Wednesday, September 29, 2010

One Population, One Database ! UID Project Aadhar... A Grand Phenomenon begins

India is one of the largest democratic Nation's in the world with the Second Largest Population, most diversified in terms of economical status, religion, education, langauge, food habits, culture, traditons and so on.   To bind this entire Nation,  with a uniformed structure is no small task.   I think in terms of the Project Strength, this would be the World's largest Project involving the largest number of stakeholders....Entire India!     This enormous and most ambitious project headed by Nandan Nilekani, is not only the most wanted project but also the most difficult project to accomplish.    

First time ever in the History of India, a Government database will not be divided in the name of Caste or Geographical diversity.   Personal details like date of birth, name, finger prints, IRIS records and photograph will be included in the Unique Identification Card that will be issued to every Indian probably over the next few years.   It is estimated that it will take close to next 5 years to get every Indian in the database.  Every person above 15 years will be issued the UID card as per the Aadhar Project. 

Key Highlights of this project are:

1. Every Indian will have a Unique Indentity with 10 digit number
2. Entire population will be recorded with its biometric scans, face, name and finger prints
3. Project Aadhar will enable the economically backward and rural India to gain its own identity
4.  Irrespective of the socio-economic conditions of the person, there will be a common thread that binds the nation
5.  Government initiatives to support the economically weaker sections of the soceity will get its bigger focus
6.  Historical steps to help the Rural India and Poor who need banking and other infrastructure access
7.  Development programmes initiated by government  and unemployment support initiatives will find better access by the common man
8. Usage of the UID in every transaction and banking operations, will bring in more of the black money to market
9.  This should be the first step to stop the misuse of government funds and grants
10.  Long run, UID, should create a tracking database to end corruption and bring in more stablization of the money flow in the country.

Three Cheers to Nandan and his team for having shouldered this enoromous project and Wish Project Aadhar a grand success!