WORLD UIN

Locked Up Behind Human Barcodes

2012-02-06T22:00:00.001-08:00

Sheriff to use iris scanners to ID inmates, others - The Prescott Daily Courier - Prescott, Arizona

Get yourself arrested and you may get more then a mugshot and prints taken. You're marked, counted and tagged for life, unto death. -CM

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The Buying and Selling of the Mark of the Beast

2012-02-06T08:21:00.000-08:00

There has been speculation for going back for centuries just what the Mark of the Beast spoken of in the book of Revelation could be...

Revelation 13:16-18And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the MARK, or the NAME of the beast, or the NUMBER of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Though the one technology we all have in common that gets under our skin to consider is a tiny transponder no bigger then a grain of rice that holds a UIN. A Unique Identification Number. This number is tied to the patient and works as a key to unlock data on the person.

This device started out innocent enough with an innocent name- Digital Angel

In a day where government and medical professionals alike are looking for a means to tie all information about citizens and patients together the product that stands alone to achive just that is one that just this week amde an announcement :

VeriTeQ Acquisition Corporation's VeriChip Technology Is the Original Universal Patient Identifier to Address National Need for Rapid, Accurate Access to Critical Patient Data Wall Street Journal Article Highlights Need for Patients to Have Unique ID Number for Medical Records VeriTeQ Acquisition Corporation ("VeriTeQ"), a leader in implantable, radio frequency identification ("RFID") for humans and animals, and Connectyx Technologies Holdings Group, Inc. ("Connectyx") (CTYX.PK) announced today the companies offer best-of-breed solutions for emergency access to rapid, accurate patient data that address the need for universal patient identifiers (UPIs) and patient-controlled personal health records.

The purpose of a UPI is to uniquely and properly identify a patient for appropriate medical care. With its VeriChip, a radio frequency identification (RFID) implantable microchip, VeriTeQ provides the first and only solution for an opt-in UPI that is guaranteed to always be with a patient. The FDA-cleared VeriChip is a passive RFID microchip the size of a grain of rice that stores a 16-digit number and is implanted just underneath the skin. When a proprietary handheld reader is passed over the area where the microchip is implanted, the 16-digit number is displayed on the reader, and can then be used to access a secure, web-based personal health record.

Advocates of UPIs reason that the unique identification numbers can link patient information across multiple electronic medical records systems; enhance patient control and privacy over their information; improve the speed and quality of medical treatment; reduce medical errors by properly identifying patients and their medical data; decrease medical identity theft; and, ultimately, lower healthcare costs. In fact, preventable medical errors are a real problem in the U.S. In 2000, 2001 and 2002, an average of 195,000 people died due to potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors according to a 2004 study of 37 million patient records released by HealthGrades. The VeriChip quickly and accurately identifies a patient and their health records, whether in a physician's office or an emergency situation, to help improve care and decrease healthcare costs.

For individuals who choose to opt out of VeriChip but endorse the value of patient-controlled personal health records, VeriTeQ will be able to offer alternate methods of emergency access to a personal health record through its planned merger with Connectyx Technologies. This week, VeriTeQ announced it signed a Letter of Intent to merge with Connectyx Technologies Holdings Group, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Connectyx Technologies Corp. the manufacturer and distributor of the MedFlash(R), an innovative Personal Health and Wellness Management System (ePHM) designed for maintaining personal health records.

MedFlash was launched in 2007 and has thousands of active members across the U.S. MedFlash is sold by leading membership organizations and retail outlets, including portions of national drug store and grocery store chains. MedFlash has multiple methods of emergency access to a member's personal health record, including a toll-free number, telemedicine, smart phone access, internet access, USB flash drive access, and Quick Response codes.

"For many years, it has been apparent that the archaic process of relying on paper-based healthcare records needed to evolve to the digital world to allow for faster access to patient data and more informed treatment decisions," stated Scott R. Silverman, Chairman and CEO of VeriTeQ. "Now, as different electronic medical records systems are put into place within physicians' offices and healthcare systems, we believe the call for a UPI is imperative."

Silverman continued, "Patients can also serve an important role in managing their healthcare through the use of personal health records. We provide them with the greatest security and peace of mind through our VeriChip, which is always guaranteed to be with a patient and provides the utmost in privacy. Through our planned merger with Connectyx, we will also provide flexibility to individuals through MedFlash, which enables people to choose which method of personal health record access is right for them."

According to a California Healthcare Foundation report, "Consumers and Health Information Technology: A National Survey," a majority of respondents said they are concerned with the privacy of their personal medical records. However, those already using personal health records are slightly less concerned. In fact, 63 percent of personal health record users are concerned generally about the privacy of their medical records, but fewer than half say they worry about the privacy of the information in their personal health record.

Upon consummation of VeriTeQ's merger with Connectyx, the company will be renamed VeriTeQ Corporation and will continue to trade on the OTC Pink market, under the new ticker symbol "VTEQ."

About VeriTeQ
VeriTeQ develops and markets innovative, implantable RFID technologies for humans and animals including sensor applications. VeriChip is the first human-implantable passive RFID microchip cleared for medical use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. On January 12, 2012, VeriTeQ announced it acquired the VeriChip implantable microchip and related technologies, and Health Link personal health record from PositiveID Corporation /quotes/zigman/6472889 PSID -8.54% . PositiveID has retained a 10 percent ownership interest in VeriTeQ. For more information on VeriTeQ, please call 561-805-8011.

About Connectyx Technologies
Connectyx Technologies provides unique products for the healthcare market including MedFlash(R), the electronic Personal Health Manager (ePHM). The MedFlash(R) PHM is an easy to use Personal Health and Lifestyle Manager that is accessible using a powerful web portal suite. The MedFlash(R) PHM also features a 24/7/365 call center, a USB flash drive and our smartphone applications with Scan code capability. The MedFlash(R) PHM provides member benefits including instant access to your Emergency Medical Profile and Personal Health Record in the event of an accident or a medical emergency. Whether traveling, at work, or at home, First Responders have an invaluable advantage when they have access to this time critical information. Far more than just an emergency flash drive, the MedFlash(R) PHM can be accessed on any computer, securely and with complete privacy. There are also lifestyle and wellness features that provide significant health benefits to members and risk mitigation for employers and insurers alike. Connectyx products are developed with the needs of patients, families, doctors and First Responders in mind. For more information, please visit our websites at: www.connectyx.com , www.phrtoday.com and www.medflash.com

- Now consider this,
"If a thing can be done adequately by means of one, it is superfluous to do it by means of several; for we observe that nature does not employ two instruments where one suffices." - Thomas Aquinas One way a theory or a principle could be justified is empirically; that is to say, if simpler theories were to have a better record of turning out to be correct than more complex ones, that would corroborate Occam's razor.

"...other things being equal...the simplest hypothesis proposed as an explanation of phenomena is more likely to be the true one than is any other available hypothesis, that its predictions are more likely to be true than those of any other available hypothesis, and that it is an ultimate a priori epistemic principle that simplicity is evidence for truth" (Swinburne 1997). As a logical principle, Occam's razor would demand that scientists accept the simplest possible theoretical explanation for existing data. However, science has shown repeatedly that future data often supports more complex theories than existing data. Science tends to prefer the simplest explanation that is consistent with the data available at a given time, but history shows that these simplest explanations often yield to complexities as new data become available.

Point Being.....The simplest answer, is usually the correct answer

To Big Goverment-Don't Mess with Me Marking My Beast.....

2012-01-16T12:32:00.001-08:00

Ranchers see demise of symbol of the West: branding

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Is Time Almost Up?

2012-01-14T15:20:00.001-08:00

Cashless Biometric India Cataloguing 1.2 Billion Citizens

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Creeping Biometrics

2012-01-10T06:18:00.001-08:00

Biometric technologies for Android

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This is getting under my skin...

2011-07-19T06:17:00.001-07:00

Security for entering U.S. Is layer after layer - The Washington Post

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Busybody Big Brother in your Business

2011-07-19T06:14:00.001-07:00

Click to keep tabs on fair price shops-Policy-Economy-News-The Economic Times on Mobile

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Well Well Well.....It seems the Sanskrit is in the details....

2011-04-11T12:07:00.001-07:00

Indian company behind Africa's citizen ID project - The Economic Times

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2011-04-04T04:46:00.001-07:00

EDITORIAL: STEM: Brave new world

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Inward Outward Upwards. No where left to go.

2011-04-04T04:43:00.001-07:00

Global Biometric Market All Set to Expand During 2011-2014

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An eye for an eye.....

2011-04-02T00:42:00.001-07:00

UID work in Pune to gather speed after April 11 - Mumbai - DNA

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Stand up and be counted for what you are about to receive...

2011-02-18T08:07:00.001-08:00

The Morung Express :: Nagaland News | Current News | Latest News | Breaking News - ‘Biometric will take place’

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One identifying number for all

2011-02-12T19:06:00.000-08:00

The time has come for every business in the country to be given a single identifying number and hurdles such as privacy concerns will be overcome to make it happen, the Small Business Minister says.

Maurice Williamson made the comments in an address to accounting software company Xero's annual partner conference in Taupo last week.

Xero founder Rod Drury has been vocal in his support for a unique business number for companies to use with all government agencies and the private sector.

Williamson said a unique business number had huge potential to link with other projects the Government was working on to make lives for businesses easier.

"I think it's a great idea whose time has come."

The Ministry of Economic Development and the Inland Revenue Department are considering the design of a system that would allocate every business a single number that would be recognised on both sides of the Tasman.

The aim is to reduce significantly compliance and reporting costs.

At present, companies have different numbers for the Companies Office, tax and GST, ACC, the Department of Labour and Statistics New Zealand.

Australia introduced the Australian Business Numbers in 2000.

However, the planned system runs into problems when it comes to sole traders.

Principle 12 of the Privacy Act says a unique identifier assigned to an individual by one agency cannot be used by another agency.

Possible solutions are either changing the law so that an existing government identification number can be used by multiple agencies, or introducing a whole new number for every New Zealand company.

Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff said there were significant benefits to having a single business number and the issue of personal information relating to individual business people was being considered.

"Privacy isn't a roadblock to setting up a single business number for sole traders. There's a range of ways to get it right and we've been discussing these with MED and other interested agencies."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10705841

Unbelievable

2011-02-11T13:24:00.001-08:00

UIDs for cattle in place before those for humans - India - DNA

How many beasts have to be marked and enumerated for the sheeple to see the forest through the trees?

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E- Citizen Beware

2011-01-28T07:50:00.001-08:00

A citizen database - FT.com

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2011-01-24T07:38:00.001-08:00

The Stuxnet connection: Will the UID be its next target? - Moneylife: Personal Finance Magazine

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Implementing REAL ID Less Expensive, Doable, and Helpful in Reducing Fraud

2011-01-12T07:06:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- By May 2011, all states must be in compliance with the first 18 security benchmarks of the federal secure driver's license law known as the REAL ID Act. REAL ID was prompted by the fact that the 9/11 hijackers acquired a total of 30 state-issued IDs and driver's licenses in order to embed themselves here (and board airplanes).

The Center for Immigration Studies has published a review of the current state of REAL ID: "REAL ID Implementation: Less Expensive, Doable, and Helpful in Reducing Fraud" was prepared by Janice Kephart, a former 9/11 Commission counsel and currently the Center's National Security Policy Director. The paper is online at http://cis.org/real-id. Among the findings:

REAL ID has proven easier and less expensive to implement than previously believed. Using actual state budget numbers, total one-time costs to implement REAL ID's 18 security benchmarks, for all states combined, could be as low as $350 million and not likely to exceed $750 million.
These numbers are significantly less than the one-time costs of at least $1 billion that the National Governors Association (NGA), National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) claimed in 2006.
Eleven states are already fully compliant with REAL ID's 18 security benchmarks, ahead of the May 2011 deadline. Another eight states are close behind.
The legal presence of applicants is being checked in all but two states, up 28 states from 2006. Every state is now checking Social Security numbers.
Some states were able to achieve full compliance in less than a year, and other state costs came in significantly below the projections which have been used for years to denigrate REAL ID's feasibility.
Compliant states are finding REAL ID to be helpful in reducing fraud by criminals and illegal aliens shopping for the easiest driver's license issuance rules. Motor vehicle departments using REAL ID standards are also increasing criminal investigations of those who have traditionally used driver's license systems to commit identity theft and operate illegally under multiple identities.
Regulatory proposals from the NGA, NCSL, and AAMVA, slated for an upcoming lobbying campaign, incorporate language from Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's failed 2009 PASS ID Act, which sought to repeal much of REAL ID.
Secretary Napolitano in November 2010 ordered an internal review with the goal of using the regulatory process to change REAL ID requirements after the failure of PASS ID.

The paper also includes a chart listing for every state the current status of implementation, federal grant monies issued to date, and costs of compliance, where available.

Contact: Janice Kephart, 202-466-8185, jlk@cis.org

SOURCE Center for Immigration Studies

http://cis.org/real-id

Locked out of the banking system

2011-01-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

The struggle for financial inclusion is particularly acute for India’s 100-120 million migrant workers. With traditional methods not having worked too well, the business correspondent model may offer a long-term solution.

http://www.livemint.com/2011/01/11210212/Locked-out-of-the-banking-syst.html#

Barcode of Life

2011-01-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

North American Integration Back on the Front Burner: Washington's North American "Security Perimeter"

2011-01-02T21:21:00.000-08:00

In the last year, the bilateral process has been the primary means used to advance North American integration, which has drawn little attention. With the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) seemingly stalled after being exposed and discredited, the U.S. channelled trilateral negotiations to parallel bilateral discussions with both Canada and Mexico. Recent reports of a tentative Canada-U.S. security and trade agreement has once again highlighted the whole process of deep continental integration. The U.S. is formulating a strategy with the aim of implementing a North American security perimeter.

NAFTA has allowed the U.S. to further extend its political and economic influence over the continent. Through the SPP, it has evolved to include more security issues. Based on the war on drugs and the war on terrorism, the U.S. is developing a North American security strategy with the goal being to push out its security perimeter. The Merida Initiative conceived in 2007 and launched the following year by the Bush administration, signalled a new era of U.S.-Mexico security collaboration. The plan has provided Mexico with millions in funding for law enforcement, military equipment and surveillance technology. Under the pretext of combating illegal drug-trafficking and fighting transnational organized crime, the U.S. has been able to exert more authority over Mexican security policies.

President Obama has continued and expanded the Merida Initiative. The U.S. and Mexico have further broadened and deepened their cooperation. A U.S. State Department fact sheet entitled United States-Mexico Security Partnership: Progress and Impact proclaimed how both, “governments have built on the foundations of the Merida Initiative to establish four strategic areas to guide our cooperation and institutionalize our partnership: disrupt organized criminal groups; strengthen institutions; create a 21 st century border; and build strong and resilient communities.” A New Border Vision for the 21st century is, “based on the principles of joint border management, co-responsibility for cross-border crime, and shared commitment to the efficient flow of legal commerce and travel.” A U.S.-Mexico declaration issued in May, further highlights key goals in strengthening border security. In order to better coordinate the implementation of joint initiatives, the Twenty-First Century Border Bilateral Executive Steering Committee (ESC) was also established.

On December 15, the ESC’s inaugural meeting was held where a Bilateral Action Plan was adopted. This included initiatives in areas of bi-national infrastructure coordination, risk management, pre-clearance, pre-screening and pre-inspection, along with greater law enforcement cooperation. The ESC also announced other cross-border and pilot projects. They agreed to expand trusted traveler and shipper programs in order to facilitate the flow of people and goods between the two countries. The specific goals that were laid out set in motion a bilateral agenda for the next year. They represent a move towards a common perimeter approach to border management and security, which could later require harmonization of immigration and customs standards.

It is unclear whether the Obama administration will attempt to overhaul immigration laws in the coming year. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2010 S. 3982 was introduced in September, but never came to a vote in the last Congress. In SEC 121. Annual Report on Improving North American Security Information Exchange, it refers to, “developing and implementing an immigration security strategy for North America that utilizes a common security perimeter by enhancing technical assistance for programs and systems to support advance automated reporting and risk targeting of international passengers.” Previous failed security and immigration bills have also contained similar language pertaining to a shared security perimeter around the continent.

There are fears that a leaked draft declaration between Canada and the U.S. entitled Beyond the Border: A Shared Vision for Perimeter Security and Competitiveness could concede more control to American interests. According to the draft proposal, the agreement would work towards establishing a perimeter approach to security. This includes closer cooperation between law enforcement agencies, an integrated cargo strategy, as well as joint programs for port and border security and screening. The aim is to further facilitate travel and trade across the northern border. The draft document also reveals that both countries intend to establish the Beyond the Border Working Group which will, “report to their respective Leaders within one hundred and twenty days of the signing of this Declaration with, a joint Plan Of Action to realize the goals.” Many of the key objectives of the tentative Canada-U.S. deal mirror those found in the U.S.-Mexico vision for a 21st century border. This includes the whole process of implementing the various bilateral initiatives. Both border plans represent a continuation of the SPP agenda.

The Canada-U.S. security perimeter agreement also appears to contain elements of the US-VISIT program which involves, “the collection of biometrics—digital fingerprints and a photograph—from international travelers at U.S. visa-issuing posts and ports of entry.” The leaked draft declaration states, “We intend to work towards common standards for the use of biometrics, the sharing of information on travelers in real time, more precisely tailored screening, and improved methods of threat notification.” It goes on to say, “In order to promote mobility between our two countries, we expect to work towards an integrated United States-Canada entry-exit system by identifying and screening at the earliest opportunity - including through use of biometrics.” A common security perimeter would demand an even greater level of collaboration and would ultimately be defined by U.S. priorities. It also represents an important step in the creation of a North American Union.

After being tight-lipped on the subject, Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a recent interview, “confirmed Canada is holding ‘discussions’ with the United States on a deal that would tighten security against external terrorist threats and improve two-way trade between the countries.” He acknowledged that negotiations continue, but an agreement has yet to be reached. There have been reports that a deal could be announced early in new year. Some believe that a common security perimeter would constitute erasing the borders between the two countries. Toronto Star columnist Thomas Walkom suggests that, “The U.S. would be happy to control Canada’s borders to the outside world. But no U.S. politician who wants to get re-elected would ever agree to weakening America’s northern border with Canada.” He goes on to say, “So the upshot of any perimeter deal will be to give the U.S two borders — an outer one around North America and an inner one at the 49th parallel.” The same concept could also be applied to the southern border. A North American security perimeter goes well beyond keeping the U.S. safe from any perceived threats. It is a means to secure trade, resources and corporate interests.

