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...

In a compromise formula worked out at an informal meeting today, it has been proposed that the Biometrics collected by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) would be accepted by the home ministry-backed National Population Register (NPR), and the two teams would work at their own pace with minimum duplication of biometric data.   A final decision will be taken on Friday when the cabinet committee on UID meets to discuss...

-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...

A Cabinet panel headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will decide on Wednesday if the government should spend nearly Rs 15,000 crore more to duplicate an ongoing exercise to capture biometric data. The government had earlier authorised the Registrar General of India under the home ministry to create the National Population Register, a task that required RGI to collect biometric data of nearly one billion people and get them an...

The Prime Minister's Office has intervened in the simmering dispute between the home ministry and the Planning Commission over the capture of aadhaar Biometrics by ensuring that the issue will be taken up by the Cabinet Committee on UID next week. According to a government source, principal secretary to the prime minister Pulok Chatterjee is learnt to have told officials handling the issue that UID, a major initiative of UPA,...