30 IT professionals to help Nilekani in UID project

600 million IDs will be issued over the next five years

Close to 30 IT professionals are expected to assist Nandan Nilekani in his endeavour to give 1.20 billion residents in India a Unique Identification (UID) number.

“I have requested the industry to allow its skilled professionals to voluntarily participate in the authentication process. The companies could allow these professionals to go on sabbaticals for a year or two. We have received interest from individuals and firms,” Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of the UID project, said at the Nasscom Leadership Forum today.

Over the next five years, nearly 600 million IDs will be issued, with the first set of numbers being expected between August 2010 and February 2011.

“In the next few weeks, we will appoint a consultant to help us draft the request for proposal (RFP) for the managed services provider. Post that, we will start doing pilots and conduct proof-of-concepts to check how the technology works for the database of 1.20 billion people.”

Nilekani indicated that the managed services provider would have to ensure robust security measure to protect the online database. The plan aims to provide real-time online authentication. “The key issue for us is to ensure that there are no duplicates in ID system, like it is happening in other schemes. The problem with identity is that many national and state projects have duplicates that had led to frauds while implementing various government programmes,” Nilekani said.

“The data will also be available across the country on cellphone networks that can be validated on any mobile handsets, online, or can be embedded within a software programme,” said Nilekani. On these open-ended systems, companies can build applications that will cater to certain specific industry usage like health care, he added.

He accepted that the maximum challenge was during the enrollment due to the inherent challenges in India.

The project, if successful, will be a money spinner for the IT industry. The project, according to Nilekani, will lift the hardware market in a big way, as it could lead to a large demand for point of sale equipment, iris scanners and biometric devices. The government had earmarked a fund of Rs 120 crore for the UID project for 2009-10.