After a one year hiatus, Canada is set to host the next edition of the North American Leaders Summit in 2011. The recent North American Foreign Ministers Meeting was used to build on the progress made since the last leaders summit which was held in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2009. It helped shape the agenda for the upcoming summit, where the whole trilateral process in regards to continental integration could be recast. As 2010 comes to a close, it appears as if North American integration is back on the front burner.

Dana Gabriel is an activist and independent researcher. He writes about trade, globalization, sovereignty, security, as well as other issues. Contact: beyourownleader@hotmail.com. Visit his blog at beyourownleader.blogspot.com.

2010-12-31T20:05:00.001-08:00

Boeing, Fujitsu to Offer Holistic RFID Solution to Airlines - RFID Journal

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Taking people into account

2010-12-27T09:20:00.000-08:00

Hindustan Times

New Delhi, December 26, 2010

To people like us, who have adequate government documentation, this news would, at least in the first go, not be of much import. But for those who have no such identification or are always on the move, for example migrant labourers, this could be a gamechanger. Recently, the fin-ance ministry recognised Aadhaar, the number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India, as an "officially valid document". Now the number can be used in place of the Know Your Customer (KYC) norms for opening bank accounts or conducting any financial transaction. Opening accounts is difficult in India, more so for the poor, because of stringent documentation norms. Many people cannot open accounts for want of these documents. In Temli (Maharashtra), where the UID project was launched two months ago, 1,500 people were enrolled. Nearly 97% wanted a bank account. India’s banking coverage is abysmal due to a variety of reasons; of the 600,000 villages, only 30,000 have a bank branch and only 40% of 1.2 billion people have accounts. In Britain, for instance, 95% people have a bank account. The UIDAI plans to issue unique numbers to around 600 million people by 2014 by collecting basic demographic data and biometric information such as fingerprints and iris scans.

With UID becoming a 'licence' to open an account, the poor will be brought under the financial network. The incr-eased access of banking services, the government hopes, will also stem leakages in government schemes such as the rural job scheme and the public distribution system. In many states, social sector doles are already being transferred though banking channels and not the social intermediaries like sarpanchs. But for all this, an account is necessary and the UID will facilitate that process. Besides, a bank account will also inculcate a habit of savings and access to credit. This will also allow insurance-poor households to access financial products to escape poverty if they suffer uninsured monetary setbacks.

The long-term vision is of a decentralised banking network where business correspondents will provide the last-mile connectivity instead of banks branches. The process is already underway and, hopefully, it's only a matter of time before policy and technology come together to roll out a viable financial ecosystem for the poor.

New World Order-Biometrics

2010-12-10T07:50:00.000-08:00

This video covers the topic of Biometrics and its role in the government agencies...

The Biometric Task Force of The Department of Defense is the leading agency on Biometrics data and research... Placing all other law enforcing agencies under the umbrella of the Department of Defense...

Department of Defense

Department of Homeland Security

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Drug Enforcement Agency

Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms

Central Intelligence Agency

All State Police Agencies

All County Police and Sheriff Agencies

All Municipal and Township Police Agencies

Beyond ‘1984’: New Frontiers of Mass Surveillance

2010-12-06T15:41:00.000-08:00

By Elliot D. Cohen

Does the notion of remote-controlled soldiers—the fully human kind—seem only a sci-fi vision or the product of someone’s paranoid imagination? Guess again: There’s a project in the works as the military and big business join forces to make privacy a thing of the past, according to Elliot D. Cohen, whose new book, “Mass Surveillance and State Control: The Total Information Awareness Project,” is excerpted below.

Surveillance cameras have finite ranges within which they can track a person. However, there are currently other technologies that can be used to track people in real time, which are not constrained by location.

Radio Frequency ID Technologies and Government Surveillance

One such technology is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) microchips, which can be smaller than a grain of sand. These devices have the capacity to store data, which can be read at a distance by an RFID reader. Like our cell phones, the emerging technology also has GPS capacity and can thus be used to locate and track a person or object carrying the device. …

Now RFID chips are also being implanted in human beings, not just human artifacts. In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of RFID chips for subcutaneous implantation in patients in hospitals, which could be used by medical staff to access computerized patient information such as the patient’ medical history. The maker of this chip, Verichip, has also lobbied the Department of Defense to embed RFID chips in soldiers to replace the standard “dog tags.” Other human applications include implanting them in children, and even in prisoners.

… In fact, the London justice department has begun to explore the idea of using a hypodermic needle to inject such devices into the back of the arms of certain inmates, such as sex offenders, then releasing them from prison, thereby freeing up space in overcrowded British prisons. The prisoners would be tracked by satellite and barred from entering certain “safe” zones such as schools, playgrounds, and former victims’ homes.

Mass Surveillance and State Control: The Total Information Awareness Project

By Elliot D. Cohen

Palgrave Macmillan, 258 pages

An Emerging Internet of Humans

One wave of research concerns the creation of “an internet of things” whereby RFID interfaces are constructed between cyberspace and physical objects, thereby permitting two-way exchanges between online software technologies and databases, on the one end, and objects in the material world, on the other end. Thereby, these objects can be identified, tracked, traced, monitored, and controlled.

The “internet of things” project began as a research project by Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Auto-ID Labs to help the Department of Defense precisely track and control billions of dollars of military inventory; but there is already concern by prominent technology watchdog organizations, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, that the government may also have designs on using such systems for purposes of monitoring and collecting information on peoples’ interests, habits, and activities through the things that they purchase.

… Further, since RFID chips have already begun to be embedded in human beings, the progressive development of such a project may come to embrace human beings along with physical objects. Thus, with the advance of an “internet of things,” human beings, like physical inventory, might be “tagged” with an RFID chip and systematically tracked, traced, monitored, and controlled. …

Are such possibilities speculative? Yes, but the potential of RFID technologies to become an incredibly oppressive kind of surveillance is not speculative. As was discussed in the preceding chapters, there is now a trend for government to override privacy for the sake of “winning the war on terror.” Viewed in this light, it would be presumptuous to think that such technology would not be so used—at least if government does not depart from its current tendency to abridge the right to privacy in the name of national security. …

The DARPA/IBM Global Brain Surveillance Initiative

Going beyond monitoring such aspects of human life as behavior, electronic messaging, and geographical location is the direct monitoring of people’s mental aspects, such as their thoughts, perceptions, and emotions. In December 2008, IBM and collaborators from several major universities were awarded US$4.9 million from DARPA to launch the first phase of its “Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) initiative.” Under this grant, IBM has launched its “cognitive computing initiative” to develop a (literal) “global brain.” …

The enormity of this project is glaring. Nonetheless, its intentions seem clear, and they include, among other things, the global monitoring of human beings’ most intimate and personal space: what is going on inside their minds; and then what is going on inside their organizations, their homes, and even their cars. …

… In 2004, DARPA funded a US$19 million program led by a Duke University neurobiologist, Miguel Nicolelis, in which a monkey was able to control a remote robotic arm hundreds of miles away, through a two-way wireless interaction between the monkey’s cerebral cortex and the robotic arm. DARPA’s military goals for this project included giving combat soldiers the power to remotely control military equipment and weapons at a distance through such brain machine interfaces (BMI). As was mentioned in Chapter 1, another goal of DARPA is to remotely control the soldiers themselves through the use of peripheral devices wirelessly interfacing with their brains, including remotely controlling natural emotions, such as fear, and feelings, such as that of fatigue, in combat situations. …

Here, there are profound implications for DARPA/IBM’s cognitive computing initiative to build a “global brain.” If sensors that monitor and control soldiers’ motor and sensory brain activities were “plugged into” a global brain through BMI interfaces, the possibility would emerge of remotely controlling and coordinating an entire army of soldiers by networking their individual brains. … The stored data and supercomputing capabilities could then … give an army a marked, logistical advantage over a nonnetworked opponent. Of course, this advantage would be purchased at the expense of turning human soldiers into military robots plugged into a literal network of remotely controlled fighting machines. There would be little left that would make them distinctively human. …

… But why limit BMI technology when it could also be used to improve parenting skills; exponentially expand individual intellects and knowledge bases; and eliminate or greatly reduce accidents on the highways, criminal activities, and, of course, “win the war on terror.” In other words, why not make BMI/global brain technologies mainstream? …

http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/beyond_1984_new_frontiers_of_mass_surveillance_20101118/

Getting Boxed In

2010-11-30T11:35:00.001-08:00

Europe warns Turkey about religion box on ID cards - Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review

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Tis' the Season...

2010-11-27T18:59:00.001-08:00

Giving thanks for failure: The ID card mess five years later | ZDNet

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Are you getting the picture?

2010-11-26T22:40:00.001-08:00

Match finger prints to get LPG now - Hindustan Times

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More than just the Window to your Soul...

2010-11-26T16:20:00.001-08:00

GCC security officials show interest in Qatar’s iris scan proposal

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Financial Inclusion-Or- Financial Damnation?

2010-11-23T13:18:00.001-08:00

Technologies of Financial inclusion – Why, How and Effects | Microfinance News

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Suprema Provides Palm-print Live Scanners to Poland & Lithuania

2010-11-23T05:25:00.000-08:00

Suprema, Inc., a global leader in biometrics and ID solutions, announced today that the company's RealScan-F palm-print live scanner has been selected for the AFIS systems of the Polish National Police and Lithuania's Citizenship & Migration Affairs.

Until the end of 2010, the Polish National Police (Komenda Glowna Policji) will be provided with Suprema RealScan-F palm-print live scanners for its nationwide criminal AFIS operation. This criminal AFIS for forensic investigation requires live scanners with stringent selection criteria on the image quality and recognition performance, and the RealScan-F was selected through 12-month field testing with a number of other vendor's devices.

The RealScan-F live scanner has been qualified for the highest standard of FBI certification (IQS Appendix F), and captures single flat/roll, two finger flats, 4 finger slap, writer's edge and palm prints. The device performs incredible an scanning rate of over 15 frames per second (in rolled fingerprint capture) which enables faster processing speed hence makes the device ideal for mass fingerprinting application such as nationwide AFIS operation. The RealScan-F is equipped with powerful DSP and runs with highly-capable image-processing software featuring Suprema's advanced live-scan technology. The device also features a color LCD control panel, wide 5.2-inch platen and on-device operation keys.

Suprema also won Lithuanian Government's Citizenship and Migration Affairs project. Funded by the European Union, the project replaces legacy AFIS equipment with RealScan-F live scanners in the nation's criminal AFIS. The Lithuanian Government has a plan to develop and integrate its newly implemented AFIS with the European Union's Schengen Visa Information System (VIS) project.

Suprema provides a wide range of biometric ID management solution from FBI-certified live scanners to ARINC compliant electronic passport readers. In 2010, the company won number of public projects in China, USA, Brazil, Bulgaria and India.

About Suprema Inc.

SUPREMA is a global leader in biometrics and identification solutions. The company's range of products include live-scanners, biometric access control systems, fingerprint modules and e-passport readers. SUPREMA has worldwide sales network over 100 countries and also a listed company in South Korea's KOSDAQ stock exchange (KQ: 094840). For more information, please visit http://www.supremainc.com/.

America Tomorrow - A Documentary Montage (1-10)

2010-11-21T13:37:00.000-08:00

"America Tomorrow - A Documentary Montage" is a collaboration of elements from various documentaries, interviews, and segments from both independent and mainstream news organizations and publications.

This video is not intended to violate any copyright laws. The video is not to be distributed for sale or any monetary gain, and I do not accept donations. The purpose of this video is solely to inform and bring awareness to the discussed highly controversial topics that are rarely publicized to the public.

More here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFTFKWhWRfU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP90fuq9zjs&feature=related

Some of the sources used in this film:

Zeitgest: The Federal reserve
The Obama Deception
America: Freedom to Fascism
Infowars: Aaron Russo Interview

Russia Today
DemocracyNow!
60 Minutes
MSNBC, FOX, & CNN
C-SPAN

Arun Ross on current issues in biometrics

2010-11-21T12:52:00.000-08:00

Think TSA's a Drag?

2010-11-20T10:13:00.000-08:00

2010-11-16T04:18:00.001-08:00

http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/zs/r/qYCvbakPMKu.png

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‘UID to create world’s largest database’

2010-11-15T14:30:00.000-08:00

Having initiated the ambitious task of assigning every citizen of the country a unique identity number, the Unique Identification Authority of India is confident of generating the largest database in the world.

Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, Nandan Nilekani, told The Indian Express the authority aims to create online authentication of every person in the country, something which will be another first in the world to its credit.

This, the authority aims at achieving, through deduplication of database created by documenting the iris of both eyes and fingerprints of every individual in the country. This will be done with by using biometrics, which will ensure that no data is duplicated, said Nilekani, who was here to attend the convocation of Thapar University on Saturday, where he was also conferred with the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa).

VISA Mobile Payment

2010-11-15T14:21:00.000-08:00

'Visa develops Electronic Payment Solution using UIDAI Platform

2010-11-15T14:17:00.000-08:00

The solution is designed to provide a payment infrastructure for Aadhaar holders, especially the un-banked and under-banked Aadhaar holders.

Visa, a leading global electronic payments technology company has developed a unique payment solution, using the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) platform. The solution is designed to provide a payment infrastructure for Aadhaar holders, especially the un-banked and under-banked Aadhaar holders. Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique number that the UIDAI will issue to all Indian residents living in the country.

A very small proportion of the Indian population has bank accounts and UIDAI is building the Aadhaar platform, which can be used to bring banking services to the unbanked masses. The authority plans to issue Aadhaar numbers to 600 million residents over the next four years, with a 100 million expected to be enrolled in the first year.

As part of the proposed solution, once an individual enrolls into Aadhaar, the partner bank can issue a Visa payment card (linked to his / her Aadhaar biometric authentication). Visa is enhancing its systems to handle biometric data along with payment data and integrate with Aadhaar for authentication purposes. Visa is working with TSYS, a leading global technology company, as the biometric authentication technology partner, for the UIDAI project.

Elizabeth Buse, Visa Group Executive, said, "Many Indians have little or no access to the banking system in India. Now they will be able to benefit from all the security, reliability and convenience that a Visa payments card has to offer. This is a ground-breaking initiative and a great example of a public-private partnership in action. I am delighted Visa is part of such an important project in India."

Uttam Nayak, Group Country Manager, India and South Asia, said, “We have successfully demonstrated our capabilities of Visa’s proposed solution to the UIDAI and are excited about this collaboration. It will allow Visa to continue delivering on its commitment to extend the various benefits of electronic payments to the un-banked and under-banked communities in the country. Visa will provide its infrastructure to process payment transactions using biometric authentication from Aadhaar, and enable the Government of India to execute its financial inclusion strategies.”

The key benefits of the collaboration for the un-banked and under-banked population include:

Easy and convenient access to central and state government benefit disbursements;

Better management of funds and reduced risks associated with cash, by providing an option of immediate cash deposit to a no frill bank account;

Payment options at merchants accepting Visa cards;

Depositing or withdrawing cash at ATM or Micro ATM terminals;

Convenience of booking train tickets, paying utility bills, etc.; and

Enabling remittance of money in a secure manner by migrants to their families.

Keeping in mind the large un-banked and under-banked communities in many parts of the country, Visa along with its banking partners will soon launch a financial inclusion pilot, using the UIDAI platform, after identifying suitable locations

Changing the World

2010-11-14T15:51:00.001-08:00

Masdar Institute of Science & Technology |About Masdar Institute

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Masdar Institute

2010-11-14T15:49:00.001-08:00

Welcome to Masdar Institute of Science and Technology

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Observations of Our Times

2010-11-10T09:52:00.000-08:00

by Jennifer S.

DTTO/ PChat Team

History merely repeats itself. It has all be done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. -Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NLT)

Don't long for "the good old days", for you don't know whether they were any better than today. - Ecclesiastes 7:10 (NLT)

How do you tell someone about the upcoming Universal Identification scheme?

What do you say to people of the faith?

What do you say when people wave it away with "That isn't the mark, the rapture will take us away before that's here!" or if they say that they can get out of this scheme
(chipping) if it is against their faith to have a tattoo or an implantable chip? Or, "The number of the mark is 666!"

How do you introduce it into conversation with unbelievers?
What do you say if they do not care?
What if the person you talk to says "It's not here, it's in that country, not mine", then what do you say?

I have had this running through my head for many months now, though not really as formed as these questions and I wonder how I am to tell my husband about this so we ensure we're not trapped by it or tricked into getting it for our children. People say that we as believers in Messiah will not find this in our time, that it will happen after the rapture, or that we won't be deceived, but even in the scriptures it was said that the antichrists and false prophets would seek to deceive if they may, even the elect. (Matthew 24:24)

I am a mom, I don't talk much to other adults as I am concerned with keeping up my studies in Scripture, the news, my work, and my kids. IF I get to talk to other individuals, I don't know how to bring up the conversation. My inlaws don't know what to think of all this, and my husband thinks I've gone off the deep end. My friends who are on the same wave-length, aren't even in the same country OR time zone. We're all in the same situation.

Our husbands think that we're not exactly on track, a little paranoid or that we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Irregardless of whether they were raised in the church
and have a good understanding of the end times events, or if they are new believers but not in church.

Most of our families just aren't into news, or think we're already a little cuckoo - so we look for ways to make them aware without risking committal into an institution. It's not an easy road.

G-d has shown all of us that we have the job of Watchmen. We are put in a position of knowledge, and information gathering that most people just aren't aware is out there. According to Ezekiel 33, if the watchman doesn't sound alarm when he sees danger coming, the blood of the people are required of him. However, if he sounds alarm and the people pay him no heed, their blood is on their heads.

There is so much prophecy happening all at once, it gets overwhelming from time to time. We all have to step back and breathe and regroup, as you can get so inundated with the information. One such prophecy we find happening very quickly is that of Jeremiah 16:16, which says "But now I am sending for many fishermen who will catch them, says the Lord. I am sending for hunters who will hunt them down in the mountains, hills, and caves." - which is eerily called to rememberance in the words of Y'shua , "Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!" And those hunters, if you were wondering - they are the sons of Ishmael and Edom. (see more here) There is much I can go into about that, but this is not the time.

For believers, I would like to remind them of Revelation 13 and 14, The Creation story of this earth and mankind, and the fact that G-d has already given us all that we need to bind Him and His Word to our forehead, to our hand, the corners of our garments, our mouth, our hearts and our doorposts (Exodus 13, Deuteronomy 6, 11 and 30).

On the 6th day G-d made mankind. The number of mankind is 6. We are told in Revelation that the mark - depending on our text of the bible - is six hundred, sixty and six - or six hundred and sixteen.

