60 cr Indians to get UID in 4-5 yrs: Nilekani

At least 60 crore people would get their Unique Identification Numbers (UIDs), a much-touted initiative of the government, in the next 4-5 years, its project chief Nandan Nilekani said today.

"We expect to give UIDs to at least 600 million (60 crore) citizens in the next 4-5-years. It is a challenging job and we are managing multiple risks," Nilekani, Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), said.

UIDAI is an agency set up by the Centre to undertake the UID project. Nilekani said the initiative would help in providing a transparent, effective and transformational governance.

The authority would issue the first UID in the next 12-18-months, he said at a FICCI-IBA Banking summit here.

Nilekani said banks would be a key partner in the project and UIDAI would publish standards and protocols for the project in the next six months.

"Banks are a key partner in the project. They can be registrars as well as users of the authentication service," Nilekani said.

Under the project, UIDAI will be issuing numbers to each and every citizen of the country but not cards, he said, adding that the issuance of the number will be demand-led.

He also said there is an immense potential to merge the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) programme with the UID initiative.