'UID will help marginalised access public service'

New Delhi, May 11: 'The Unique Identification would assists marginalized and the migrant access public services',Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Planning Commission, Government of India said.

Speaking on the occasion of CII President"s awards, Nilekani said that the project would also cover issues like multiple identities & ghost identities which has plague various welfare schemes.

Nilekani said that the Unique Identification Project which will make the public services accessible to those belonging to the poor and marginalised section of the society has "two aspects- one to provide a unique identification number to all Indians and second to provide online authentication."

"Once the unique identification number starts to be accepted as an identity proof, it will benefit millions of poor Indians without any identification, access public services."

"It will reduce the transaction costs in the economy as the need for establishing identity for every individual service will get eliminated. The online identification process will enable re-engineering of different applications to deliver public services in a different and more efficient manner. "

Briefing on the security features, Nilekani said that 'identification would be biometrics based and the database would be a private database which could be used only for authentication.'

"The draft UIDAI act would soon be ready for public comments and would define the framework for the entity, he added. The first set of identifications are expected to be rolled out by February 2011 and around 600 million Indians would be enrolled over the next four years," said Nilekani.

Nilekani handed over the President CII awards to CII to individuals for their outstanding contribution to CII.

The winners of the award were -

1. Mr U K Sinha, Chairman CII National Committee on Mutual Funds & CMD, UTI AMC

2. Mr R S Sharma, Chairman CII Public Sector Enterprises Council, and CMD ONGC

3. Mr P S Bhattacharya, Chairman CII Sub Committee on Sustainable Development & CMD, Coal India Ltd

4. Mr Harpal Singh, Immediate Past Chairman CII Northern Region and Mentor & Chairman Emeritus, Fortis Healthcare Limited

5 Dr Naushad Forbes, Immediate Past Chairman CII Western Region & Director, Forbes Marshall Pvt Ltd; Mr Mukul Somany, Immediate Past Chairman CII Eastern Region & Joint Managing Director, Hindustan National Glass & Industries Limited

6. Mr C R Swaminathan, Immediate Past Chairman CII Southern Region & Chief Executive, P S G Institutions.

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