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Aadhaar gets a fresh lease of life by Surabhi Agarwal

Home ministry accepts UIDAI’s biometrics; in case of overlap, National Population Register will prevail

The Aadhaar project, which has been in the eye of a storm for its dispute with the home ministry’s National Population Register (NPR), received a shot in the arm on Friday, with the Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) extending its mandate to collect biometrics for a total of 600 million residents of the country.

This was made possible after NPR agreed to accept biometrics enlisted under Aadhaar, with the caveat that where there is an overlap and a conflict in the database, NPR-compiled metrics would prevail.

However, it is not clear as to whether the parliamentary standing committee on finance, which had opposed the UIDAI legislation, would go along with the compromise.

Earlier, UIDAI which is spearheading the project was supposed to collect biometrics for 200 million people, a task which it has already completed. The NPR project is being run by the Registrar General of India (RGI), which comes under the purview of the home ministry.

The decision, which comes after a long stand-off between UIDAI and NPR, means that India’s two flagship projects will continue to coexist, and also that UIDAI will be able to meet its original target of giving unique identities to 600 million people by 2014.

The two projects, which have almost similar objectives, have been at loggerheads over who will collect biometrics for the entire population of the country.

With the cabinet extending the mandate of UIDAI to issuing another 400 million numbers, the project will continue to enrol people in 16 states and union territories, while NPR will do it in other states.

“We are very happy with Mr. Chidambaram’s suggestions, and by doing this, we will be combining the strength of both the models...we now have the best of both worlds,” said Nandan Nilekani, chairman of UIDAI. P. Chidambaram is India’s home minister.

After Aadhaar’s mandate to collect biometrics ended at 200 million, it was supposed to wait for the NPR data to come in to remove duplications and issue the UIDs.

On the other hand, the home ministry had stated that UIDAI data can’t be trusted for “security” purposes and it wanted to collect its own biometrics. The government would have spent an extra Rs.6,000 crore if NPR and UIDAI collected their own biometrics.

Home minister Chidambaram said that both agencies collecting data separately would have meant a lot of duplication.

“Now one authority will collect the biometrics and the other can issue Aadhaar. NPR would accept the biometrics of 60 crore people covered by UIDAI.” He added that this would reduce the chances of duplication to just 5%. “People who will come to the camps for NPR data collection will be asked if they have already given biometrics to UIDAI. The duplication will only be in the case of those who give their biometrics again.”

Even though Chidambaram said that NPR would “accept” Aadhaar data, he added that UIDAI will have to go back and review a few aspects of its model and it will make changes if required. A UIDAI official said the agency will take a break after it completes 200 million enrolments and resume its activity from 2 April.

“During this period, we will refresh our entire technological and other processes and see what needs to be fine-tuned,” he said.

The home ministry had raised concerns about the multi-registrar model followed by the authority and also the introducer system of enrolment, where people with no documents can be enrolled through introduction by another Aadhaar holder. The official who did not wish to be identified said that the concept of the introducer system was meant to bring about inclusion. The concept in itself was fine, but faltered in its implementation sometimes, he said, adding, “We will review the whole thing and see how it can be monitored better.”

Last month, the parliamentary standing committee on finance headed by Yashwant Sinha, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader, had rejected the National Identification Authority of India Bill, which was supposed to give legal backing to the UID project. Sinha said that all the members of the committee expressed a view irrespective of the political parties they belonged to.

“I am sure the government will give serious consideration to the concerns raised by the committee before sending the legislation again to the committee,” Sinha said. “I do not want to say anything more at this stage, as it would be like taking a view before the matter reached the committee.”

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on UIDAI also approved additional spending of Rs.5,000 crore for the project. Around Rs.3,000 crore had previously been approved for it. The authority had earlier received approval for Rs.8,800 crore from the expenditure finance committee (EFC).

The total funding comprises costs for the issue of 200 million Aadhaar numbers through multiple registrars up to March 2012, printing and delivery of 200 million Aadhaar letters, technology and other support infrastructure costs for creation, storage and maintenance of data, and services for leveraging the uses of Aadhaar for the entire estimated resident population up to March 2017, the government said in a statement.

However, since the mandate of the agency has been extended to a total of 600 million, it will receive additional funding and the proposal will be separately placed before the expenditure finance committee.

“Provision will be made in the budget for 2012-13 in anticipation thereof,” the government said.

On the other hand, the total cost of the NPR project is around Rs.6,000 crore, of which RGI has already spent around Rs.2,000 crore. Moreover, the home ministry is planning to propose a resident identity card for all Indian residents. It has launched this scheme already in the coastal areas. The project will cost another Rs.6,000 crore.

According to a report published in the Hindustan Times on 7 January, the Planning Commission has rejected the home ministry’s proposal to issue smart identity cards to all residents under NPR on the grounds that chip-based ID cards were a waste of public money. “It has invoked its veto power to stall the Rs.6,790-crore project,” the report said.

Deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said it was “not correct” to say the Planning Commission had “raised objections” to the project. He added that a unit of the Planning Commission examines the proposals and the EFC will decide on the matter. UIDAI has been created as an attached office under India’s apex planning body.