The empowered group of ministers headed by the external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday gave approval to set up the Unique Identity Authority under the Planning Commission.
Initially, the voters would be chosen for the unique identification (UID) card as it is much easier to gather data from current electoral rolls, and they would get the card by early 2010, a spokesperson for the ministry of communications & IT told DNA.
He said the government would keep on adding citizens, including those below 18 years, over a period of time to incorporate all the citizens. Photographs and biometric data will be further added to make identification foolproof.
Going forward, UID will be the only card required by citizens, unlike in the current situation where one has to keep multiple cards for identification. Other identification cards like PAN or voters ID may become redundant though the cabinet has to take a decision on whether to continue with them or abolish them, a government official said.
The official said, UID card is much more significant than social security number adopted by other countries as it can be used in any future developmental activities taken by the authorities.
The UID authority will formulate a proposal covering the cost and staff needed to implement the project and will place it before the Cabinet for approval by the year-end.
The cost of the project could not be estimated immediately, the spokesperson said, adding that it would be available once the Union Cabinet approved the proposal and bidding started.
Once implemented, different agencies would be able to share information about citizens with each other through the UID.
According to the ministry, each sector of the economy or government department adopts its own system of identification such as permanent account number (PAN), ration card, electoral photo identity card, credit cards, etc. Once in place, citizens would only need to give the UID for identification purposes.
Besides government and regulatory agencies, private companies in the banking, financial and telecom sectors would also be allowed to use the UID.
Over a period of time, UID will become single universal identification mechanism across all institutions in the public and private sectors. .