Irregardless, both sets of numbers are very deep Biblically speaking. Bible numerics, or Gematria is a valid form of Scriptural interpretation since the times of Moses. There are many things hidden in Scripture that point to the validity of Bible numerics, such as the catch of 153 fish in the nets of the disciples, which points directly to the Scripture in Jeremiah 16:16-17. The Scripture in Jeremiah says "and there you will be called Sons of the Living G-d!" The value of that phrase is 153.

In the words of King Solomon "It is the glory of the L-rd to conceal a thing: but the honor of the king is to search out a matter." or "A wise man will hear and will increase learning.... to understand a proverb and the interpretation... The far of the L-rd is the beginning of knowledge.." (Proverbs 1:3-7)

For those who say that this will not happen before the coming of the Messiah, I would like to remind you of what happened prior to World War Two in what became Nazi Germany. The Jews heard the report in nearby countries and rationalized that perhaps the propaganda was true and the people were being deported or sent on holiday.. and that the horrors they heard would not come to the far reaches of Poland or the country they lived in. That their neighbors would not turn on them and turn them out into the streets, sent to a
Concentration Camp or Work Camp, or shot in the street and dumped in a mass grave. Those are the stuff of bad dreams.

I would have to remind you it can, it did and it will happen again. Just this week is remembrance of Kristallnacht (Nov 8-10) - and I am sure if he were alive to this day, Pastor Martin Niemöller would remind us of his poem:

First they came for the communists and I did not speak up, because I was not a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak up because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak up be cause I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I did not speak up because I was Protestant. Then they came for me, and no one was left to speak up.

The NSDAP did not come to power with their views of Anti-Semitism at the front. The main goals were much like the goals today - secure the economy, health care and jobs for all, secure the borders and get everyone a national ID card... and history repeats itself.

Here we are in 2010, some 60 years after Israel became a nation again, and we are repeating the very history that we said "Never Again!" to, all in the guise of laws that have
come into effect after 9/11. (Peace and Safety anyone?) In fact, that is how I would like to introduce this concept to everyone.
There is so much we could talk about on this subject, but I will try my best to make this into a "Reader's Digest Version" for you so that you have the tools to equip yourself and go out there and find the information at your fingertips.

Keep in mind that Man was created on the sixth day. It takes six protons, six neutrons and six atoms to equal carbon.

In the Greek text of Revelation 13:18, the number 666 is represented with a value based upon gematria. It is simply written with three Greek letters, the Chi = 600, the XI = 60, and the no longer used Stigma = 6. This is important. Pay attention:

"And that no man might buy or sell, except he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man; and his number is SIX HUNDRED THREESCORE AND SIX."

We are told in verse 18 that the one who understands is to calculate the number of the beast". The Greek word used here "psephizo" means to 'calculate' or to 'formulate'. The word means very much the same in Hebrew. The word is "tzor", and means to 'compress from all directions', to 'form', or to 'shape'.

Now, if this doesn't make you think about an algorithm, I'm not sure what will. The meaning behind the letters that comprise the number of six hundred, sixty and six mean:

Total sum of the world providing a continuum of knowledge (through) devotion, support(ing) the framework for trust with authority and stability; yoking together the 6th day (or mankind)

Some manuscripts read that the number we are told, is six hundred and sixteen. (see here) The meaning behind that number is as follows:

Total sum of the world providing a continuum of knowledge (through) devotion, receiving ownership (by the) manifested power of man yoked together.

Now, bear with me, this does tie to the Unique Identification number. The Unique Identification Number is assigned by an algorithm, or calculation of one's unique information. No one else can, or will have your 16 digit number. There is even talk of IBM having a new DNA marker soon that may play into this at a future date.

To bring this home, I should remind you that in the 9/11 Commission Act, there was legislation passed called "The Real ID Act of 2005", which was later repealed and reissued as "The Pass ID Act" of 2009.

As of April 2008, all 50 states have either applied for extentions to the compliance date, or have issued resolutions or binding legislation that will effectively stop the Real ID Act in it's tracks. The newer Pass ID Act changes only a little bit of wording of the original act, and repeals or eliminates some of the more burdensome technological changes that would need to be made to the state identification or drivers license cards.

We are just coming off of the US national census which tabulates how many individuals we have living in the country, and also to help along the new National Healthcare that got pushed through both Houses of the Government and onto our President's desk in record time. In the meantime, we have a massive (and unheard of) census that is occurring in India, Australia and Mexico. In India and Mexico, particularly; millions of people are lining up to get their national identity card, complete with a unique, biometric, 16 digit identification number. Germany is rolling out their new National ID card; the "E-Perso".

The following details that would be captured for the Unique ID - from individuals:

– Name
– UID Number
– Photograph
– Right Hand Forefinger Print
– Name of Father
– UID of Father
– Name of Mother
– UID of Mother
– Date of Birth
– Sex
– Place of Birth
– Address

Of the parameters mentioned above, the only parameter that cannot be duplicated is the biometric one. The only way that can be broken is if the database is hacked and the fingerprint is replaced. Ironically, the photograph is also biometric (like what is required for our US passports).

Now, if this doesn't jog your memory, I'm not sure what will. IBM, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Intel, Verisign, Google, Yahoo, and many other Fortune 500 companies are involved in the Indian Census.

Did I have your ear when I said IBM and Cisco Systems? If not, I should have. Both companies were greatly involved in the census of Nazi Germany, and the Hollerith tabulating machine made this an easy job. Most everyone already had their information in the Church and city records, so getting the additional information in the census and tabulating everything was simple.

Here we are some many years after the first major census of a similar kind, and we are finding that a push is being made that once the cards have been issued, there will be a time frame given until there is a push that either one will need implantable devices or something along the lines of InkSure or SoMark for their identification. The reasoning behind this in India, is that the information can easily be "skimmed" off of the cards, or they can be hacked (to a degree). However, in the Western nations where this is being trialled under different schemes, the push is identity theft. A thief supposedly cannot "skim" information if it is implanted or tattooed on your person.

We are currently watching India, and now Mexico; as it is the trial market for the National ID scheme, and we are quickly finding that Australia is the trial market for the medical version of this scheme.

Germany is pushing out as of November 1st, their new Personal Identity cards, which include a biometric photograph and a fingerprint from the individual who owns the card - which is optional during this trial period, but expected to be required in some time. In addition to this card, is an RFID chip which will allow for the user to have "more secure" online payments, and link their card to their bank account; possibly later replacing their banking/cheque card. Rolling out on the back of this is a company called Vingado from Spain, opening the options of "fingerprint" payment. The only thing each store needs is the new software and a fingerprint reader. The new German "E-perso" also requires a new card reader, with the possibility of also using the new fingerprint reader in your online banking, shopping and municipal/government paperwork.

Deutsche Post (The German version of the USPS) is rolling out this year a "Secure email address" in which you can link your account to do the above mentioned municipal or government paperwork. It simply requires you fill out some paperwork, give your "E-perso", Online username(s), create your email address you wish linked and you can do everything you would have in person - Online. This program has already been rolled out in Belgium and a couple other EU countries.

Russia, Spain and a couple other European or former USSR countries are rolling out, or have rolled out metro train and international train pass payment or verification by fingerprint, instead of metro cards. Surveillance of the train stations and those RFID cards and fingerprint scans were what identified the female Chechen bombers in Moscow a few months ago, before the medical examiners and investigators had time to examine the bodies and detonation devices.

Novartis AG is rolling out an RFID chip enhanced medicine that is awaiting approval by the FDA in the United States, that will report back to the hospital/house doctor whether or not an individual has faithfully been taking their prescribed medication. (see here)

President Obama and his wife Michelle have recently completed a trip to India, in which they solidified many business deals; including support for and a strong push towards completing the Indian UID project. (see here)

More and more national and international schools are tracking students via RFID cards, chipped backpacks, or fingerprint entry/exit. They are also tracking who picks them up. One school in Pennsylvania was tracking students via their laptops, as are many schools in Great Britain.

Citizens in Great Britain are protesting the ID scheme there, which has taken a seemingly backseat to other projects for this time.

More and more cellphones and cellphone companies are working towards contactless payment and purchases via fingerprint. Simply scan the bar code of the item you want, and pay via your linked bank account with your fingerprint.

Global Leaders Combine Forces to Provide Identity Security Documents for INTERPOL

2010-11-10T06:15:00.000-08:00

Global Leaders Combine Forces to Provide Identity Security Documents for INTERPOL

UIDAI does not have any statistics of UID progress to share - Moneylife: Personal Finance Magazine

2010-11-05T09:57:00.000-07:00

UIDAI does not have any statistics of UID progress to share - Moneylife: Personal Finance Magazine

Iris recognition systems for access control and identity management gain popularity

2010-11-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

The eyes have it. The use of iris recognition technology is expanding around the globe and it is being utilised in a vast array of commercial and government applications ranging from access control to time management. ASSA ABLOY Future Lab examines how this biometric technology is breaking new ground in identity management and other security applications.

Retinal vs. iris scans

Often confused with a retinal scan, iris recognition systems capture an image of the eye, and then analyse the coloured part around the pupil that you see on the front of the eye called the "iris".

The retina, on the other hand, is made up of the photoreceptor cells located at the back of the eye and is not visible. While iris recognition essentially captures an image of the texture of the iris, a retinal scan captures an image of the pattern of the retina's blood vessels inside the physical eye.

"The iris is in plain sight as opposed to the retina, so it's easier to take a good image of the iris," says David Usher, senior scientist with Retica Systems, a Massachusetts-based company that designs and develops iris-based identity management systems. "In iris recognition, an image of the iris is taken using Near Infrared (NIR) LED light and algorithms are then used to form an encoded representation of the texture of that iris. This encoding, or template, is then used to match against other templates and confirm or refute identity."

School buses trying biometric solution

2010-11-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

School districts are turning to high-tech solutions — from fingerprint scans to electronic cards — to track kids on school buses and keep them from getting off at the wrong stops.

The latest: A fingerprint scanning system, approved this month for testing at the Desert Sands district, northeast of San Diego. Students will be scanned as they get on and off the bus.

"Kids get lost. It happens in every school district, every year," says John DeVries, president of Global Biometrics Security, which developed the Biometric Observation Security System (BOSS) that's being tested.
It happened Oct. 13 when a Prince George's County (Md.) school employee took a 5-year-old student to the wrong bus and the student got off several blocks from home. "That just shouldn't happen," says district spokesman Darrell Pressley. He says the district is now considering a system.

‘E-citizen card’ to become main form of identification

2010-11-01T10:12:00.000-07:00

The Government intends to implement an “e-citizens card” which will replace the ID card and drivers’ permit in the future, said acting Permanent Secretary Gillian McIntyre, Ministry of Public Utilities. “The e-citizens card is a unique identification number which will allow citizens to access all Government services on and off-line. “It is anticipated that this identification system which will eventually replace all other systems such as drivers permits, ID cards and smart cards will encourage a more efficient degree of Government services,” she said. Ag Permanent Secretary Gillian McIntyre, Ministry of Public Utilities was speaking on behalf of Emmanuel George on Thursday night at the media launch of the “I-create” 2010-2011 Caribbean Association of National Telecommunications Organisation (Canto) Regional e-content competition at National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA).

The competition will begin in January 2011. “We are set to implement a new ICT strategy that will begin in 2011 it will emphasise increasing usage and uptake which would be increasing access to and utilisation of information and telecommunication technology such as the Internet, computers and smart phones,” she added. Although T&T is one of the more advanced countries with ICT infrastructure development, the levels of local content in T&T is low when compared to other Caribbean countries, she said. “Discussions are already underway to address this critical issue. “A new ICT vision is soon to be defined by the Government and it will support the view that T&T can support real and lasting improvements in its social, economic and cultural spheres throughout the equitable distribution of ICT,” she said.

She said the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT) is currently reviewing the national broadcast policy. “This assessment will address issues such as local content development and a proposal to review and establish a public broadcast e-service and market concentration and related regulations. “It is envisioned that the creation of local content which will be supported through the establishment of public broadcasting service will promote among other things preservation of national identity, counter balance the influence of foreign media and provide useful education content,” she said.

New digital German ID cards arrive on November 1

2010-11-01T10:10:00.000-07:00

New national ID cards are coming to Germany. The new cards boast features designed to safeguard against the hazards of the Internet age, including phishing and identity theft, but critics say there are still problems.

National identification cards are nothing new to Germans. Citizens have been required to show their ID card or a passport to the authorities since 1939, when the Nazis first wrote it into law. After World War II, the various occupying powers kept the policy of national ID cards for everyone over the age of 16.

On November 1, the German government is rolling out the latest incarnation of the German national ID card, the so-called electronic ID, or EID. The new cards contain a microchip using radio frequency identification technology, or RFID. This technology is already widely used in security systems for various buildings, as well as by retailers to inventory goods.

All citizens whose ID cards are expiring this year can apply for new ones, as the government begins to phase them in.

"It's an electronic means of identifying an item, in this case an ID card," said Karsten Nohl, an independent security expert, in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

Biometrics now being shared by all counties in the state

2010-11-01T10:08:00.000-07:00

PHOENIX — On Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began using federal information sharing capability in all Arizona counties. The system uses biometrics to identify immigrants, both lawfully and unlawfully present in the U.S. who are booked into local law enforcement’s custody for a crime.

This information sharing capability is part of Secure Communities—ICE’s comprehensive strategy to improve and modernize the identification and removal of criminal immigrants.

Previously, fingerprint-based biometric records were taken of individuals charged with a crime and booked into custody and checked for criminal history information against the Department of Justice’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System. Now, information sharing between the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security has been enhanced. Fingerprint information submitted through the state to the FBI will be automatically checked against both the FBI criminal history records and the biometrics-based immigration records in the Department of Homeland Security’s Automated Biometric Identification System.

If any fingerprints match those of someone in the DHS biometric system, the new automated process notifies ICE. ICE evaluates each case to determine the individual’s immigration status and takes appropriate enforcement action. This includes immigrants who are in lawful status and those who are present without lawful authority. Once identified through fingerprint matching, ICE will respond with a priority placed on immigrants convicted of the most serious offenses first.

ICE is now using the system in 746 jurisdictions in 34 states. By 2013, ICE plans to be able to respond to all fingerprint matches generated nationwide.

Since the system began in October 2008, immigration officers have removed from the U.S. more than 46,800 immigrants convicted of a crime.

ICE does not regard immigrants charged with, but not yet convicted of crimes, as “criminal immigrants.” Instead, a “criminal immigrant” is an immigrant convicted of a crime. In accordance with the Immigration and Nationality Act, ICE continues to take action on immigrants subject to removal as resources permit.

ICE is currently using the federal biometric information sharing capability in jurisdictions in the following states: Arkansas, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.

PayPal, Facebook Launch New Micropayment Service

2010-10-26T16:13:00.000-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO—PayPal on Tuesday announced a payments program for digital goods at its PayPal X Innovate developer conference, with Facebook as its initial partner.

PayPal for Digital Goods allows a two-click purchase of digital goods, such as FarmCash within Zynga on the Facebook platform.

As the payments arm of eBay, PayPal's presence is critical for the company. In the third quarter, eBay's Payments business and PayPal drove the company's revenues.

PayPal made a number of announcements at its PayPal X conference, including embedded payments and enhanced mobile payments plans. But the digital goods program brings virtual payments to Facebook's 500 million users and its gamers.

"More people play games on Facebook than on all of the consoles combined," said Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, who appeared on stage at the PayPal conference to help announce the partnership.

PayPal will charge 5 cents plus 5 percent of the transaction for purchases under $12, PayPal said.

"It's just like dropping a quarter into an arcade machine," said Osama Bedier, vice president of PayPal's mobile and new ventures.

Autosport.com, FT.com, GigaOM, Justin.tv, Ooyala, Plimus, Tagged, Tyler Projects, and Ustream also said that they would partner with PayPal for the new digital goods. GigaOM and the FT.com appeared on stage next to Bedier to demonstrate micropayments in the news business, charging about 45 cents for a premium article. Mary Beth Christie, the head of product management for the FT.com, also said that the FT will begin charging a small fee to send a friend a full press clipping in 2011.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2371515,00.asp

Xero boss pushes for single ID number for firms

2010-10-25T10:08:00.001-07:00

Xero founder Rod Drury says giving every Kiwi business a unique number that they could use to identify themselves to government agencies and one another is an idea whose time has come that could spark an innovation boom.

Currently a business needs separate numbers to deal with various government agencies.

An official at the Economic Development Ministry said it was discussing what would be involved with Inland Revenue and a paper could go to Revenue Minister Peter Dunne within the month.

Mr Drury said a single business number had the potential to save hundreds of thousands of businesses a few hours a week.

Business numbering systems had been implemented in many countries, including Australia, he said. The Australian Government is understood to be pressing New Zealand on its position, arguing a system similar to its Australia Business Number (ABN) could ease trans-Tasman trade.

New Zealand could go a step ahead by allowing sole traders and partnerships to voluntarily register with the Companies Office and obtain an ID number that they could use when transacting with larger businesses, Mr Drury said.

Xero is also seeking support for a common format for invoices, that in conjunction with the numbering system could make it easy for companies to routinely transact electronically within two to five years.

The online accounting software company has set up a website at simpleubl.org to promote the possible standard and show a sample invoice.

"That is a fundamental productivity improvement, [but] there are a whole lot of scenarios where a single business number helps," Mr Drury said.

"The vision we have is to completely lead the world in electronic data interchange between small businesses, large businesses and government."

He said the next step would be for the Government to agree on what would be the single business number and to decide whether to let businesses which were not limited-liability companies register.

Companies' GST numbers, allocated by Inland Revenue, would be the obvious candidate, he said.

An Inland Revenue spokeswoman said the idea was promoted by software developers at a meeting between the Software Developers Working Group and Inland Revenue this month, which Mr Dunne attended.

The group was set up to help Inland Revenue and the software industry work together to deliver improved tax services to businesses.

The Economic Development Ministry official believed a law change might not be necessary, but any move to allocate a single business number to sole traders would require the approval of the Privacy Commissioner.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/4268983/Xero-boss-pushes-for-single-ID-number-for-firms

How It Can Happen Overnight

2010-10-25T07:52:00.000-07:00

Signature verification to be fastest growing segment of global biometrics market

2010-10-23T18:51:00.001-07:00

The demand for biometrics solutions is driven principally by the need to prevent crime and terrorism. An increasing wave of legislation being introduced currently will be a central factor in the continued demand for biometrics products. In terms of market trends, the application of biometrics within the public sector represents over half of the global biometrics market. The specific biometric applications applied to the public sector include border control, national identity cards and identity verification within government. New government initiatives and programmes for biometrics stalled during the recession; however specific projects are showing signs of growing demand.

