MindTree pips Accenture, IBM to bag first UID project

MindTree, the Bangalore-based information technology (IT) services provider, has bagged the application development services (ADM) segment of the Nandan Nilekani-headed Unique Identification (UID) project, renamed as ‘Aadhaar’. This is the first of the many IT projects that has come up for bidding till date.

MindTree, pitted against two other shortlisted companies — IBM and Accenture, is understood to have placed the final bid at Rs 20 crore.

The ADM multi-crore project involves the complete application lifecycle — from designing, developing, testing, maintaining and supporting the UID application to providing help desk services from the UIDAI’s (Unique Identification Authority of India) Bangalore Technology Centre. “This project will include developing an architecture as well as designing a software platform to serve as an end-to-end software solution to generate UIDs,” said a source familiar with the development.

MindTree, termed as an application software development, maintenance and support agency (ASDMSA), will be expected to work as a development partner to build the UID application, in collaboration with the technology team of UIDAI and other stakeholders. It will also be expected to carry out the ongoing services of development and enhancement to the core UIDAI application.

In January, the UIDAI called for bids and floated the request for proposal for design, development, testing, integration, support and maintenance of UID application software. Indian IT majors like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies, Wipro and HCL Technologies were among the 19 bidders. Many of these companies lost out on ‘technical’ grounds.

The first set of UIDs will be issued between August 2010 and February 2011. Nilekani plans to issue 600 million UIDs over the next five years. UIDAI was allocated a sum of Rs 120 crore in last year’s budget and Rs 1,900 crore this year. The UID project is estimated to offer IT companies a Rs 15,000-20,000 crore opportunity, as it sets to build an ecosystem around the project, comprising biometrics, databases, smartcards, storage and system integration.