INDIAN NATIONAL ID CARD

I was reading an article in the ToI today relating to food security. In the article the author mentions that the govt. has issued 223 million ration cards against a total estimate of 180 million households. In other words, at least 43 million 'ghost cards'. 

Can you imagine the implication of 43 million 'ghost' National ID Cards? 

I think we are confounding the confusion around the concept of National ID Card. There's no question about it that it is a good idea. The question is, does the National ID Card have to be a smart card? and what is the RoI on this project?

It may be recalled that the idea of National ID Card has been floating for some time and already pilot projects had been initiated in at least two states at enormous costs. The issue became a talking point during the elections when BJP announced in its manifesto the implementation of the “Multi Purpose National Identity (MNIC) cards”.  Now Congress has grabbed the opportunity as the ruling party and one should appreciate the alacrity with which the Government  has acted immediately on taking charge.

So far, this project of National ID has been a project which was driven by the Smart Card manufacturers who saw a golden opportunity of crores of smart cards being used in the project. Now this lobby will again be active and bringing pressure on Mr Nandan to ensure  that their commercial interests are protected.

The National ID card project does not necessarily require a “Smart Card” with a large memory in the Chip.

While Mr Nandan as an experienced IT professional can be expected to lead the project team to the most optimal solutions, we will be failing in our duty if we do not bring to the discussion board some of the suggestions which had been placed before the Government earlier even if they had not been considered for implementation earlier. It is our desire that the new project team under Mr Nandan should again evaluate these suggestions and reject it if not found suitable. I am therefore reproducing the salient parts of these suggestions.

    1. The essence of the NIDC project is the “Trusted Data Base”. Card is only an instrument of identity for the access. The success of the project therefore lies in building and maintaining a reliable data base.

    2. In many applications it is not necessary for the “Data” to be “Embedded with the ID”. “Data” can be stored elsewhere and the ID can provide a pointer to the Data.

    3. In many applications, unsatisfactory “Data Synchronization” between the memory based ID device (such as the Smart Card)  can make the system dysfunctional.

    4. Stored memory on ID cards which are in the hands of the public are amenable for manipulations which are more difficult to prevent and diagnose than manipulations of data in the hands of the Government in a data base.

    5. Memory based Cards for a massive project such as NIDC can be a crippling burden on the economy.

    6. A massive project of national interest has to be  technology and vendor neutral

    7. A security sensitive project such as NIDC need open source hardware and software solutions to ensure data integrity and information security.

Let’s now discuss each of these points in a little more detail to open up issues for discussion.

Yaa its really a good news that government is thinking in this direction. Every developed country have this type of their residents and civilians. 

yes, I read this latest news. its really a good step, its  one multipurpose ID card with biometric information on it, your name , sex, age will also displayed on it.and can be read only by validated person.

Yes its a very good news Sachin....A great Business professional like Mr. Nilekani heading this project, which ensures every Indian is given an Identity card, this will do a lot good interms of security in the country...and he is the right person for this Job after doing a great job in Infosys, now he is giving his services to the nation and its good that Government is inducting Business professionals like him the planning commision and giving them a important job like this....This is a welcome move from the Government side hope they rope some more like Mr. Nilekani into Government........

I think this kind of projects are not realistic its just waste of money and resources due to the large size of migrating population. We all know the result of VOTER ID Cards, still a majority of population has not received them till now.

No doubt Nandan Nilekani is a rocking personaility, and can turn this unrealistic idea of ID card into reality as nothing is impossible in this world. Nilekani is the best choice made by honorable PM of India.

Still I think its a gamble, either it should be a some existing card or process that can be updated into these smart card such as vehicle registration certificate, driving licence, passport or bank account which should be converted into smart card. Now a days there are various sources of collecting the individual database and identity proof. Surely it will save lot of money that can be used in other development process.