By the year 2011, every Indian will be having an Unique Identification Card. Nandan M. Nilekani, a founder and former chief executive of Infosys Technologies, will leave his post as a co-chairman of the board to take on the ID card project. Nilekani has already stepped down from the post of the Chairman of Infosys following his appointment as the head of the National ID Card Project Authority. He has been given a cabinet rank also. This will be a very massive project and could bring a great change in the Indian IT infrastructure. The Government is spending about Rs 150,000 crores for this project. The effectiveness and advantages of this system will depend fully on the provision and norms of the data to be stored in the card. This could include information like the locations the individual travels, immigration, hotels, shopping centres, railway stations, etc. If every citizen has to go through a security gate to enter the airport and he needs to swipe his card, his visit is noted and suppose he is not supposed to enter that particular location, the entry should be restricted. There could be alarms set to a particular card to trace a particular persons location. Even I would suggest to have the card with health records. For example if I go to a particular hospital, my treatment, diagnosis should be updated to my smart card. Next time I go to another city need a Doctor’s consultation, I don’t need to carry my previous health record, instead, the Doctor can get my health record from my smart card. In case of loss of my smart card, I should be able to get my new card proving my identity or some security questions, password to get a new card instantly.
Advantages of having a Smart Identification Card for every Indians
- Every citizen of the country is accounted. All the information about that person can be saved in the smartcard and can be accessed and updated when needed.
- If this smart card has more information like health record, travel details (Check at immigration, airports, hotels) this will be of great use.
- This will really boost the IT infrastructure of the country, for instance every hotel or every shop should be connected to this system and records of every citizen should be updated. This can be very helpful in keeping a watch or tracking security issues.
- Right now we have many identification system, like the Voters card, Passport, Driving license, but once this system is introduced, we should follow one and only Identification system and this should be the Unique Identification Smart Card. For every purpose the card should be access, checked and updated.
- No need to carry health records if the card has a provision to store health records.
- Every prime location should be identified (Like Airports, Railway stations, Hotels, Universities) and the entry should be secured through these smart cards.
- This project will really improve the IT infrastructure of India. Every key location will be secure through these cards which will be very useful to track the visitors, time of visit, etc.
- Track ourselves – If we have provision to read our movements connecting the card to our home computer, we can know where we went on a particular day.
- Updates from different departments – Suppose the IT department wants to update you about your returns, they can do it from their system and when you read you card, you get the updates
- There will be lots of advantages using this smart card, but we need to wait and see the level of implementation, access level and security.
Already there are many developed countries has this system running, so we need to study those examples and create a smart card covering all the loopholes and problems to create a really SMART card. I am sure Mr Nilekani is the right man from India to head such a great project. Surely this will cause some barriers in the freedom of moment, but looking into recent security issues, we Indians should be ready to accept the conditions and hope for the best to our Country.
Related posts:
Kishore Asokan is the author of this blog and has been blogging since 1999.
He is a software professional from Carnegie Technology of Education, Pittsburgh, USA. He works on
.NET, PHP, AJAX, etc. He has been making money online for the past 10 years and is still learning
to monetize his skills. He has recently launched his 
[...] will leave his post as a co-chairman of the board to take on the ID card project. Nilekani Source : Unique Identification Card For Every Indian – UID project [...]
Dear Kishore,
Thanks for your comments/suggestions.Agreed, the necessity for it, but frankly speaking if my hotel is to know where I have arrived from and whether I am on tour or on liesure.. it may be an infringement in my privacy.
On the other hand, I need to know how the actual on fireld implementation will happen.
True Abhishek, there will be some threats on privacy, but we need to wait and see the depth of implimentation
Actually I have got something which would help them to get their job done or in other way round, I have a design ready to be implemented for such needs. The application complies with all basic forms and modules which is useful while entering human details….If i could get through Mr. Nalikani, I would definately save is time and cost on process analysis as the one I have with me is based on real data and analysis . Can anyone help me out to get through the right person who is responsible for the project and can give me his valuable time for discussion.
Praveen, Nandan Nilikani is the person
Kishore, who dosent know him and being in the similar industry for some time now, i should be knowing him. my post was to hear from someone who could help me to be through him or through the person incharge for the project. I have something for them in my box…
ASlo as Abhishek has said, I do not actually agree to any innruptance to any individual priyacy, this is not a data base with a call centre where people are going to reach you for enquiry, the data will be used for a user identification. I could say this coz I have done it… I may not be able to say much about it right now as in need to maintain company confidentiality. …
It might hard to be through him, I mean to say If I could get through his associate who is one among the all in the project..
Praveen, Abhishek is into e-governance field and especially into smart card for the last year and half. I think he should be the right person
Thanks Kishore for your effort. Abhishek, by now you might have gone through the discussion I had with Kishore through blog, on a high level I represent an Application Software development company named NewStar Software Services http://www.newstarit.com; I wish to speak to you on the UID project or if you could put me through the right person who can assist me whom to talk. We have designed and developed similar thin client apps which is enabled with all feature (forms and modules) which are to be titled in such project. KIndly drop me an email at praveena@newstarit.com from you email along with your contact details and I shall contact you at your convinient time. Looking forward for a favourable responce fromyou. Thanks – Praveen
[...] he is called for a revival process. Recently Nandan Nilekani was appointed as the head for the UID project. I am sure he will be able to set things right for Air [...]
Dont you people see how terrible this thing is?Track yourself? Others will track you!Keshore says: “but we need to wait and see the depth of implementation.” By then it will be too late. You don’t implement this system and then throw it away tomorrow because it turns out the privacy that you sacrificed for it was more valuable than you had realized.I realize there are more Indians than there are people in my country but mine gets along fine with several forms of Identification. In fact, I can use some ID’s to replace missing ID’s. That’s a lot safer than “what was your first pet’s name?” and it allows me to separate levels of privacy. Banks can’t see my health records. Don’t you see that might be a problem if they could?Helpful in keeping watch or tracking security issues?What happens when your government decides you’re a security threat? They could shut you off. What if they shut you off on accident? what if you’re innocent? What if the law you broke to get yourself shut off was a bad law and needed to be broken?Are there unjust laws? laws that should be broken? What if they made a law to exterminate the Jews? Hitler would have loved your ID system.Papers please?
I recently read Nandan Nilekani’s book, “Imagining India”, its suberb, pls read.
We are the matrimonyl service provider for manglik peoples….