Biometrics is growing in importance in security applications in airports and other transit locations. The e-passport projects for the US Visa waiver countries, EURODAC, Visa Information System (VIS), and the new generation Schengen Information System (SIS II) are other major drivers that are expected to encourage biometrics usage. In addition, the large increase in the number of Visa requests for Europe underlines the importance of biometrics in identity verification.

The US is the largest biometrics market globally, with Europe and Asia following behind. The US and Europe together account for over 60% of the global market, although the Asia Pacific and South American markets are expected to be larger than other world markets by 2015. The largest segment within the global biometrics market is the Non-AFIS / Finger Scan. Of the other segments, signature verification is expected to expand at the fastest rate through to 2015. Leading companies in the market include 3M-AiT, Ltd, AuthenTec, Inc., BIO-key International, Inc., Biometric Security Limited, Cogent Systems Inc., Sagem Sécurité, Printrak International, Inc, Siemens Biometrics Center and Fujitsu Microelectronics America Inc.

What the UID conceals

2010-10-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

Is identity the “missing link” in India's efforts to rise as an “inclusive” economic superpower? Can an identity-linked and technology-based solution change the face of governance in India? Given the euphoria around the Unique Identification (UID) project, one is tempted to believe so. However, a careful look at the project would show that the euphoria is just hyperbole; only the politically naïve can afford to ignore the far-reaching implications of this Orwellian project.

One can summarise the criticisms of the UID project under four heads. First, the project would necessarily entail the violation of privacy and civil liberties of people. Second, it remains unclear whether biometric technology — the cornerstone of the project – is capable of the gigantic task of de-duplication. The Unique Identification Authority of India's (UIDAI) “Biometrics Standards Committee” has noted that retaining biometric efficiency for a database of more than one billion persons “has not been adequately analysed” and the problem of fingerprint quality in India “has not been studied in depth”. Third, there has been no cost-benefit analysis or feasibility report for the project till now. Finally, the purported benefits of the project in the social sector, such as in the Public Distribution System (PDS), are largely illusive. The problem of duplicate ration cards is often hugely exaggerated. Even so, some States have largely eliminated duplicate ration cards using “lower” technologies like hologram-enabled ration cards.

In this larger context, the UID project has two distinct political dimensions. The first dimension is that the project is fundamentally linked to “national security” concerns rather than “developmental” concerns. In fact, the marketing team of the UIDAI has always been on an overdrive to hush up the security angle, and play up the developmental angle, to render it more appealing.

The first phase of today's UID project was initiated in 1999 by the NDA government in the wake of the Kargil War. Following the reports of the “Kargil Review Committee” in 2000, and a Group of Ministers in 2001, the NDA government decided to compulsorily register all citizens into a “National Population Register” (NPR) and issue a Multi-purpose National Identity Card (MNIC) to each citizen. To ease this process, clauses related to individual privacy in the Citizenship Act of 1955 were weakened through an amendment in 2003. In sum, the ground work for a national ID project was completed by 2003 itself.

The parallels between the UPA's UID and the NDA's MNIC are too evident to be missed, even as the UPA sells UID as a purely “developmental” initiative. The former chief of the Intelligence Bureau, A.K. Doval, almost gave it away recently, when he said that UID, originally, “was intended to wash out the aliens and unauthorised people. But the focus appears to be shifting. Now, it is being projected as more development-oriented, lest it ruffle any feathers”.

The potential of the project to unleash a security frenzy is the reason why privacy concerns have to be taken seriously. The government and the UIDAI have made it appear as if the purported, and unsubstantiated, benefits of “good governance” from the project eclipse the concerns regarding privacy and civil liberties. This is where the problem lies. A foundational understanding in the study of individual freedoms, pioneered by scholars like Amartya Sen, is that consequence-independent absolute rights are rather hard to defend. Hence, the demand to trade-off one freedom for another (here, the “invasive loss” of privacy for “development”) is an untenable demand. Each freedom, independently, has an instrumental value, and the loss of one freedom undermines the individual's overall capability to expand up on other freedoms. No wonder then that Sen himself has voiced the privacy concern regarding the UID project.

There is a related concern: police and security forces, if allowed access to the biometric database, could extensively use it for regular surveillance and investigative purposes, leading to a number of human rights violations. As Amartya Sen has argued elsewhere, forced disclosure and loss of privacy always entailed “the social costs of the associated programmes of investigation and policing”. According to him, “some of these investigations can be particularly nasty, treating each applicant as a potential criminal.”

The second dimension of the UID project is the following: it would qualitatively restructure the role of the state in the social sector. Contrary to claims, the UID project is not an instrument to expand India's social security system, for whatever it is worth. Instead, the aim is to keep benefits restricted to the so-called “targeted” sections, ensure targeting with precision and thereby, limit the government's expenditure commitments. None other than the Prime Minister has made this amply clear. Addressing the National Development Council (NDC) on July 24, 2010, he noted: “to reduce our fiscal deficit in the coming years, … we must [be] … reducing the scale of untargeted subsidies. The operationalisation of the Unique Identification Number Scheme … provides an opportunity to target subsidies effectively.”

The UIDAI claims that UID would help the government shift from a number of indirect benefits into direct benefits. In reality, such a shift would represent the opposite: a transformation of the role of the state from a direct provider to an indirect provider. For the UIDAI, the UID is a tool of empowerment. In reality, the UID would be an alibi for the state to leave the citizen unmarked in the market for social services. Nowhere is the illustration more telling than in the case of the PDS.

Let me state the argument upfront. The UID project is part of a larger effort to dismantle the PDS in India. The aim is to ensure a back-door entry of food stamps in the place of PDS, and later graduate it to a cash transfer scheme, thereby completing the state's withdrawal from the sphere of food procurement and distribution.

According to the UIDAI, the most important benefit from the UID could be that you could have a “portable” PDS. In other words, you could have a system where you (say, a migrant worker) could buy your PDS quota from anywhere in India. The claim, of course, has a deceptive appeal. One would have to dig deeper to grasp the real intent.

If we take the present fair price shop (FPS) system, each FPS has a specified number of households registered to it. The FPS stores grains only for the registered households. The FPS owner would not know how many migrants, and for what periods, would come in and demand their quota. Hence, for lack of stock, he would turn away migrant workers who demand grains. Hence, the FPS system is incompatible with the UID-linked portability of PDS. There is only one way out: do away with the FPS system, accredit grocery shops to sell grains, allow them to compete with each other and allow the shop owners to get the subsidy reimbursed. This is precisely what food stamps are all about; no FPS, you get food stamps worth an amount, go to any shop and buy grains (on why food stamps are deeply problematic, see Madhura Swaminathan, “Targeted Food Stamps”, The Hindu, August 3, 2004).

What is interesting is that everyone, except those enamoured by the UID glitter, appears to know this. On its part, UIDAI officially accepts that food stamps become easier to implement with the UID. So does the Planning Commission, which sees the UID as the fulcrum around which its plans to “reform” the PDS revolve. It turns out that an opposition to the dismantling of PDS, and to food stamps, also involves an opposition to the UID.

On his part, Nandan Nilekani has been showcasing his extraordinarily poor understanding of India's developmental priorities. According to him, “in the Indira years, the slogan was garibi hatao. Then it was roti, kapda, makaan. In the last few years, it was bijli, sadak, pani.” However, these slogans are “passé”; the in-thing is the slogan “UID number, bank account, mobile phone.” Such an inverted world view, totally divorced from the grim realities of poverty, has prompted critics to call AADHAAR as just NIRAADHAAR!

In conclusion, the UID project is marked by both “security” and “developmental” dimensions. The former leads to an invasive state; the latter leaves us with a retreating state. Either way, the “citizen” is worse off.

( R. Ramakumar is with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.)

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article839791.ece

Cairo Amman Bank launches promotional campaign for Iris recognition Technology

2010-10-23T18:33:00.000-07:00

Cairo Amman Bank recently launched a promotional campaign under the heading of 'Your Eye Print, Rewarded,' organized in cooperation with leading biometric security manufacturer IrisGuard Inc. The campaign seeks to promote ocular security scan technology, which Cairo Amman Bank was the first in the world to implement in 2008, and which is now offered in more than 80 branches and 215 ATM machines.

The campaign encourages customers to utilize the Iris recognition service regularly to enter the monthly draw on 20 monetary prizes. Hundreds of thousands of transactions have thus far been completed through IrisGuard, servicing more than 30,000 of the bank's customers. The bank also launched an internal support campaign urging employees to bolster customer awareness on the Iris recognition technology and the benefits they can derive by using it.

The 'Your Eye Print, Rewarded' campaign underscores the uniqueness of the Iris recognition service offered by the bank to its clients, which streamlines the identity verification process by saving customers the hassle of having to produce identification, carry ATM cards and memorize PIN codes. The service is currently implemented at both the bank's teller booths and ATM machines, thus revolutionizing identity verification at each customer touch point.

In addition to saving time and effort, the Iris recognition adds another layer of security to the identity verification process at a time when global fraud rates are proliferating. The system prevents cases of fraud or unauthorized access to accounts as an individual's iris is a unique marker and cannot be replicated or lost.

Cairo Amman Bank has pioneered the implementation of Iris recognition in the global banking landscape. Following its positive experience with the service, several banks in Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen have begun offering the service to its clients.

.http://www.ameinfo.com/246248.html

Mobile financial services for poor

2010-10-23T18:30:00.000-07:00

As mobile penetration increases in India, it’s inevitable that it spreads economic wellbeing. Now that money transfers, payments and banking can take place over the device, financial services are available to anyone with a mobile. Telecom operators, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Mobile Payment Forum of India and the Unique Identification Authority of India have taken several initiatives to expand financial inclusion.

The World Bank estimates that banking penetration among middle and high-income groups is 45% and less than 5% among the low-income segment in emerging markets. A significant section of the target customer base in these markets earns less than $2 a day and can illafford banking services due to minimum deposit requirements and withdrawal rules. As a result, financial institutions have confined services to a small group of high and middle-income users.

Mobile remittances have the potential to act as gateways to the banking system for the underbaked and unbanked segments, which make up a huge 70% of the world’s population. Remittance services via mobiles, banks and other financial institutions can attract new customers to related financial products — such as deposits, loans and insurance — thereby deepening the financial access in an economy.

For economies, this creates a powerful engine for growth, drawing cash into bank accounts where it can provide low-cost funds for lending and investment. For instance, mBanking solution in Kenya, which has a low penetration of banking services, paved the way to a staggering 21% of its GDP getting transferred through mobile services.

Mobile financial services in an emerging market context such as India encompass areas such as mobile banking , mobile payments and mobile money, where the user has a mobile wallet holding an electronic ‘stored value’. The services value chain is complex, incorporating wholesale arrangements between mobile operators and financial service providers on the one side and the retail distribution network that serves customers, on the other.

A critical area of mobile financial services is remittances. Driven by regulatory and competitive pressures, several business models for mobile remittances have emerged in the world. The three prevalent business models are:

The remittance services provider (RSP) dominated model: Many RSPs (a bank or a money transfer operator) can adopt a direct-to-consumer model, using the telecom operator’s network for transport. The remittance service extends a mobile money account facility to consumers, which is used to transact remittances over the phone. While banked consumers benefit from more convenient access points, the mobile phone here becomes a channel for the hitherto unbanked users to gain and use a bank account.

The operator-dominated model: In the operator-led model, customers do not deal with a bank. Rather than deposit and withdraw money from a bank account, customers exchange their cash for money stored in a mobile money account on the telecom operator’s server, which is not linked to any bank account in the individual’s name. Customers can send the money to others or use it to store funds for future use. They can also convert it back to cash at any participating retail agent. The network operator performs a role similar to a bank in the bankled model — designing remittance products, contracting retail agents directly or through intermediaries, and maintaining customers’ virtual accounts.

The partnership model: Mobile network operators forge partnerships with banks or RSPs to efficiently handle cash management and disbursement. Banks exploit the distribution reach of mobile networks to market services among underpenetrated customer segments while mobile network operators benefit from the banks’ domain expertise.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/comments--analysis/Mobile-financial-services-for-poor/articleshow/6796644.cms

Take up Aadhaar on priority, officials told

2010-10-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

MYSORE: In the run up to the December deadline, the district administration has issued directives to officials to implement Aadhaar, the project to issue unique identification number, on priority basis.

In a circular, DC Harsh Gupta has asked the officials to create awareness about the UID project so that it is a success in Mysore that has been selected on a pilot basis by the Union and state governments.

The project, which was launched here on October 8 with enrolment of chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, is aimed at covering all residents in Mysore district by December-end.

The DC has asked the assistant commissioners in Mysore and Hunsur sub-divisions, who head the taluk-level panels and tahsildars to ensure that the project is implemented effectively by reviewing its process fortnightly and holding meetings with the implementing agency.

In the run up to the project implementation, the first in Karnataka, the district administration tested the process and mechanism by taking samples from rural, semi-urban and urban areas in April-May. It detailed the project during a workshop in September-end.

The taluk-level committees have a mandate to enroll the residents and issue ID numbers to them. "They should hold review meetings with the nodal officials appointed at hoblis in the taluk once in 15 days," he has stated in the circular emphasising the need to create awareness about its benefits. He has asked them to use various methods to reach across to the target groups and has sought compliance reports from the ACs and tahasildars on the directives.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mysore/Take-up-Aadhaar-on-priority-officials-told/articleshow/6800321.cms

UIDAI might rope-in brand ambassador to promote project

2010-10-10T13:31:00.000-07:00

MUMBAI: A brand ambassador for the Government's highly-ambitious Unique Identification Number (UID) project could be on the cards if a line of thought in the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is any indication.

Given the complexities involved in the task, especially that of positioning of the project and relevant communication to 1.2 billion Indians, a well-known brand ambassador would be of great help, a senior UIDAI official said.

"We want to promote the campaign and make the masses aware of the importance of the UID. This would require marketing expertise. If need be, we would also think about hiring a brand ambassador for the drive," said UIDAI's Head-Demand Generation, Communication and Awareness, Shankar Maruwada.

There would be an extensive campaign to push the project and a lot of expensive and operational resources will flow into these campaigns, he said.

In April this year, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), headed by Nandan Nilekani, had given the brand name 'Aadhaar' to the project with its own logo.

Under this project, all the residents of the country would get a unique identity number, which would enable them to have access to a host of benefits and services.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/software/UIDAI-might-rope-in-brand-ambassador-to-promote-project/articleshow/6722524.cms

Simage Technologies launches converged payments and ID platform to meet requirements of multiple market segments

2010-09-27T04:25:00.000-07:00

Simage Technologies launches a 'converged' platform for payments and ID. The platform can be used for mobile payments, contactless payments and contact based payments. This gives a high level of flexibility to the service providers as multiple devices can be issued to the end-users depending on the targeted segments and allows for better service penetration in the market. It enables the service providers to introduce new services and offer a dynamic service portfolio.

The platform supports multi-factor authentication and the use of biometrics in end-user and transaction verification. These advanced security mechanisms create a highly secure environment to host a wide array of ID based applications and services. The device-agnostic approach enables the platform to work with multiple devices (contact/contactless/dual-interface cards, contactless tokens and NFC Stickers etc) which can support single or multiple applications.

The platform is a comprehensive tool for the service providers to define their system functionality, scalability, level of security and performance. Multiple biometrics verification like fingerprint scan, facial recognition, iris scan and vein scan can be easily incorporated depending on the service provider requirements.

Being highly scalable, the platform can address from SME projects to very large scale nation-wide projects (national ID, voter ID, national payment system etc). The centralized management allows for better reporting on end-user trends across multiple market segments, enabling the service providers to improve their service offerings and customer satisfaction, as well as streamline their processes and operations.

The platform can be employed effectively to address multi market segments like financial services, transport and public sector. This saves the service providers time, efforts and resources on interoperability challenges of multiple platforms and allows them to focus on their core services.

"The platform allows easy integration to the various players in the payments and ID ecosystem eg. Banks, government departments, transport service providers etc and brings great value as a converged system," said Tariq Mohammed, Managing Director of Simage Technologies. "We aim to address a growing need, particularly in the emerging markets, for secure and easy to deploy system for multiple segments service provisioning."

http://www.ameinfo.com/243122.html

Nothing ‘unique’ about Aadhaar any more

2010-09-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

A proposal approved by the cabinet will constitute a statutory authority to be called the National Identification Authority of India. It’s the new name for UIDAI.

The Union Cabinet on Friday approved a proposal to introduce the National Identification Authority of India (NIAI) Bill 2010 in Parliament.

The bill proposes to constitute a statutory authority to be called the National Identification Authority of India and lay down the powers and functions of the Authority, the framework for issuing unique identification (UID) numbers (Aadhaar numbers), major penalties and other related matters through an Act of Parliament. The proposal by the government is not new, apart from a new name for the controversial Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

"After the bill is passed in Parliament, the name UIDAI would be changed to NIAI. The rest of the functioning and job of the authority would remain the same," said Awadhesh Kumar Pandey, assistant director general for media, UIDAI.

According to a statement released by the government, the setting up will involve an expenditure of Rs3023.01 crore, which includes project components for issue of UID numbers (called Aadhaar numbers) by March 2011, and recurring establishment costs for the entire project phase, over five years ending March 2014.

The statement tries to provide more information about Aadhaar, but creates more confusion. It says, "The UID project is primarily aimed at ensuing inclusive growth, by providing a form of identity to those who do not have any identity." Does this mean that those who have an identity will not get the Aadhaar numbers? In addition, what about the inclusive growth of other people who already have some kind of identification? There are hardly any answers to these questions.

The statement also talks about strengthening of equity among marginalised sections of society. It is not clear how the Aadhaar numbers would be able to do this. The government claims that apart from providing an identity, the Aadhaar numbers would enable better delivery of services and effective governance. Would this imply that someone from Tembhali village in north Maharashtra's Nandurbar district will automatically receive food under the public distribution system (PDS), when the middlemen have looted the food before it can even reach the shop?

What's more serious is that the government does not say anywhere that the Aadhaar numbers will be issued to the citizens of India. Instead, it mentions that the Aadhaar numbers will be issued to "individuals residing in India and to certain other classes of individuals". This means that immigrants from neighbouring countries, residing illegally in India, would be able to procure such numbers too, akin to the ration card (PDS Card), and become citizens of the country.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the ambitious UID project at Tembhali village in north Maharashtra's Nandurbar district this month-end. According to a report from the Press Trust of India, the 12-digit Aadhaar number will be mandatory for all government schemes and will serve as a unique identification number for citizens.

