I-cards cost under Aadhaar world's cheapest, says DeitY Secy

Commending domestic IT firms for inventing cost effective and sophisticated technologies, DeitY Secretary R S Sharma today said such innovations have helped in generating world's cheapest ID-cards under the UIDAI project, costing Rs 100 for one person.
Speaking at Indiasoft, (India IT Show) Sharma said India offers a wide variety of sophisticated IT technologies at frugal costs to technology acquirers and solution providers.
"The cost of enlisting an individual under UIDAI works out to be cheapest in the world. A similar ID card programme in the UK costs about Pound 150 per individual, in India it is only Rs 100 and could even work out to be cheaper, when the project gets completed," he said.

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), that is implementing the Aadhaar card project, has so far generated over 75 million cards.
Sharma invited foreign delegates from over 49 countries, who were at the event, to adapt Indian technologies that combine innovation with frugality, speed and scale.
"It suits the need and affordability of countries, which are passing through various stages of development. Also, a variety of newer technologies are developed such as digital lockers, digital certificates etc," he added.
Referring to the government's Jan Dhan Yojna, Sharma said high mobile phone penetration would be used to reach out to the target group.

Since PCs and broadband penetration is not very high, mobile texting would be used for reaching out the target group to inform them about their bank balances and other facilities like direct subsidy transfer, he added.