The Chairman of the Unique Identification Development Authority of India (UIDAI), Mr Nandan Nilekani, has said that micro-finance institutions are welcome to join the initiative as enrolling agencies.
Addressing the annual micro-finance summit 2011 here, Mr Nilekani, however, said that it was not being envisaged that MFIs be given full-fledged ‘Registrar’ status to support UIDAI’s massive exercise of creating an ‘unique, online and variable identity’ to the country’s citizens.
“We would welcome MFIs as enrolling agencies or outreach partners,” Mr Nilekani told one of the delegates who had flagged the issue of UIDAI having expressed the desire of taking MFIs on board and holding discussions for more than a year.
The concept of unique identity is just that — it is not the panacea for all the ills afflicting the society. It is just a ‘starting block’ of a platform on which various useful applications can be developed for public good.
And this is why the open architecture has come to be used with the system, Mr Nilekani said. The unique identity settles the problem of identity, based on which public services are expected to be rolled out in the future.
For instance, it does away with the fungibility/portability of PDS entitlements of an individual.
Family card
As for the ration card, it is at best a family card, and does not identify individual beneficiaries, which lends itself to being tampered with and misused.
But the UIDAI seeks to plug this ‘gap’ by establishing the identity of each of the individual mentioned as members of the family in the ration card.
Nor does it contain any more data than the bare essentials — name of the individual, date of birth, place of birth and sex — Mr Nilekani said, and any attempt to ascribe the motives of invasion of privacy is totally unfounded.
On the other hand, the benefits flowing out from the unique identity are much more than facilitating proof of authentication and ensuring entitlements.
Micro-ATM
It also provides a ‘financial address’ to where social payments such as wages under
MNREGS and pension products, among others, should be directed to.
The ‘micro-ATM’ effect is the other significant facility being deployed to the beneficiary for conducting a range of transactions based on biometric authentication. A pilot project is being tried out in Jharkhand, Mr Nilekani said.
Online, one-time password obviating lifecycle management issues cuts down transaction costs, which is what intended as part of the project.