To get the number, citizens are required to produce any of 29 listed documents as proof of domicile. If no document is produced, the district collector in rural areas and municipal commissioners in the urban areas will be authorised to issue an identity certificate to the individual.

http://www.moneylife.in/article/9407.html

Eye scanners get test run on border

2010-09-26T22:27:00.000-07:00

Eye-reading machines — which creators see revolutionizing advertising campaigns and freeing the world from identification cards — are getting a test run here as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s arsenal against illegal border crossings.

The machines scan irises — muscles that form the colored portion of the eye with a texture scientists say can’t be altered and is unique to every person on the planet. While the U.S. Department of Defense already uses the scanners at military installations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the newer generation is able to discern identities of several people at a time and from distances of up to 30 feet. Previous models required peering into a viewfinder.

DHS spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said the two- to eight-week trial is to see what the equipment can do and if it is, as promised, superior to fingerprinting.

“This is a preliminary test of how the technology performs,” she said. “We have no specific plans for acquiring or deploying this type of technology at this point.”

A privacy impact assessment released this summer by DHS details how immigration violators will have, with their consent, their irises scanned for a pool of images that can be checked for quality by government researchers. The images will be closely guarded and destroyed following the research period, the assessment says.

Prototype cameras include floor-mounted pressure sensors, beam break sensors, and simple cameras. Agents already tasked with recording age, gender and ethnicity and taking photos and prints also will collect iris scans during the trial.

The aim is to see the scanners work in a Customs and Border Protection setting, with three different systems being tested to ensure products are interoperable. Testers want to make sure the scanners are quick, durable, easy to use and accurate, regardless of subjects’ age and ethnicity, which presented problems with earlier scanners.

U.S. prisons and jails are buying iris-scanning systems, as are corporations and U.S. and foreign governments, with India using the scanners as it collects the world’s first digital census.

Leaders of León, Mexico, have quietly rolled out the first phase of a citywide network of iris scanners they hope will make theirs the most secure city in Mexico.

Some, however, find the technology downright spooky.

"We’re very concerned about iris scanning because it can be done without your permission and at a distance,” ACLU counsel Christopher Calabrese said. “You may never know you’ve been scanned but you can be identified, and anyone with an Internet connection and a camera can essentially identify and track you.”

He questioned the precedent of scanning for illegal immigration.

“You’d have to screen everybody, which means creating a database with everybody’s iris.”

The blogosphere is peppered with commentary saying the scanners are bringing us one step closer to a “Big Brother” world where every movement is tracked and privacy is an antiquated concept.

As a representative of one of the DHS test vendors sees it, we’re in some ways already there, and for the most part voluntarily.

“These are situations where they just provide complete, ironclad security of identity to make sure that you are who you say you are and that your identity is protected as such,” said Jeff Carter, chief business development officer for Global Rainmakers Inc. “It’s no different than when you enter a country and have to produce your passport. ... If you choose not to produce your passport, then you won’t be able to access the country.”

Credit and debit card purchases track our dollars, websites our interests, social media our friends and associates.

Tech websites say iris scanners one day may track gazes at advertisements on airport walls and window displays in shopping malls, allowing marketers to learn what’s grabbing interest.

Carter, who headed think tanks at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Bank of America, said the scanners may be the answer to financial fraud, identity theft and lost bank cards.

“If your bank offered iris access to your accounts and for payments and completely guaranteed everything, to the second, that it was only you, would you want to use that service?” he asked. “I think it’s going to be driven by consumer choice.”

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/mexico/Eye_scanners_get_test_run_on_border__103839213.html?showFullArticle=y

Iris Scanning Set To Secure City in Mexico, Then the World

2010-09-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

The million-plus citizens of Leon, Mexico are set to become the first example of a city secured through the power of biometric identification. Iris and face scanning technologies from Global Rainmakers, Inc. will allow people to use their eyes to prove their identify, withdraw money from an ATM, get help at a hospital, and even ride the bus. GRI’s eye scanning systems aren’t more secure than others on the market, but they are faster. Large archway detectors using infrared imaging can pick out 50 people per minute, even as they hustle by at speeds up to 1.5 meters per second (3.3 mph). The first phase of the Leon iris and face scanning project has already begun. It is estimated to cost around $5 million and focuses on law enforcement agencies’ security check points. Over the next three years commercial uses will be rolled out with banks leading the charge. Whether you’re jealous or intimidated by Leon’s adoption of widespread eye identification you should pay attention to the project – similar biometric checkpoints are coming to locations near you. Some are already in place.

When it comes to biometric identification, fingerprints are the most widespread and trusted technology. Yet they only contain a few dozen data points to link to your ID. Irises, in contrast, have around 2000 points of reference – enough to uniquely identify every person on Earth. Many companies have developed the means to take an iris scan and use these reference points to match them quickly to a database of scans. The problem has typically been that getting the image of the iris itself is slow and requires people to come very close to the scanning device. GRI has focused on improving the iris acquisition side of the technology, increasing the speed and range of their devices. Not only that, but they are bringing the costs down. A 30 person per minute device (the HBox Mini) costs around $48,000. Yet smaller devices, ones suitable for ATMs or desktop computers are falling below $2000. As they become faster and more affordable, the adoption of iris scanners is seemingly becoming more inevitable as well.

http://singularityhub.com/2010/09/26/iris-scanning-set-to-secure-city-in-mexico-then-the-world-video/

Capital’s homeless will be among first to get UID numbers

2010-09-26T22:17:00.000-07:00

They are among the country’s uncounted and unidentified — a mass of nameless, faceless and homeless people. But soon, they may be among the first to have their own unique identity numbers.

While the official launch will be held in a village in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra on September 29, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will issue the first 10 Aadhaar numbers, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is planning to start the process in Delhi with the city’s homeless people next week.

To achieve this, the UIDAI is collaborating with the Delhi Government’s Mission Convergence, also called Samajik Suvidha Sangam. The enrolment will be done at night, on the streets, under bridges, flyovers and other places where the homeless take shelter, with officials touring the city with loudspeakers, urging the people to avail the scheme.

According to estimates drawn up by Mission Convergence, there are about two lakh homeless people in Delhi. These are mostly migrants, including beggars and disabled people, who live on the streets and have no access to any welfare schemes.

The “Beghar Card”, bearing the unique identification number, will be delivered by postal staff, who will track them down on the streets or under bridges, as indicated in the address during the enrolment drive. The process of digitisation of records has already begun for around 30,000 homeless people. Besides Delhi and Nandurbar, enrolments have also begun in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand.

“Our mandate is to issue identification numbers to residents of India and not citizens of India. We are doing just that,” said a UIDAI official. That was also the reason why a village in Nandurbar was chosen for the launch — to reflect the inclusive approach of the project.

“We are in the process of finalising things in Delhi,” said a senior UIDAI official. “We want to start the process and show we are serious,” he said.

To spread awareness about the scheme, the government is planning to stage street shows. Similar all-night enrolment drives are being planned to include the homeless population in other urban locations too.

“This is the first such step to include the marginalised and is a very intense engagement effort,” said K Ganga, deputy director general of UIDAI who is charge of the project’s implementation in the Delhi region.

“The whole UIDAI programme is for giving Aadhaar to every resident, which includes poor and homeless. But it is especially for the vulnerable and the poor. The homeless, in that context, become extremely important. They need it the most,” she said.

The Mission Convergence is an initiative to converge various welfare entitlement schemes and services meant for the poor under a single window. The Samajik Suvidha Sangam will act as an interface between nine Delhi Government departments, including Health & Family Welfare, Education, Women & Child Development, and Social Welfare.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/capitals-homeless-will-be-among-first-to-get-uid-numbers/688567/1

Big Indian Brother? India Creates National Biometric ID System.

2010-09-15T05:31:00.000-07:00

Starting this month, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI) will begin the long process of matching each of its billion-plus citizens with a unique ID number. The number will be tied to three pieces of biometric data: fingerprints of all 10 digits, iris scans of both eyes, and facial recognition software. The system will be under the brand name "Aadhaar."

The plan hopes to ID 600 million people within the next four years. Citizens will not be required to be digi-tagged (my word, not theirs), but you will need the ID number to sign-up for a growing array of state services.

Aadhaar is largely being sold as a means to empower the vast swath of the Indian population living below the poverty line. While to the western eye, this is a huge expansion of centralized power, the official website makes the contrary argument, that Aadhaar empowers the poor by using new technology to bypass traditional economic infrastructures to sync millions more into the new Indian economy.

The Unique Identification number (Aadhaar), which identifies individuals uniquely on the basis of their demographic information and biometrics will give individuals the means to clearly establish their identity to public and private agencies across the country. It will also create an opportunity to address the existing limitations in financial inclusion. The Aadhaar can help poor residents easily establish their identity to banks. As a result, banks will be able to scale up their branch-less banking deployments and reach out to a wider population at lower cost.

An efficient, cost effective payment solution is a dire necessity for promoting financial inclusion. The Aadhaar and the accompanying authentication mechanism coupled with rudimentary technology application can provide the desired micropayment solution. This can bring low-cost access to financial services to everyone, a short distance from their homes.

If the service becomes anywhere near ubiquitous (keeping in mind, even a fraction of India's billion-and-growing population is far larger than the population of most countries), the service will inevitably evolve to facilitate other interactions including payments, marketing, and--possibly, frighteningly--tracking.

http://www.gearlog.com/2010/09/big_indian_brother_india_creat.php

The foundations of Aadhaar

2010-09-15T05:25:00.000-07:00

Even as the UID project is touted as medicine for many an ill, there is cause for concern about its effectiveness

The unique identification number (UID) project, branded “Aadhaar”, seems to have carefully articulated itself as a panacea for all the evils that plague our public service delivery mechanism. So much so that it is now being talked about as the magic bullet for all the failures in every possible dimension of public service delivery. Last month alone saw views expressed (including in this newspaper) about the utility of UID in monitoring enrolment for the Right to Education Act, financial inclusion, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), facilitating employment search, and so on. This is beyond the greatest benefit that UID is supposed to deliver by making the below poverty line (BPL) census an integral component of the proposed Food Security Act, foolproof.

The idea of a unique identity number that can eliminate ghost beneficiaries is appealing. However, concerns remain on how effective this will be in solving the problem of leakages and misidentification, which derives its strength from the basic nature of class relations in the poorest areas, particularly villages. This is apart from the important concerns about the way privacy and security will be handled, and the possibilities of data theft and abuse.

So how will UID plug leakages? The argument is that it will help remove bogus BPL cards. True, but this is only a fraction of the problem, and there is no accurate estimate of the extent of bogus or fictitious cards. If the recent example of Tamil Nadu weeding out bogus cards is any evidence, then it is only 2%.

However, the fact that there are more than 110 million BPL households while estimates are of only 60 million households, is seen as evidence of the existence of a large number of fake cards. This is an erroneous conclusion and there is reason to believe that the number of ghost cards is in fact only a small proportion of the “excess” cards in circulation.

There is a higher number of BPL cards because many state governments (for example, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh) have decided to include more people in the BPL net. Moreover, there is also a difference between the government’s definition of a household and ground realities. In a system where most benefits are household entitlements, there is an incentive to show a smaller household size. The result will obviously be a higher number of “households” declaring themselves eligible for benefits, than what the government stipulates based on the common kitchen definition. Given that UID is an individual attribute and not a household one, there is little it can do about this.

Further, as far as the Public Distribution System (PDS) is concerned, a large part of the leakage happens before the foodgrains reach the PDS dealer. UID has little role in these distribution and delivery systems. Another major problem with the current targeted PDS is that the beneficiaries are incorrectly identified, with large inclusion and exclusion errors. That is, many poor families are not identified as being poor. Instead, the financially well off get the benefits. Will UID help in correcting this? No, because UID will only verify if the beneficiary exists and is unique; it will not be able to identify whether she is genuinely in the BPL category. This problem can only be resolved either by universalizing essential services such as food or by designing a foolproof system for identification. UID can do neither.

Responding to privacy concerns, the UID Authority of India (UIDAI) claims it is a voluntary, not mandatory, exercise. But linking it to programme delivery for MGNREGA or PDS in effect makes it mandatory if people want to benefit from these schemes. For UID to play any role in plugging leakages in these schemes, it is essential that the entire population is covered by it. But even with universal enrolment, UID might not be able to prevent corruption and leakages at the lowest level. Take the case of a well off influential household wrongly identified as BPL. This is perfectly plausible even with UID. The beneficiary strikes a deal with the PDS dealer to show that he has actually taken the grain, using the biometric identification. But the grain is instead diverted, with the beneficiary and the dealer sharing the difference between the PDS price and market price.

Similarly, in the case of lump sum benefits such as housing subsidy, bribery is more the rule than the exception. UID can do nothing to eliminate this, but will surely add to the cost of availing the subsidy by adding a layer of middlemen who will pocket charges for authenticating a person’s uniqueness.

Clearly, while the potential for UID in reducing leakages is small (assuming everything works), it may in fact be used to deny benefits to beneficiaries. There seem to be two reasons why UIDAI is selling itself to the millions of poor in the country. First, by doing so, it is actually creating a foundation (aadhaar) of legitimacy for itself against the valid criticism of it being misused, technologically unproven and costly. Second, the UID mechanism works on external registrars, the biggest of whom are PDS and MGNREGA. At this stage, UIDAI needs to piggyback on these schemes to reach a large number of people. It is then understandably important for it to claim itself to be the foundation for public service delivery.

Himanshu is an assistant professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University and a visiting fellow at Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi.

Comments are welcome at theirview@livemint.com

http://www.livemint.com/2010/09/15004015/The-foundations-of-Aadhaar.html?h=B

Biometric ID Scheme for 1.2 Billion Indians Meets Resistance

2010-09-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

A costly plan by the central government of India to create unique biometric identification numbers for every Indian is meeting stiff resistance from civil-liberties groups as the regime prepares to send swarms of officials across the nation this month to kick off the program.

The controversial ID numbers will include biometric data, fingerprints, iris scans, personal information, a microchip for easy scanning, and more. The scheme is being led by a new government agency called the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). It is expected to cost upwards of $3 billion, but as with all government projects, will likely be far more expensive.

"The UID is soft infrastructure, much like mobile telephony, important to connect individuals to the broader economy," software magnate and UIDAI boss Nandan Nilekani told the Inter Press Service news agency, claiming the poor would benefit most from the new identification system.

And indeed, one of the selling points for the new scheme is the notion that it will become easier to receive government handouts. "This will mean maids and laborers … a hundred or two hundred million people — will be able to access welfare benefits for the first time without any questioning who they are," Nilekani, one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people, told the U.K. Guardian.

But of course, there is a flip side to that as well. Several ulterior motives have been raised in regard to the project. For one, UIDAI chairman Nilekani has also been working on creating personal “carbon” accounts for all Indians. And as the Washington Post reported recently, the regime is also hoping the system will get more people paying income taxes. “National security,” of course, is another admitted purpose of the scheme.

Nilekani, however, defends the developing system. "The UID number, with its 'anytime, anywhere' biometric authentication, addresses the problem of trust," he claimed.

But not everybody agrees, and a broad coalition is putting up a fight under the banner of the Campaign For No-UID. Among the groups joining forces against the ID plan are, as reported by Inter Press Service, the Alternative Law Forum, Citizen Action Forum, People's Union for Civil Liberties, Indian Social Action Forum, and the Centre for Internet and Society.

The anti-ID coalition actually held a conference in New Delhi late last month. And the criticism came from all angles. Among the various arguments against the new system — it will be a treasure trove for identity thieves, massively expensive, and filled with glitches.

Another problem highlighted by critics is the fact that the system will be used for caste (a rigid class system that still exists in India) profiling, since the government decided to include caste as a category. And of course, accusations of “Big Brother” tracking and the creation of a “surveillance society” are running rampant. Some analysts are even speculating that the system could eventually be used for payments, possibly even to phase out cash transactions.

"There's already no accountability in regard to violations of human and civil rights,” Indian human-rights attorney Nandita Haskar told the Guardian. “In this atmosphere what are the oversight mechanisms for this kind of surveillance?"

Another lawyer working to stop the ID regime is Usha Ramanathan. "We do not want an intrusive, surveillance state in India," he told the Washington Post. "Information about people will be shared with intelligence agencies, banks and companies, and we will have no idea how our information is interpreted and used."

Even the press has called the system Orwellian. "It is surely the biggest Big Brother project yet conceived," wrote Rhys Blakely for the Times, a British newspaper. "If the cards were piled on top of each other they would be 150 times as high as Mount Everest — 1,200 kilometres." The Indian Financial Chronicle wrote about the scheme under the headline ‘Nilekani’s faceless Indian gets prisoner number.’

While registering for a biometric ID is still technically “voluntary,” the UIDAI is already working with state authorities, banks, telecom firms, driver’s license officials, insurance companies, and even health-care providers to ensure that all Indians must carry their IDs. There will be no way to avoid the system, and critics have pointed out that even domestic travel will become impossible without the ID in the near future.

Even officials with UIDAI admit that it will essentially be required. “The UID number may not be mandatory by law, but in the other sense it will be as in the US where people cannot move a step without the social security number where also it is not mandatory,” BB Nanawati, deputy director-general of the UIDAI, told the Financial Chronicle. “It will become necessary rather than mandatory.”

And it isn’t just humans who will get a “Unique Identification Number” (UID). “Since UID will potentially be used as a primary identifier in several transactions in the financial, health, food distribution, job creation schemes and transactions, it is important to assign an entity ID to the service delivery organization,” said an unnamed UIDAI official quoted by the Business Standard. “We plan to give every registrar an entity ID,” the official added.

Americans may consider the ID scheme preposterous, but a push to create a similar system in the U.S. has been gaining steam recently. As reported by The New American this April in an article entitled ‘Obama & Co. Want National Biometric ID,’ a “bipartisan” group of legislators is working with the administration to implement such an unconstitutional identification regime. Around the world, numerous other countries either already have or are working on similar schemes.

