Nilekani asks researchers to help UIDAI solve challenges

Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Nandan Nilekani today sought the help of researchers in solving the "massive computational challenges and problems" in the implementation of the UIDAI project.

"There is no way we can do this alone. We are going to need help from all of you (researchers)," he said launching a computer science community portal ResearchAndYou.Com of Microsoft Research India at its annual research symposium "TechVista 2010" and fifth year celebrations here.

Nilekani said the project's idea is to give a unique identification to over a billion Indians.

There will be a thousand challenges to the research community as it will be the biggest biometric data base that has ever been made, he said.

Listing out the project's advantages, he said it would help in bridging the digital divide and also help ensure that public spending is really delivered to the right people.

Nilekani said there are quite a few tasks ahead which include creation of a big data depository and adoption of Unique Identification. The project, he said, aims to provide online authentication of identity.

UIDAI's technology group is in Bangalore, he said adding "we intend to float a request for proposal by next week". A 'proof of concept' will be shown in two to three states in the coming months.

The first set of UID's will be rolled out between August 2010 and February 2011,he said.