of the advisory group would ensure technology use by the government and its standardisation.
A note issued by Unique Identification Database Authority of India (UIDAI) said part of fund allocation would be spent on one-time expenditure in building technology infrastructure for creating secure biometric, network, storage and search solutions in the
UID central database, and in the registrar systems.
UID central database, and in the registrar systems.
The UID project will facilitate governments mandate to expand spending on Indias welfare schemes and improve the countrys flagship schemes, including NREGS.
The government fund will expedite the process of putting in place technology infrastructure to start issuing UID numbers by August 2011.The Authority will issue a 16-digit unique identity numbers to the 1.2 billion residents of India. Mukherjee, in his budget speech, said the project would provide an effective platform for financial inclusion and targeted subsidy payments.
Part of the budgetary allocation will be used to implement the 13th Finance Commission recommendation to provide incentive of Rs 100 to encourage people poverty line to enroll for UID.
The Authority said it will soon release an estimate on where the allocated funds will be spent. It will also publish full account of the amount spent in 2010. UIDAI, on Friday, selected Ernst & Young Pvt Ltd as project management consultant for setting up of the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) and identifying Managed Service Provider (MSP) for its projects.