-The Hindu   The services will enable transfer, application procedures to be brought to one's door Last Christmas Eve, 35 people in a remote village of Jharkhand received a unique present. They became the first Indians to access their Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme bank accounts on their doorstep, having had their identities authenticated through their Aadhaar numbers. They are among the earliest beneficiaries of the next phase of the ambitious —...

-The Business Standard   Its guarantee of non-duplication can have far-reaching cost benefits but it has deep design flaws that can be compromised. PRAVEEN CHAKRAVARTY Former Volunteer, Financial Inclusion, UIDAI* “Aadhaar is an unadulterated identity programme that answers the question: Is the individual who he or she claims to be?”   The word “unique”, and not “identity”, is central to the unique identity programme or Aadhaar. It may be true that the vast majority of people possess some...

-The Economic Times   It is welcome that the political leadership has sorted out the turf battle between the Unique Identity Authority and the National Population Register and allowed the Unique Identity Authority to proceed with capturing biometric data and issuance of unique numbers for 40 crore more residents.  The authority has already completed the work for 20 crore people. That leaves half the population to be covered. The NPR personnel and the...

The government appears to be working towards an amicable solution on the question of who can collect Biometric information data for the Indian population. There has been disagreement about whether this will be done by the UIDAI headed by Nandan Nilekani, or the National Population Register headed by Home Minister P. Chidambaram. It now seems that both may continue to collect data but share its use. When any country sets about...

-The Telegraph   The Planning Commission and the home ministry appeared headed for a compromise on the unique identity project after the Prime Minister stepped in today to end the smart card versus identity number battle. Sources said Nandan Nilekani, who is chairing the unique identification authority, would be given a free run and the home ministry would be allowed to continue its work even if it means some duplication. “The overall message is...