India, widely referred to as the world’s “largest democracy” with its 1.2 billion inhabitants, should reject this draconian identification system. The potential for abuse is enormous, while the benefits — if there are any — are negligible at best. But Americans, too, must remain on guard. A coalition of government power mongers and businesses with a financial interest in these sorts of schemes is building strength and gaining momentum around the world. And so, people must resist.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/asia-mainmenu-33/4585-biometric-id-scheme-for-12-billion-indians-meet-resistance

India Launches Universal ID System with Biometrics

2010-09-13T15:50:00.000-07:00

India has launched an ambitious program to fit each of its 1.2 billion residents with an Unique identification number (UID). Each number will be tied into three pieces of biometric data: fingerprints (all ten digits), iris scans (both eyes), and a picture of the face. Starting this month, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will begin processing people in various locations around the country. UIDAI aims to slowly roll out the program through February of 2011 and to ID 600 million people in the next four years! This is a mammoth program. While residents are not mandated to get a UID, a growing list of services including social welfare and even some bank accounts will soon require the identification number. If successful, this will be the first biometrically verified universal ID implemented on a national scale. India is forging new ground, drawing both fears and hopes of what a national ID number may bring with it.

Ostensibly the UIDAI was formed, and the idea of UID green-lighted, to help those 440 million Indian people who were found to be below the poverty level in 2002. The nation has an extensive series of social welfare programs – everything from medical support to home heating fuel subsidies – but many of these services are ripe with corruption and bureaucratic stagnation. Many of India’s poorest citizens do not have ID cards, bank accounts, or even addresses that they can use to register for social services. Often the money for these programs ends up in the hands of middle class families tricking the system by using false identification schemes. With the UID, India hopes to give every resident a means of accessing welfare services as well as cut down on fraud. To the UIDAI, the purpose of a national ID is to enable the government to get help to those who need it.

Yet the UID is going to be used for much more than social welfare programs. The UIDAI is in discussions with many institutions (banks, local/state governments, etc) to allow them to use the UID as a means of identity verification. These institutions will pay the UIDAI some fee to cover costs and generate revenue. There seems to be little doubt that once it is established, the UID will become a preferred method (if not the preferred method) of identification in India.

Fingerprinting for the UID will cover all digits on both hands.

There, of course, will be some advantages to this. Drivers from one state will not need, nor be able to, acquire licenses from another state as their information will be universally accessible in the national database. Migrant workers, displaced poor, and refugees can all be confident that their UID identifies them no matter where they go in their country.

Ultimately I wouldn’t be surprised if the UID, with its biometric data, could be used as a means of payment (when linked to a bank account), or as an access key to homes and cars. Purchase a meal with your fingerprint and unlock your door with the twinkle in your eye. Similar results could be expected in other nations that adopted biometric identification systems.

To privacy advocates, however, the very concept of a national ID number is anathema. Putting all the personal information in one system opens the possibilities that it can be used for nefarious purposes – everything from identification fraud to genocide. The inclusion of biometric data such as fingerprints and iris scans increase the accuracy of such a system but also lends it an air of oppressive technologically-enabled surveillance.

The UID will also include a photo of the face...but doesn't everything these days?

In order to alleviate some concerns, the UIDAI has highlighted ways that the UID is less binding than it may appear on the surface. First, they emphasize that acquiring the UID is not mandated. Though, as we’ve said, the number of benefits that will be exclusively offered through the UID will make it so desirable as to be effectively mandated. The UIDAI also points out that the UID is just a number, not an ID card. Each Indian state will still be responsible for issuing licenses and identification cards. While these cards are going to reference the UID, they may or may not contain the biometric data and other personal information gathered during UID registration. The actual UID number will not contain any intelligence; that is, it will not code for anything. It’s only a random string of digits, making it harder for hackers to exploit the system. UID’s will be given to every resident of India, no matter their citizen status.

The registration process has also been made transparent. When a resident is interviewed for the UID, they can see everything that the processor does via an outwardly facing computer screen attached to their laptop. Residents provide their name, date of birth, gender, father’s UID (if applicable), mother’s UID (if applicable), and address (if applicable). Fingerprints, picture, and iris scans are collected at the same time.

I understand the creepiness factor associated with a government agency registering everyone, giving them a number, and scanning their fingers and eyes. There’s some chilling Big Brother-like aspects to this whole affair. Yet the problem of insuring that resources make it to India’s poor is very real, and there’s the strong possibility that the UID will be empowering and democratizing to the 440 million Indians below the poverty level. It will take years before we know if the benefits of the UID program will outweigh the abuses it could create. The debate on privacy and national ID continues, but in India it looks like the UIDAI is already moving towards victory.

http://singularityhub.com/2010/09/13/india-launches-universal-id-system-with-biometrics/

UIDAI to go strict on issuing numbers

2010-09-13T15:43:00.000-07:00

The 12-digit unique identification (UID) number, or Aadhaar, will not have special numbers like 1947 or 1111 that can make the number susceptible to theft or misuse.

Apart from reserving two special values for the first and the last digits, the remaining digits of the number will be generated randomly when one requests a new ID, according to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which is commissioning the job of providing Aadhaars to every resident of the country.

“Historically significant numbers like 1947 will not be given and the first and last two digits of Aadhaar will not be the same. We will not allot VIP numbers to anyone. So, numbers like 1111 or 2222 will not be there,” said an official close to the development.

The UID number will not disclose personal information about the resident including the region, ethnic status and age. It will be a random number that makes guesswork virtually impossible. The number will be semantics-free.

The first digit of the unique number will be called an implicit version number and the last a check digit. The first 11 digits of Aadhaar should support 80 to 100 billion UIDs at the outset.

“Moreover, people can’t ask for numbers of their choice. It will be randomly generated and location agnostic. We will not give vanity numbers. So, you can’t ask for your car number as your UID number. It is only by chance that you may get that number. Also, there are restrictions like no number will be prefixed with zero,” the official added.

UIDAI had planned to issue the first UID number on September 1 in Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh but the rollout had been rescheduled and the first number is most likely to be given in Maharashtra.

To give every Indian a number, Team Nilekani has own number

2010-09-13T06:09:00.000-07:00

“Bhor hui jeevan mein. Shuru nai udaan. Mili hume pehchaan. Khule naye ab dwaar. Humara Aadhaar.”

A lone, distinct ektara tune leads into the official theme song for Aadhaar and as the tempo picks up, a medley of musical instruments from all parts of India — ravan hatha, madal, mridangam — lend a diversity that merges poetry with procedure, a melody that officials hope will grow on people, inducing them to register for their 12-digit unique identification (ID) number.

This is the clarion call to enrol for Aadhaar, a project of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chaired by Nandan Nilekani. Called Yeh Hai Meri Pehchaan, the official theme song for Aadhaar is due for formal launch this month-end by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The brief was precise: “Song should feel Indian. Key messages should be conveyed via lyrics. Song should be melodious.” But it was no easy task. It had to be infused with dignity, had to be inclusive of the diversity of India, but at no point sound like a propaganda song.

Incorporating all this in a three-minute song that she had to produce in less than a week’s time was a daunting yet exciting task for Preeti Sagar, the former Bollywood singer known for her Seventies Julie hit My heart is beating. UIDAI first thought of such a song for the project in August, and contacted the National Film Development Corporation.

Citing what Shakira’s Waka Waka did for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, UIDAI Deputy Director General Nirmal Kumar Sinha says that’s what they were looking for. “Aadhaar is a programme for the marginalised, neglected people... everyone. We wanted the song to address everyone.”

Sagar sat with K Shailendra, a native of Jhansi and a composer, at her Mumbai house on an August afternoon, trying to incorporate the process of UIDAI registration into poetry, yet conveying the message in simple words. After all, the target audience included everyone from a homeless family on Delhi’s streets to a CEO sitting in an upscale office.

“When we composed the part ‘Apne apne naam aayega’, we started thinking how this will happen. Then we thought about the process and the biometrics, and the lines started coming to us,” said Sagar, who produced the song along with sister Namita.

“We can’t say ‘take it’. This is a request... We sat over it. We thought about the people it would cater to. At every step, one was so nervous.”

When Sagar flew to Delhi to meet Sinha, he was impressed. The lyrics, he felt, not only fit the project’s purpose but also reflect its logo — a sun-and-thumb impression designed by Pune software engineer Atul Kumar Pandey.

But for “minor corrections”, said UIDAI Director General R S Sharma, they were “in the process of finalising the song”.

For composing the music, Sagar approached Rajat Dholakia, who had composed the music jointly with A R Rahman for the Genda phool song in Delhi 6. He is also credited with bringing Chhattisgarhi folk music to mainstream Bollywood.

Folk musicians from all regions were called for recording in the studio. They would use everything — from the traditional santoor, ektara, ravan hatha, mridangam, tabla, bansuri, dholak and madal to piano, strings, guitar and drums. The guitar and drums were meant to reach out to urban india and the affluent, groups they are finding difficult to reach out to given their low need for such an identification system.

“We didn’t use any electronic music. We wanted to cover the north, east, south, west, all of India,” says Sagar.

The song was sung by Javed Ali, who sang Jashn-e-bahaara in Jodha Akbar, and Richa Sharma, who lent her voice to Maahi Ve and Sajda numbers.

The song is also being translated into major Indian languages. A Telugu version, sung by Karunya and Apoorva, has already been recorded and now the team is working on a Marathi version as the official launch will be in Maharashtra. They are also working on the visuals, and will book radio and television spots.

While recording the song, Sagar said she placed her mobile phone in speaker mode to let her family hear it live. She needed their inputs. “They loved it,” she said.

UID isn't just a number, it is an identity: Nandan Nilekani

2010-09-11T15:51:00.000-07:00

In view of the fact that the first set of unique identification numbers are just a few weeks away, ET Now caught up with Nandan Nilekani, chairman, UIDAI, for his take on what is on the cards and what does getting a unique identification mean for the masses and how does it is going to benefit the society. Excerpts:

We hear that the first set of unique identification numbers are just only a few weeks away, is it?

That is right, a few weeks away.

How many weeks are we talking about here?

A few weeks.

Can you tell us about your target? You have a target of something like 600 million identification numbers in the next 5 years, isn’t it?

Yes, in the next 4 to 5 years. When this project started about a year back, we had said that we would start rolling out the numbers in 12 to 18 months. So we are well within that. It will be around 13-13.5 months we had made that announcement. So we should be on schedule.

What about costing? How much is it going to cost?

The cost is really based on budgets that are being given to us.

Your budget for this year is 1900 crore, isn’t it?

Yes, 1900 crore and we have an overall budget of about 3000 crore and we have basically committed to the first 10 million numbers. Fundamentally, it is great value for money because if you are able to give every Indian a number, it is not just about giving a number, it is about giving them an identity, it is giving them an acknowledgement of their existence by the state and that is really the main thing and it has huge social benefits.

What is this number really going to verify? What would it mean for me when I have it?

You just think of it as your mobile identity. Think of it like the mobile phone versus the landline. When we had a landline, you were fixed to a particular location. If I had to reach you, I have to know you are at home or in office. Now when I call you on your mobile, I do not care where you are. Your mobile number goes with you. So this is also a form of mobile identity, it travels with you and wherever you are we can verify about a person’s identity.

Does it then mean that if I want to open a bank account, then just quoting this number should be enough and that should take care of the KYC?

That obviously requires a little more regulatory changes but yes, the Reserve Bank and the Ministry of Finance are very supportive at least for accounts like no frills accounts, which are really meant for the poor and the impoverished to really participate in the banking system. They will look at how Aadhar number is sufficient for KYC which is a very important step forward which means anybody who has this number should be able to open at least a no frills bank account.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/interviews/UID-isnt-just-a-number-it-is-an-identity-Nandan-Nilekani/articleshow/6537880.cms

Cabinet nod for first caste census in 80 years

2010-09-09T15:35:00.000-07:00

Cabinet nod for first caste census in 80 years

NEW DELHI: The caste census is on. The contentious and often divisive debate over enumerating caste may linger, but the Union Cabinet on Thursday bit the bullet deciding to hold a caste-wise headcount, the first since 1931, which will be conducted from June-September in 2011 after the regular enumeration is over.

The decision to hold a separate enumeration based on caste seeks to balance the demand by OBC satraps for a caste count with the fear that doing so would affect the accuracy of numbers with caste groups trying to inflate their numbers in hopes of gains like bigger quotas.

Government has taken into account the possibility of claims being exaggerated and has planned to tally the results of the caste-wise count with the findings of the regular census as well as the details of the National Population Register (NPR) prepared on the basis of household surveys which have already been completed.

The decision will still be seen as a victory for the OBC lobby that pressured the government to reverse the decision not to use caste as an enumerating criterion and then, later, successfully resisted the plans to dovetail the caste count with the biometric stage.

The OBC lobbies are keen to frame their next round of reservation politics based on caste numbers as they are confident that backwards are a good deal more that 50% of the population. This can lead to demands to amend the Supreme Court ceiling of 50% on quotas. The flip side is that it could also spur calls for splitting reservations for sub-castes to the detriment of the "elite" among the Mandal castes which have a disproportionate share of reservation benefits.

In the meeting on Thursday, the proposal for the caste count did face some resistance, though much less than in earlier cabinet meetings. Minister for heavy industries Vilasrao Deshmukh pointed to the possibility of caste numbers being inflated, like in claims for reserving a certain constituency.

Minister for highways Kamal Nath pointed out the "status" of castes from one region to another.

OBC leaders had opposed the idea of doing a caste count at the biometric stage by expressing the fear that social conditions in many backward regions would deter backwards from reaching camps set up for the purpose.

The government, while appreciating the argument that unlike in the house-to-house survey it would be more difficult for OBCs to approach camps set up to record biometric information to record their caste, also had to keep in mind the need to ensure a correct headcount. There was a fear of numbers being inflated in a caste-cum-population count.

The way out of this dilemma -- approved by the cabinet on Thursday -- was a separate caste count after the current census operations are over. This would mean the NPR -- linked to the unique identification number project -- would be in place by the time caste enumeration begins.

The officials engaged in the caste count would visit households registered in the NPR and ask them to name their caste with the option not to do so as well. This way the integrity of the population numbers would be frozen before the caste count.

Objections have been raised to the separate headcount on grounds that it involves another Rs 2,000 crore and also because the June-September period coincides with the later part of summer and the entire monsoon. This might lead to an extended survey.

Read more: Cabinet nod for first caste census in 80 years - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cabinet-nod-for-first-caste-census-in-80-years/articleshow/6526794.cms#ixzz0z4fFEeTG

After individuals, organisations to enrol for unique entity IDs

2010-09-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

After individuals, now even institutions like government departments, schools and companies would get unique identification numbers (UIDs) to enroll the country’s residents for the UID system. These institutions or service delivery organisations would get a UID-like identifier, called Entity ID, which would help enrol people and deliver services.

“Since UID will potentially be used as a primary identifier in several transactions in the financial, health, food distribution, job creation schemes and transactions, it is important to assign an entity ID to the service delivery organisation. We plan to give every registrar an entity ID,” said an official from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the apex agency managing the UID project, which aims to give every resident of the country a unique identity.

For instance, in a financial transaction to transfer money for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the transfer will happen from the UID of a block-level NREGA entity to the UID of the resident to whom the amount is being transferred. This symmetric treatment of both to and from fields will simplify the end-to-end system.

The authority expects that entity ID numbers will have different rules for periods of validity and retirement. The registrars at the state level are the Departments of Rural Development (for NREGS) and Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs (for PDS). At the central level, these entities could be banks, LIC and oil marketing companies. As the National Population Register exercise is also going on, the Registrar General of India will also be a registrar for the purpose of collection of demographic and biometric data for the project.

“We want all the partners to be in the database and then they will verify the people who are being enrolled to the system. These entity IDs will be random numbers. This will be beneficial as the funding will directly go to the people for whom it is meant,” the official added.

UID kit ready, rollout soon

2010-08-31T02:37:00.000-07:00

New Delhi: Even as the decennial census exercise carries on in different parts of the country, Nandan Nilekani and his team at the UIDAI are getting ready to kick start what is perhaps an even more ambitious exercise, in giving out unique identification numbers to India’s 1.2 billion people. Well aware of all the possible glitches, technical and human, Nilekani is non-committal on a precise date for the rollout, but at least a select few people of India may have their first contact with the massive exercise as soon as in September.

Unlike in the census, there will be no paper wielding government employees knocking at doors. Instead, cities, towns and villages across India will witness and influx of enrollment officials (almost certainly not government employees), who will set up enrollment stations in different parts of the state, armed with the brand new UID kit.

The kit consists of 8 essential items packed into what looks like two medium-size suitcases—an iris scanner, a fingerprint machine, a camera, a laptop, a computer screen linked to the laptop, an Internet datacard/pipe, a memory stick and a printer. The laptop contains a bilingual software (English and the local language) that runs the whole ID process. The software links to the iris machine, fingerprint machine and the camera, recording biometric data and a photograph. The second computer screen is purely for the client who, in the interest of complete transparency, can watch exactly what is being recorded. The software contains a transliteration device so that data entries like name, address etc need be typed in only one language. There is automatic translation to the other language. That translation can be manually over ridden if there is a problem, with spelling for example.

Eventually, of course, the data is transmitted to the UIDAI database via a broadband pipe over the internet, or alternatively through a memory stick. There is a de-duplication process at the centralized database (all computerised of course) after which an unique ID number is issued. The client gets a printout of the details at the end of the process.

The former Infosys boss is supremely comfortable explaining the technology. That is unsurprising after his long stint in India's most successful IT company. Given the country's IT expertise should such a project have been conceived many years ago? “ Not really”,says Nilekani, “

New Delhi: affordable price is a relatively recent phenomenon. In that sense, the timing is perfect.”

But he realises that just having the right technology is not sufficient to roll out a project of this scale. “What we need to do is create an appropriate ecosystem”, says Nilekani, by which he basically means getting the incentives right for all those involved in the project. “Our team has spent much of the last year thinking this through”, he adds.

He explains there will essentially be a four-tier structure that will govern the actual handing out of UID numbers. At the Centre, there is the UIDAI, which is responsible for coordinating the whole exercise. The UIDAI will certify all the technology used across the country, and will hand out numbers from its centralised database. Operationally, it is the state governments that will take charge, and therefore have ownership of the project, on the ground. An important part of getting the ecosystem right. States, after all, often view central government programmes with suspicions if they do not have a genuine stake in them.

At level three, the state governments will work with authorised registrars (agencies of the state government like the PDS or NREG) who actually need the UID data for a particular purpose. At level four are the enrollment agencies (can be either privately or publicly owned, or even NGOs) that will actually collect the data. At the moment, the UIDAI has empanelled 220 enrollment agencies across the country.

The enrollment agencies are each required to buy the kit for collecting and transferring the data. "The equipment requires an investment of Rs 2 lakh. The cost will come down as competition and innovation among the suppliers increases,” says Nilekani. There are already multiple certified suppliers for each of the eight pieces of equipment, eschewing the kind of favourtism that usually goes on within the government system in awarding such contracts to a monopoly supplier. The UIDAI is willing to certify as many more technically qualified suppliers to make the system completely open to competitive forces---an important part of creating an appropriate ecosystem.

