OUR CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, June 25: Nandan Nilekani, the 54-year-old co- chairman of Infosys, has decided to step down from the board of the software giant and take charge of the world’s largest biometric ID card project.
Nilekani will take over as chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI) — an organisation that will hand out the ID cards to the one billion-plus people in the country. He will enjoy the rank of a cabinet minister.
His resignation from Infosys is effective from July 9.
The project will give every Indian a permanent unique identity card. It will carry a 16-digit unique ID number, a photograph and biometric data that will provide financial, educational and health-related information on the cardholder.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had invited Nilekani to head the project. “I decided to take up the project in the interests of the nation,” said Nilekani, one of the founders of Infosys.
S. Gopalakrishnan, the company’s managing director and chief executive officer, said the company had not decided on Nilekani’s successor. Infosys chairman and chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy told a television channel that no one would replace Nilekani, probably suggesting the post of co-chairman would be scrapped.
The government is hoping to try out the system and issue the first series of the cards by the middle of next year.
I would like to congratulate our PM, Mr. Manmohan Singh on taking the first step in providing a Unique Identity Card to all citizens of India.
The appointment of Nanadan Nilekani as the head of the project shows that our PM is serious.
I had written about the need for the Card as early as 23rd January of this year.I am repeating the article below.
Mr Advani thereafter assured that he would see that Cards were issued if the BJP came to power.
I am very happy to note that the Congress is undertaking the project.
However, while undertaking the project, it is of utmost importance that only genuine Indian citizens are issued such cards.
A fool-proof system must be installed to see that politicians do not destroy the purpose for which this is being done by issuing false certificates for vote bank politics.
Any certificate issued by a any person should be triple checked by other authorities and anybody issuing false certificates should be suitably punished including loss of employment and jail for minimum ten years.
Article of 23rd January, 2009
Two events recently have made me think deeply on the urgency of all Indians having a national identity card.
The incident where Iqbal was denied being given rented accommodation by householders because of his Muslim name.
My activated SIM card was deactivated by Reliance because a verification call allegedly made to the alternate number given to them went answered.
With the spate of terrorism occurring regularly all over India, it is necessary that we immediately have a National Identity Card system for all our citizens.
Is it going to be expensive?
Not at all if you follow my suggestions. It can be made self-financing.
With wide penetration of Mobile phones, throughout the country, we can do it very cheaply.
The verification done by the telecom companies are very cursory and just an eyewash. They are just interested in increasing the number of their connections by hook or by crook.
The verification should be handed over to the post office. It should be removed from the purview of the police since they are very very corrupt. Rather all verifications done by the police should be discontinued.
Most post offices in India may be now having computers and if they do not have, they should be revamped and given computers.
The whole of India is covered by a 6-digit postal PIN code Number. Bangur PO is 700055.
All post offices should maintain in their computers a registry of all residents who come under their P O.
If any new person comes in the area, he should fill in a form with photograph and all relevant details and submit it to the post office.It should be countersigned by his landlord and one neighbour.
The State and Central Government, Election Commission and Income Tax Department could then share this registry on-line.
This could be done by a one time house to house survey.
Who will bear the cost?
The post should appoint temporary educated people who are unemployed to carry out the survey.
All people who have a mobile / landline telephone should make a one-time payment of Rs 100.00 to the post office to carry out the survey. If any person has more than one telephone / Mobile phone, he should submit Rs 200.00.
Any shortfall could be collected by contributions from industrialists. I do not believe in cess as the government is in the habit of imposing a one-time cess and then continuing till eternity.I believe cess is actually a cesspool in which the government drowns its corrupt expenses.
The surveyor should take photographs with digital camera, thump impression and fill in a complete verification report and submit it to the post office for uploading in the computer.
The post office should give each resident a unique identity number, which could be the postal code, followed by a six-digit number. So each person in India would have a 12-digit identity number. Thus each post office could issue 999999 identities. This number should be sufficient to cover all the residents in any post office in India.
When those numbers are exhausted, we could start adding alphabets.
I do hope, India never reaches that stage when we have to start adding alphabets
For new births, concerned Post offices where babies are born could allot a batch of numbers to each maternity home/nursing home/hospital. The nursing home could then issue a Unique Number to new born babies and hand over the forms to the post office for maintaining the registry. Thus a new born baby will have the number of the post office where he is born and not where his parents reside.
Similarly, when a person dies, the post office should be informed so that his name is removed from its registry.
When a person leaves a place he should ask the post office to remove his name and he should have it added to the names in his new post office, through applications.
As you see, the post office, being nearer the people, should be made to play a greater part in the security of the country.
A laminated I-Card with tamper-proof hologram, with photograph and Unique Identity number, Date of Birth, Address, Father’s and Mother’s name should be issued by the post office to each resident.
Once this I-Card is issued, no further verification should be required by any agency as proof, if an attested Xerox copy of the same is submitted and the original is shown at the time of submission of Xerox copy.
We could take it further.
We are having all realty TV programmes asking people to vote by sending SMS.
IDEA is now running advertisements where people can vote for policies of their leaders.
We could take it to our elections and reduce the evil of booth capturing and violence.
Each eligible voter could give his preference of voting by mobile, giving the mobile number, to his post office.
This preference could be recorded in the list, which the polling booth people have on polling day. Anybody opting for mobile voting should not be allowed to cast his vote manually.Thus, anybody living anywhere in India may be able to vote in his constituency.
The mobile software should be so made that any person can access the relevant number and vote only once. Thereafter the mobile is disabled for casting the vote.
This would save time, money, violence and all the evils, which have come to stand for elections.
Only then will respectable people be able to enter politics and improve India.
Another problem India faces is that of people coming over from Bangladesh and then vanishing.
Indians going to USA are asked to give the names and addresses of persons in USA who are sponsoring them.
We should have the same policy with other countries.
Anybody coming to India should give the names and addresses of sponsors with their Unique ID No.
Our foreign office in India should confirm with the person concerned through the post office whether they are sponsoring the person.
If the person agrees to sponsor and the emigrant goes missing, the sponsorers assets should be confiscated as Enemy Property.
Radheshyam
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