Every Indian to be tagged

Every Indian will soon be numbered. The government has prepared the ground for what could be the world's biggest project to provide unique identification (UID) numbers to citizens.

A new body will give all Indians UID- based smart cards with their personal details embedded in them. Even infants will have tag numbers, and will get smart cards in due course.

The permanent identifiers will be place of birth, date of birth and name of parents.

A gazette notification will soon be issued to set up a national UID authority under the Planning Commission.

The headquarters for the mammoth project will be in Delhi with offices in all states and Union Territories.

When in place the proposed UID system, which has parallels in developed countries, would be the world's largest database of citizenry. China has a bigger population, but the system of identification of citizens followed by it continues to be under wraps.

This is by all accounts a prestigious exercise and sources said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is keen to see the project take off before his term ends.

The upcoming identification system in India has similarities with the Social Security Number allotted to the bulk of US citizens. Almost all government agencies there use it as a permanent identifier.

Apart from using the elementary method of identifying an individual by merely punching in his ID number into an IT- enabled system accessible to the authorities, the proposed Indian citizen identification project is expected to serve a wide range of purposes.

There are plans for using the database to check identity- related frauds and the flow of illegal immigrants into the country.

It may also ensure that development programmes reach out to the intended beneficiaries.

Officials believe it will be far more useful than the databases on individuals existing now. Indian citizens have two 'national' IDs - the voter identity card issued by the Election Commission and the PAN card given by the income tax department. However, both have a limited scope. The voter I- card enlists only those above 18 years and the PAN card usually applies only to taxpayers.

The UID system, mandated through the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2003, would cover the country's entire population with each infant being allotted a unique number after birth.

By all accounts, the UID exercise would be gigantic and involve intensive IT- driven collaboration and crosslinkages among government agencies.

It would also be collated with the national population registry to be created by the Registrar General of India, responsible for conducting censuses.

The next demographic headcount is only two years away.

The idea of individual tags was mooted in the closing months of the NDA regime. The momentum picked up after the UPA government came to power, and especially in the last 18 months.

It received a boost after the implementation of a pilot project on 'Multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC)' in 13 districts last year. But individuals below 18 years of age were not covered by the MNIC project.

In the light of changed security concerns, the work on issuing MNICs in all coastal villages of the country is now slated to take off next month.

An empowered group of ministers, headed by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee approved the setting up of the authority in November last year.

Last week, Cabinet secretary K. M. Chandrasekhar reportedly asked the Planning Commission to speed up the process of setting up the national UID authority through a gazette notification in the light of India's new security concerns.

The vote- on- account to be sought during the Parliament session next month may have a mention of the proposed expenditure on this project, sources said.

In its latest report, the Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) has proposed that apart from permanent identifiers like parentage and date and place of birth, the database should incorporate details of income, place of residence, educational qualification and occupation.

The ARC has also suggested that when a citizen turns 18, the UID card can be automatically activated as a voter card and it would be cancelled after the death of the individual.

According to the Eleventh Five Year Plan document, "The long- term objective of the UID Project is to create a core database for all residents, each having a unique identification number, which is regularly updated and is easily accessible to, and is used by all departments for identification of residents in the country." But, as the ARC said in its report, this will not be an easy task. "This would mean that the panchayats and urban local bodies would need to play a proactive role in every hamlet, village and urban centre.

What is it?

A unique ID number will be issued to every citizen

It will be the basis for the issuance of citizen cards

It will have details like place and date of birth, and parentage

Data like income level, place of residence and education may also be included

How it'll be done

Planning Commission will set up a UID authority

Separate outlay is likely for the authority in next budget

Project is likely to gain momentum after 2011 Census

Project will call for intensive IT- driven collaboration among government agencies

How it'll help

Will help address security concerns

Will help check identityrelated fraud

Will help check the flow of illegal immigrants

Will help ensure that development programmes are reaching the right people