UIDAI to issue 16-digit numbers from Feb 2011

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) today said it would start issuing the 16-digit unique numbers from February 2011 and plans to cover 600 million population over the next five year.

"We will start issuing numbers from February 2011 and within the next five-to-five-and-half-years we will cover 600-million persons across the country," UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani said, adding that a team has already been formed for the purpose.

Nilekani said UIDAI is tying-up with banks, oil companies and other national institutions which would either be a partner or a registrar and enroll individuals for the unique ID on behalf of the authority.

"There will be multiple touch-points and we intend to do this with a set of partners or registrars like banks or oil companies who will enroll individuals on our behalf," Nilekani said.

The Unique ID programme is an ambitious initiative by the Union government to provide every individual in the country with an exclusive multiple-digit number to authenticate the identity of the person.

Nilekani said the project had huge challenges in terms of technology and implementation.

The programme will have online authentication, re-duplication of existing documents and authentication of 1.2 billion people through finger printing and iris identification.

"There are huge risks like technology and implementation risks because no one has ever done a project of this size before. Obviously for the security of the database, we will have to put in lots of safeguards and firewalls," he said.

Nilekani said the next two years would be critical for the project and the authority has assembled a team consisting of people from the government as well as the private sector which will co-ordinate with eight main regional offices across India.