What is in it for all the agencies that have signed up to enroll people? After all, they have to spend Rs 2 lakh just to get the equipment. They actually have to spend even more because as Nilekani points out, the UIDAI requires them to get their operators trained and certified by one among a number of training agencies in turn certified by the UIDAI. “Right now the empanelment of the training agencies is done. It was done through an open process,” says Nilekani. Enrollment agencies of course have a choice will come down as to send their operators to the one giving them the best deal.

So, how do they make their profit? “The UIDAI will reimburse the Registrars at Rs 50 per person enrolled. We have a budget to enroll 100 million people.” says Nilekani. Do the states simply pass on this Rs 50 per person to the enrollment agency?

“Not necessarily. The registrar has the option of hiring any one of the 220 empanelled agencies to do their work. The state government can call for open bids and award contracts to those who offer the best terms,” says Nilekani. Another key element of getting the ecosystem right.

The UID is probably the one government scheme where every attempt as been made to align incentives in a position to promote efficiency and quality, just like in competitive free markets. Nandan Nilekani has clearly brought more than just technical expertise to his task in government. ...

Nilekani’s faceless Indian gets prisoner number

2010-08-30T07:54:00.000-07:00

Patancheru, a sleepy town in Medak district of Andhra Pradesh, has been witness to the test phase of history’s most ambitious human mapping endeavour ever, the unique identity project, UID.

The present exercise, named ‘proof of concept’ (PoC), is being described as ‘pilot for the pilot stage’. The actual pilot stage, or the first phase, is expected to kick off this week, when prime minister Manmohan Singh visits Tirupati on Wednesday to formally roll out the first lot of UID numbers with the official launch of Aadhar, as it has been branded for the masses.

By February next year, some 100 million “faceless Indians” would have entered the government’s database, validating or otherwise the execution and scalability of the operation. Right now, the PoC, which will also allot identity numbers to mapped citizens, is being tested in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Bihar.

Nothing much is known about the benefits of the programme that, in its first phase, will allot identity numbers, and not identity cards, to 600 million citizens by 2014, or almost a half of India’s 1.18 billion people.

Doubtless, the UID project is good in intent. It seeks to improve service delivery and public distribution system, as with ration cards, pension and healthcare, though its exact benefits are yet to be quantified. “We are presently hoping only to allocate UID numbers; a lot of benefits can come, but it depends on how the application is developed and implemented,” concedes BB Nanawati, deputy director-general of the UID Authority of India (UIDAI).

This is one reason why, aside from its noble intentions, sceptics and social scientists alike, among them Ashish Nandy and Adre Betielle, question the ethics of a concept that may end up alloting “prisoner numbers” to citizens, raising “prisoner of conscience” questions at the ‘PoC’ stage itself.

At the academic level, the biggest doubts relate to issues of human mapping and its potential misuse by authoritative governments, as well as the security of data and invasion of privacy by private sector profit seekers. On the ground, at a more human level, people this numbering programme seeks to target do not understand its purpose. And there probably lies its biggest challenge. More of that later.

“We carried out the PoC exercise in 10 regions of Andhra Pradesh, eight of them rural and two urban. The aim was to define biometric standards in the Indian context and to identify and weed out any technical glitches in the process of capturing the data,” Sreeni Tripuraneni, chairman and chief executive officer of 4G Identity Solutions (4G), a Hyderabad-based company, which implemented the ‘PoC’ in Andhra Pradesh, told Financial Chronicle.

The state has recently issued iris-based biometric cards to around 45.9 million citizens. The implementation of this project gave the state an edge over others and helped it being chosen for the PoC stage.

The test stage saw more than 2,000 people lining up in Patancheru, 36 km from Hyderabad, over three days in April, to submit biometric data, including facial image, fingerprints and iris scans. Personal identification information such as name, gender and age were also collected. The biometric data collection exercise was held twice over 56 days across the 10 locations. Clearly, not everyone was impressed with what happened.

Participants were led to believe that the first phase had been a failure, necessitating another round of data collection. Actually, this was not quite the case, but deliberately designed to be so. Clarifies Sudhanva Kimmane, director of Karnataka Comat Technologies, who is helping the neighbouring Karnataka government roll out its pilot project, “This programme is going to have two terms. PoA (proof of address) and PoI (proof of identity). One of those will be needed by the candidates to get their numbers.” Of course, the citizens know none of this.

Some residents of Patancheru were under the impression that cards akin to ration cards would be issued once the PoC phase ended. But that did not happen. What use just a number then, they seem to ask.

“We were not informed about the purpose of this data collection exercise. All that we were told was that it was very important to get oneself enrolled,” Lalitha, a housewife, said. Some complain about the scanty number of collection centres, which saw many people skipping the voluntary process. “Long queues at the data collection centres put us off. I did not participate as it meant wastage of valuable time,” says Shatrughna, a shopkeeper.

K Vijaylakshmi, member of DWCRA, a women’s self-help group and resident of Patancheru, complains, “We were not informed about the PoC happening here. We only came to know of it through friends.”

Looking at the unenthusiastic response in the first phase, the UIDAI decided to pay Rs 70 to each participant in the second phase to make up for the lost wages for the day. Critics say such inducements for what is essentially designed to be a voluntary programme betray the concept’s weakness and failure to convince the common man of its do-good philosophy. Apologists say the PoC, as the name suggests, is designed to identify and plug gaps and enhance learning, before being executed on a countrywide scale.

Next door in Karnataka, where a similar PoC exercise is on in Hommaragalli gram panchayat in HD Kote district, 180 km from India’s Silicon Valley, Bangalore, there is equally as much to learn, although local residents like Deveramma are more aware of the trickle-down effects of IT and the opportunities it has brought to her village youth.

In early May she along with her family members above 18 years was asked by the village accountant to visit the high school for finger printing and identity photographs. “We were told it was a central government scheme. Miss aashare loss aagathe (you will lose if you miss this opportunity),” we were told, Deveramma says, adding she is now waiting for the allotment of her unique number.

A veteran of ID programmes, Deveramma, who hasn’t quite heard of a man named Nandan Nilekani, already possesses a ration card, a Yeshasvani health card, a voter’s ID card and an NREGA card. She still made it a point to ask village officials and friends what this new identification parade was all about. Nobody gave her a convincing reply. “Everybody believes it will give us a lot of benefits,” she says.

If you look at it quite closely, Lalitha of Patancheru and Deveramma of Hommaragalli belong to the privileged lot. Wasn’t the unique identification conceptualised to give an identification to the faceless Indian, the dispossessed among the dispossessed? While that may well be true, it may not quite turn out that way, admits Nanawati.

We asked UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani, who first ideated the project in detail in his tome Imagining India, why the identity issue was turning out to be so and why the marginalised were not being allotted the numbers first. He gave a direct and matter-of-fact response: “The PoCs were undertaken to test the technology on ground and to test other aspects of the infrastructure. The rollout will be in the rural areas and the first set of people to get Aadhaar numbers will be people who require a form of identity.”

Nilekani also says UIDAI will start rolling out Aadhaar numbers in the next few weeks with multiple registrars which are mainly state governments, banks and financial institutions, of which some 220 enrolment agencies have already been empanelled by his authority across states and Union territories. “The rollout is based on the readiness and preparedness of the registrars. The state governments would be deciding the particular district in consultation with UIDAI based on their plan of action.”

UIDAI, Nilekani’s brainchild, was set up as he and his backers in the government believed the inability to prove identity was one of the biggest barriers preventing the poor from accessing benefits and subsidies. No nationally accepted, verified identity number exists that both the citizens and agencies can use with confidence. Different service providers often have different requirements of documentation they demand from citizens -- the forms that require filling out and the information they collect on the individual. Such duplication of effort and identity problems increase the overall cost of identification and cause inconvenience to the citizen.

“Undoubtedly it is going to be a Herculean task and a logistical challenge. We will make special efforts to reach out to groups who require the Aadhar number the most. It will take time. However, it is our priority,” says Nilekani.

Any process that uniquely identifies a resident and ensures instant delivery of a host of social welfare programmes, helps to eliminate duplicate identities and fraud. The entire process of unique identification involves biometric data collection, storage and analysis. Collectively, biometric technologies are defined as “automated methods of verifying or recognising the identity of a living person based on a physiological or behavioural characteristic.”

Free thinking liberals believe such data collection and analysis open up possibilities of manipulation both by the state and private vested interests. And the purpose of eliminating fraud may degenerate into a massive fraud on citizens instead. Says Ashish Nandy, political psychologist, social theorist and contemporary cultural and political critic: “This step of giving identity will lead to a more strictly regimented society. I am not in favour of this as this will lead to more surveillance and a censorship environment.”

India’s leading sociologist Andre Beteille is more circumspect. “The consequences are difficult to anticipate,” he says, “but I have faith in the capability and integrity of Nilekani. He is socially very conscious. My main area of discussions with him was that the caste and community difference should not be an essential component in the project.”

In mapping the scope of the Aadhar project and its democratic underpinnings, even Nanawati of UIDAI unintentionally betrays the extent to which number tagging can pervade a citizen’s life. “The UID number may not be mandatory by law, but in the other sense it will be as in the US where people cannot move a step without the social security number where also it is not mandatory. It will become necessary rather than mandatory,” he says.

That necessity could also make citizens hostage to private sector profit seekers. Though the number programme seeks to rely on a robust and alert security infrastructure, data theft and misuse can never be ruled out. Nanawati admits iris- and fingerprint mapping gives a high percentage of accuracy, but it could still be open to fraud, no matter how much improbable those chances are. Which is why Bob Jamieson, director of global operations at Life Safe and Security Underwriters Laboratories, says, “The standards should allow usage of changing technologies as fingerprint, facial geometry and hand geometry change with time and iris scan has medical concerns.”

Others believe that UIDAI’s standards are quite foolproof. M Hanmandhu of IIT Delhi’s electrical engineering department who has researched into biometrics, robotics, artificial intelligence and medical imaging, argues that UIDAI’s “minutia pattern” of iris scanning is foolproof and the manual pattern of biometric test is more reliable. “I do not think the iris and face can be spoofed easily if the updating process goes on accurately. Iris and face scan upgradation should be done in five to six years as this changes from time to time.”

There are other concerns relating to data theft as well. For one, UIDAI will store its biometric data in Bharti Airtel’s data centre, and not in the government or state-owned BSNL servers. Storage of data with private hosts leaves scope for data theft and invasion of privacy as is seen in sms advertising by real estate agents and sundry service providers, including prostitution rackets, despite strict Trai guidelines on the “do-not registry” to be maintained telecom operators.

While that may well be a long term concern, advocates of human number tagging say it gives us a real good chance to technology-leapfrog and bring the unaccounted for within the safety net. The programme to provide ID is an opportunity for India to design a 21st century system of identification that could be a significant improvement over the 19th and 20th century systems in use in the developed countries like the US and Italy. A good design for UID could last for centuries without changes.

The faceless Indian would soon find out.

Aadhaar to launch in the next few weeks, starts from Andhra

2010-08-24T16:38:00.000-07:00

Unique Identification Authority aims to issue the numbers to 100 million people in the current fiscal year

New Delhi: The government is ready to allot the first batch of unique identification (UID) numbers under a project that aims to give every Indian resident easier access to e-governance and a range of other services.

Residents of Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district will be the first to receive UID numbers from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the nodal agency for the Aadhaar project, a UIDAI official said.

“We are waiting for the Parliament session to get over as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has to inaugurate the launch,” he said, requesting anonymity. The session is scheduled to end on 27 August.

Set up in June 2009, UIDAI had promised to issue the first batch of UID numbers—based on residents’ personal and biometric details, such as fingerprints and eye scans—between August and February. Six other Andhra Pradesh districts will be covered in the initial phase.

Hyderabad-based V.S. Bhaskar, deputy director general of UIDAI, said 1,500 people from the state have already enrolled under the project. “The target for the state till March 2011 is 3 crore (30 million) numbers,” he said.

UIDAI aims to issue the numbers to 100 million people in different parts of the country this fiscal year.

Users will eventually have to use the UID number to access government services such as the public distribution system for essential food items, as well as welfare programmes such as the rural job guarantee scheme. The number will also allow residents who do not have passports, driving licences or other forms of identification—particularly people from rural areas—open bank accounts, apply for loans and access other financial services.

UID numbers will be sent out as letters to each resident. One part of the letter will carry the resident’s name, address and the 12-digit UID number. The second part will have the resident’s photograph along with personal details such as sex and date of birth, and a linear barcode that contains the UID number.

R.S. Sharma, director general of UIDAI, said residents can cut out the second part and carry it along with them, precluding the need to remember their UID number. The barcode can also be read by a barcode reader, lessening the chance of errors that may creep in if the number is being entered manually.

“We are in no way making it mandatory for people to carry around the letter,” he added. “The cut-out portion and the barcode has been conceptualized only to help illiterate people or those who can’t remember the number to use their unique identities effectively.”

Ernst and Young is an adviser to the project. Sunil Chandiramani, partner and national leader, government services, at the audit and consulting firm, said UIDAI wanted to use technology to ensure that all residents benefit from the Aadhaar project.

This, he said, is why the nodal agency decided to send out UID numbers simply inside a letter with a barcode, instead of issuing “UID cards” that could be used like credit cards.

“Use of cards, with smart chips and other magnetic storage, would have been restrictive in nature and hindered the quick adoption of UID—especially in the far-flung villages of the country,” he said. “Also, if a person lost the card, it would be an issue.”

The UIDAI is also mulling allowing online verification of UID numbers using the so-called cloud computation technology, as reported by Mint on 24 August. If it decides in favour of this still-evolving technology, the government would just pay usage-based fee for Internet-based storage and processing of Aadhaar-related data, rather than set up its own information technology (IT) infrastructure.

Banks, telecom companies and other service providers who want to verify a client’s identity would then be able to simply send their UID number and biometrics for online verification.

Iris Scanners Create the Most Secure City in the World, Welcome Big Brother

2010-08-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

We've all seen and obsessively referenced Minority Report, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Philip K. Dick's dystopian future, when the public is tracked everywhere they go, from shopping malls to work to mass transit to the privacy of their own homes. The technology is here--I've seen it myself. And it's seen me--and scanned my irises.

Announced today, biometrics R&D firm Global Rainmakers Inc. (GRI) is rolling out its iris scanning technology to create "the most secure city in the world," according to the company. In a partnership with Leon, one of the largest cities in Mexico with a population of more than 1 million, GRI will fill the city with eye-scanners that will help law enforcement--and soon marketers--revolutionize the way we live.

"In the future, whether it's entering your home, opening your car, entering your workspace, getting a pharmacy prescription refilled, or having your medical records pulled up, everything will come off that unique key that is your iris," says Jeff Carter, CDO of Global Rainmakers, who, before coming to GRI, headed a think tank partnership between Bank of America, Harvard, and MIT. "Every person, place, and thing on this planet will be connected within the next 10 years."

Leon is the first step. To implement the system, the city is creating a database of irises. Criminals will automatically be enrolled, their irises scanned once convicted, while law-abiding citizens will have the option to voluntarily opt-in.

Soon, when residents of Leon catch a train or bus, or take out money from an ATM, they will scan their irises, rather than swiping a metro or bank card. Police officers will monitor these scans, and track the movements of watch-listed individuals. "I'm not sure about violent crime yet, but fraud, which is a $50 billion problem, will be completely eradicated," explains Carter, who jokes that not even the "dead eyeballs" seen in Minority Report could trick the system. "If you've been convicted of a crime, in essence, this will act as a digital scarlet letter. If you're a known shoplifter, for example, you won't be able to go into a store without being flagged. Certainly for others, boarding a plane will be impossible."

GRI's scanning devices are currently shipping to the city, where integration with infrastructure will begin with law enforcement facilities and security check-points, police stations, and detention areas. Phase II will focus more on commercial enterprises, with scanners rolling out to mass transit, medical centers, banks, and many more public and private locations.

The devices range from large-scale scanners like the Hbox, which is featured in the above airport-security prototype and can snap up to 50 people per minute in motion, to smaller scanners like the EyeSwipe and EyeSwipe Mini, which can capture the irises of between 15 to 30 people per minute.

Last week, I tested these devices at GRI's R&D facilities in New York City. It took less than a second for my irises to be scanned and registered in the company's database. After, every time I went through the scanners--even when running through (everybody runs, right Tom Cruise?)--my eyes were scanned and identified correctly. (You can see me getting scanned on the Hbox in the video below. "Welcome Austin," the robotic voice chimes.)

For such a Big Brother-esque system, why would any law-abiding resident ever volunteer to scan their irises into a public database, and sacrifice their privacy? GRI hopes that the immediate value the system creates will alleviate any concern. "There's a lot of convenience to this--you'll have nothing to carry except your eyes," says Carter, citing how of-age consumers will no longer be carded at bars and liquor stores. "And it's interesting: When you get masses of people opting-in, opting out does not help. Opting out actually puts more of a flag on you than just being part of the system. We believe everyone will opt-in."

This vision of the future eerily matches Minority Report, and GRI knows it. "Minority Report is one possible outcome," admits Carter. "I don't think that's our company aim, but I think what we're going to see is an enviroment well beyond what you see in that movie--minus the precogs, of course."

When I asked what he thought of the film, and whether he realized it was intended as a dystopian view of our privacy's future, Carter pointed out that much of our private life is already tracked by telecoms and banks, if not Facebook. "The banks already know more about what we do in our daily life--they know what we eat, where we go, what we purchase--our deepest secrets," he says. "We're not talking about anything different here--just a system that's good for all of us." One potential benefit? Carter believes the system could be used to intermittently scan truck drivers on highways to make sure they haven't been driving for too long.

GRI also predicts that iris scanners will help marketers. "Digital signage," for example, could enable advertisers to track behavior and emotion. "In 10 years, you may just have one sensor that is literally able to identify hundreds of people in motion at a distance and determine their geo-location and their intent--you'll be able to see how many eyeballs looked at a billboard," Carter explains. "For the first time you can start to track from the point a person is browsing on Google and finds something they want to purchase, to the point they cross the threshold in a Target or Walmart, and actually make the purchase. You start to see the entire life cycle of marketing."

So will we live the future under iris scanners and constant Big Brother monitoring? According to Carter, eye scanners will soon be so cost-effective--between $50-$100 each--that in the not-too-distant future we'll have "billions and billions of sensors" across the globe.

Goodbye 2010. Hello 1984.

It's decided: Census to count caste

2010-08-07T20:27:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI: Despite the polarising response it evokes, the ongoing census is almost certain to enumerate caste. The pressure of other backward castes (OBC) groups, which have asserted themselves strongly in all political parties, is set to prevail over misgivings about a new wave of caste-based politics.

A group of ministers headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will take a formal view on enumeration of caste after receiving the views of all political parties but the die seems to be cast. What needs to be now resolved is at what stage of the census this will be done and how the question would be framed.

Going by discussions in government so far, an enumeration of all castes might be on the cards. This would mean a comprehensive caste count that will tell what proportions of the population various sections represent, the first authentic figures after the 1931 census. Till now, NSSO and BPL surveys have provided a partial picture.

The only meeting of the GoM held so far had seen some differences in opinion with ministers like Salman Khursheed (minority affairs) and Mukul Wasnik (social justice and empowerment) backing a caste count while Kapil Sibal (HRD) differed. Defence minister A K Antony said he did not believe in caste. The meeting decided to ask parties to send in their views.

One of the issues raised at the meeting was that enumerating sub-castes would create a more fragmented polity with caste interests lobbying for proportionate quotas within broader categories like OBC, something that is already evident.

But such apprehensions as well as the argument that a caste count would not be able to change the Supreme Court-mandated 50% quota ceiling, have been swept aside by the political reality of OBC interests, particularly in north India. The OBC parliamentary forum has only recently given a fresh memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to press for a caste count.

Apart from the OBC forum, JD(U) and RJD leaders Sharad Yadav and Lalu Prasad met finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to remind him of assurances offered to them by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi during the Budget session of Parliament. The BJP, too, has decided to reiterate the position outlined by Gopinath Munde -- an OBC leader -- in Parliament in support of a caste count.

BJP has raised a question over the integrity of the census and this has been considered by the home ministry as well. To rule out exaggerated claims, it is felt caste information could be recorded in the last stage of the census when biometric information will be gathered. This way the next stage due to begin in February 2011, will be just the headcount. The first stage, the household and family survey, is over.

Though the government has a window till the end of the year to make up its mind, it will find it extremely difficult to retrace its steps on a caste census without risking a major showdown with OBC groups. Thought is being given as to whether a compromise is possible with some sort of a halfway house where sub-castes are not listed. But with state lists at variance with the Centre, an all caste count may be inevitable.

OBC leaders see the census as an important step towards legitimising their claims to quotas as they have argued that backwards constitute between 52-54% of the population. The NSSO has pegged OBC population in rural areas at 38.5%, a claim that OBC leaders dispute.

The GoM on the caste census has some time to finalise its views as it will consider the responses of parties and changes in either the headcount form or in the biometric procedures are not time consuming. There is still time for the registrar general to effect changes in keeping with the government's decision. The GoM report will be considered by the cabinet.

PROTECTING AADHAAR AGAINST OPPOSITION

2010-07-18T13:18:00.000-07:00

Last week, the finance ministry denied reports, citing unnamed government officials, on the front pages of two national dailies claiming that the government had decided to prune the budgets for India’s marquee initiative to provide every resident with a unique identity (UID) number.

While the formal denial put the lid on a potential controversy, it is unlikely to have dampened resistance to the project from within sections of the government as the programme, Aadhaar, begins to gain critical mass. Some sections of the government have for long been bristling against the project, but have been unable to come up with a credible counter argument.

The resistance is not surprising; any good idea that seeks to change status quo in the delivery of government services and subsidies is bound to be challenged by the entrenched order. So far, the supporters of Aadhaar in the government have been ahead of the opposition. But from two recent challenges faced by the project, it is clear that the resistance cannot be taken lightly and is likely to recur as the project comes closer to fructification.

Aadhaar is barely a year old. Its mission is to develop and implement the requisite infrastructure that will enable allotment of unique identity numbers to Indian residents that can be verified online. The roll-out is expected to begin sometime after August.

The first serious challenge came from a group of non-profit organizations that warned that they would make out a legal case to spike the initiative they perceived as a threat to individual privacy. The basis of this was rendered redundant after the government signalled its intent to enact, for the first time, a law to safeguard individual privacy. It will include specific rules that will fix the criminal liability of offenders.

The government then followed up by including similar penal provisions in the draft National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010, that it proposes to introduce in the monsoon session of Parliament due to begin on 26 July. To protect against misuse of an individual’s data, including fingerprints and eye scans, the legislation lays down that misuse can lead to a three-year jail term and a fine of Rs10,000; further unauthorized collection or dissemination of an information pertaining to an individual will invite a similar jail term or a fine of Rs1 lakh, or both.

The latest challenge, however, may have resulted in some indirect damage to Aadhaar. The inspired leaks from some government officials sought to convey that the plug was being pulled on Aadhaar. For one, they have definitely flagged attention to the underlying costs of the programme. In the process they have raised the stakes for Aadhaar; unsuccessful implementation is not an option any longer. This is unfair, yet a clever strategy on the part of those opposed to the initiative.

It is something that has never been attempted before; and, the sheer scale of the operation in providing a UID based on biometrics to over one billion residents is staggering by any standards. Already the odds are against it, raising expectations only increases the stakes involved.

At the same time, worryingly so, an idea has gained ground that Aadhaar would be like the proverbial magic wand that would in one stroke resolve everything that is wrong with the public delivery system. Theoretically yes, but in practice there are imponderables. The risk to Aadhaar is that given the build-up of expectations, this failure, too, would accrue to it.

This is because it depends on what the growing list of stakeholders—ranging from state governments and the Reserve Bank of India to arms of the Central government that are paying out subsidies and funding the rural employment guarantee scheme—in Aadhaar seek to do with the information. All that Aadhaar does is to provide a unique identity number to every resident and it is for the concerned agency to use that information. For example, it is for the home ministry to verify whether a foreign national holding a unique number is a legal resident of the country. If it chooses not to do so, then it is the home ministry’s failure and not that of Aadhaar.

The proposal has gone through several hoops before being articulated as a formal initiative under the leadership of Infosys Technologies Ltd co-founder Nandan Nilekani three years after it was first initiated. The concept was first discussed as a “Unique ID for BPL (below poverty line) families” on 3 March, 2006, and was entrusted to the information technology ministry to execute in a year. However, on 3 July 2006, a processes committee was set up under the chairmanship of Arvind Virmani, then principal adviser in the Planning Commission and at present executive director for India at the International Monetary Fund. Thereafter, it went back and forth between various committees and got its stamp of approval from an empowered group of ministers in 2008, setting the stage for the notification to be issued for the formal creation of the Unique Identification Authority of India on 22 January, 2009; Nilekani took charge after the United Progressive Alliance retained power in the 15th general election in April-May 2009.

At this stage, despite the challenges, the odds look just about stacked in its favour, suggesting that Aadhaar is an idea whose time has come.

Project Aadhar moves forward despite opposition from sections of the government.

2010-07-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

The Identification card to be issued to the India’s poor, runs into more political deadlock as the government battles with the Unique Identification Authority of India.

The Unique Identification Authority of India, headed by Mr. Nandan Nilekani had previously propped that a sum of Rs. 100 be given to the poor as an incentive, tempting them into applying for the ID card. The reality is that, of the 60 crore Indians who are expected to apply got the ID card, most will not. There are a variety of reason why. Awareness is one. Suspicion is the other. Many people will be unsure how this ID card will make matters better for them. Hence the Incentive. The Unique Identification Authority of India felt that the incentive will ensure that the estimated 60 crore will apply for the card.

However, the Expenditure Finance committee of the Finance Ministry said it will not sanction the 6,700 crores that the project has budgeted for Phase I. The committee said that it is willing to sanction 3,500 crores, which the project must use to make ID cards for 10 crore Below Poverty Line (BPL) Indians in the next 18 months.

Sources from the Government said that the differences were not purely monetary. The politicians disliked the entry of a private sector person, Mr. Nandan Nilekani, into the fray. This sentiment is, however only shared by a few. Several other Ministers and eco – political experts say the working of an outsider might actually help to get the work done.

In the meanwhile, Project Aadhar is showing all signs of progressing steadily. Work has been started on linking UID data with food security and the public distribution system, the NREGA payments, and with the government’s stated aims on financial inclusion. The success of this project is essential for the central government, as it is a big step forward into the integrations and development of a huge, erstwhile neglected section of India’s population.

Mizos uncooperative in census for fear of devil warned of fine

2010-06-19T05:14:00.000-07:00

Quote:

The Mizoram government warned people that they were liable to imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of Rs 1,000 if they refused to cooperate with census officials on grounds of religious belief. An official statement said that a meeting of officials engaged in the census operation chaired by Chief Secretary Van Hela Pachuau, decided to make one last attempt to persuade the families of their unfounded fear of the 'beast' or the devil.

It said they would be warned of punitive action and that punishment should be imposed if they continue to refuse to enroll their names in the Census and the National Population Register (NPR).

According to reports of deputy commissioners, there were 1,355 families that refused to have their members' names enrolled in the ongoing census for fear of being marked with 'the number of the beast' if they accept the Unique Identification (UID).
There were over 400 such families in Aizawl district, 328 in Kolasib, 173 families in Lawngtlai, 167 families in Champhai, 106 families in Lunglei, 50 families in Serchhip, 64 families in Saiha and 15 families in Mamit.

Incidentally, among those who had refused to enroll their names were 20 government officials, with only two agreeing to it after strong persuasion by authorities involved in the process.

The fear of being identified with the 'number of the beast' stems from the Bible's Revelation chapter 13 Verse 17 which says "... and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name."

The Unique Identification Authority of India stipulates that no one can buy or sell property without the UID card among its other key uses.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Fear-of-the-Devil-holding-up-census-in-Mizoram/634530

http://www.morungexpress.com/regional/50522.html

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/mizos-fear-the-devil-shun-census/124517-3.html?from=tn

Fear of the Devil holding up census in Mizoram

2010-06-18T06:06:00.000-07:00

Aizawl: The fear of the 'Beast' or the Devil in the Christian-dominated state of Mizoram has caused almost 1,000 families to refuse to enroll their names in the National Population Register (NPR) taken up along with the Census 2011 here from May 15.

The dread stems from Chapter 13 Verse 17 of the Book of Revelations in the Bible which says "... and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark or the name of the Beast or the number of his name."

The problem has stemmed from the Unique Identification Authority of India stipulating that none one could buy or sell property without the Unique ID card.

According to adherents of the belief, since buying or selling of property made one a follower of the Beast, one having the UID card, which authorised property transactions, automatically made one a follower of the Devil.

Civil society opposes caste-based census

Those refusing to be enumerated belong to the Mizoram Presbyterian Church and the Baptist Church of Mizoram.

Champhai District Magistrate Vijay Kumar Bidhuri said when he summoned Lalzawna the leader and high priest of a sect he was told that his religious belief would not permit him to register his name and he was ready to face any punishment.

Serchhip Deputy Commissioner H said that adherents of the belief claimed they had the religious freedom to disobey the government and were not afraid of punitive action.

"They are not afraid of being prosecuted for their beliefs as they are more afraid of being identified with the Devil," one enumerator said.

The highest decision making body of the largest Church in the state on June 13 issued a message to all members asking them to cooperate with census officials as it was the duty of every citizen to do so.

"We (the believers) should not be afraid of the Beast (Devil), rather the Beast should be afraid of us as we believe in God who is more powerful," the message said.

The Church said that UID was important to identity bona fide citizens of the country and also help in identifying illegal immigrants and terrorists.

The Church also condemned people who were issuing booklets about the 'Number of the Beast' to terrify church members.

The message of the Presbyterian Church was read out in all church branches in the state, but there were still some who were skeptical, a church elder said.

Enumerators were instructed by District Magistrates of all the eight districts in the state to identify those refusing to cooperate on religious grounds.

Census workers find SC man who had fallen in home

The reports lying with five District Magistrates indicated that there were 939 families who have refused to have their names registered in the NPR, official sources said.

Aizawl district has the largest number of of 483 families including 132 from Aizawl city followed by 158 families in Champhai district.

Serchhip district 5 families and Lawngtlai district 130 families, while there were 33 families in Kolasib district refusing to be enumerated, the sources said.

District Magistrate Bidhuri convened a meeting for people who refused to cooperate with the census officials on June 11 where only two persons, after being given explanations, agreed to cooperate with officials.

The rest refused to budge from their stand even after the authorities told them that they could be fined up to Rs 1,000 and liable for imprisonment of up to three years.

They were also informed that they could be deprived of their right to franchise, ration cards, works under NREGS and other benefits from the government.

"As they have refused to believe our explanations, we may be left with no other option, but to take punitive action against them," one official said.

Caste-ing the dice: India's dangerous gamble

The fear of the Beast is not new among Mizo Christians as many of the sects and cults have refused to enroll their children in school believing enrolment would make them adherents of the Devil.

Many have refused to have ration cards to avail rice at a cheaper rate on the same grounds even though most of them belonged to poorer sections of the society.

A grass-roots challenge to the UID project

2010-05-29T04:43:00.000-07:00

Awareness is the first challenge the ambitious programme has encountered at the grass-roots level and while it will encounter more challenges, this is something the UIDAI, which oversees Aadhaar, needs to address quickly as it increases the scale and scope of its effort.

Karen Leigh

Kibbanahalli, Karnataka: One humid day in May, in a small building off the main road, Manjola, a farm worker, sat at a small wooden table, pressing her fingers, one at a time on an electronic pad that scanned and stored her prints.

She is among the first Indians to be enrolled in the unique identity programme (UID), or Aadhaar, which seeks to provide at least 600 million residents with a universal government identity by 2011.

The only problem is that Manjola knows nothing about the programme in which she is being registered.

Awareness is the first challenge the ambitious programme has encountered at the grass-roots level and while it will encounter more challenges, this is something the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which oversees Aadhaar, needs to address quickly as it increases the scale and scope of its effort.

Manjola hadn’t heard of Aadhaar or UIDAI.

“No one has told me anything about it. I don’t know who’s in charge of it,” she said, leaning forward in her chair as her retinas are scanned, the second and final step in the biometric data gathering process. “My children’s school teacher told me there was a programme to give my children an ID, so I came because I knew that would be good for them.”

Aadhaar met its initial target in this part of Karnataka; at least 2,200 residents of Kibbanahalli—and 25,000 in the Tumkur district—registered for the 12-digit Aadhaar numbers in a “proof of concept” study, a test ahead of the programme’s national roll-out, from August through next February.

Similar tests were carried out in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.

The month-long Tumkur project, which concluded on Thursday, showed two or three clerical mistakes per 100 registrants.

“There will be mistakes because it’s early on,” said Raju S.K., a teacher who participated in both rounds of the test. “My name was written wrong; a wrong initial.”

But the larger issue, if Tumkur is any indication, is awareness, especially among the rural poor whom UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani has said will be the programme’s biggest beneficiaries.

The UIDAI’s communication and awareness team plans a large-scale education push for the weeks leading up to the test’s start in August.

But with limited trained personnel on the ground, it could be an uphill battle.

Vijay Mahajan, chairman of Hyderabad-based Basix, which works to promote microfinance innovation in rural areas, said that in the absence of a structured education programme, word of mouth among rural residents would be crucial.

“The first few million people who get a UID will end up educating their neighbours, and slowly it will spread,” he said. “They won’t know it conceptually, or just because they enrolled. They’ll know about it after they’ve had some experience using it.”

In Kibbanahalli, the only visible sign of Aadhaar’s presence was one UIDAI sign, set far back from the road at the door to an enrolment site.

At another centre where data was being collected, there was no signage and no lighting. Several residents waiting in line to have their biometrics recorded said they didn’t know what a unique identity was and had never heard of Nilekani or the project.

During the early stages, turnout was so thin in Kibbanahalli that local officials began doing everything in their power to draw in registrants.

Adarsha S.S., a programme supervisor in Tumkur, said this included the practice of telling residents to bring their government-issued ration cards to one of the Aadhaar enrolment sites, without first telling them that once there, their fingerprints and retinas would be scanned for a UID.

“People came on a small scale before, during the first round,” he said. “Then we told them to bring their ration cards, and they began coming more.”

Nanja Muri, the village accountant in Kibbanahalli, highlighted the dearth of manpower in rural areas.

He said that only district revenue inspectors—in Tumkur, he added, there is only one overseeing 48 villages—had been sufficiently trained by government officials to educate residents, and that village accountants in the district had taken it upon themselves to spread the word among residents.

Muri’s own grass-roots effort included a small musical band that walked the streets, drawing people out of their homes to explain the fundamentals of UID and provide them with application forms.

Kathye Yini, a local housewife who had just been registered for a unique identity, said she had learned of the programme through Muri, who knocked on her door one night.

She added that it was her neighbours—and not government officials—who were responsible for her limited knowledge of the programme’s benefits.

When asked about the impact a UID would have on her life, she only knew that, unlike the ration and voter ID cards she currently possessed, a UID would give her proof of address if she travelled outside Karnataka.

UIDAI officials are not surprised about the initial responses.

“It’s a slim organization compared to the width and breadth of India,” said K.K. Sharma, assistant director general of UIDAI’s regional office in Bangalore. “We were expecting teething mistakes.”

He said that by August, fewer than 30 UIDAI staffers would be working in the regional headquarters in Bangalore, overseeing three states, two Union territories and at least 150 million residents.

Sharma declined comment on the issue of lack of publicity.

However, an official, who did not want to be named, said that the proof of concept was only meant to be a technical test of the biometric machines and overall enrolment process, and not meant to be about explaining the programme to people. In the next month, UIDAI’s awareness council will be submitting its report on the communication strategies it should employ to increase awareness among rural residents.

Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, who has opposed the programme as well as the government’s decision to have Nilekani head it, said it was troubling that residents did not comprehend why they were providing their personal information.

Basix’s Mahajan said that given the advantages the programme would eventually bestow on them, people would learn, though it would be of their own accord.

“When the first woman to be registered for a UID in a village sticks her finger on a biometric device and is able to access banking with it, she’ll get excited and will tell her friends,” he said. “And thus UID will spread.”

karen.l@livemint.com

Home proposes caste count after census

2010-05-25T12:22:00.000-07:00

Revising its stand on the issue of caste census, the Union home ministry has said that the best time to go for a caste based headcount—if there is a decision to that effect—would be after tabulation of census figures and during the biometric capture phase when photographs, fingerprints and iris mapping of citizens for the National Population Register is done.

The ministry has given its view in an amended note that will be put up for discussion before the Cabinet on Wednesday. This is a major shift in position since it had vehemently opposed caste-based census in an earlier note. It also reflects the realisation, in the backdrop of the recent debate in Parliament on the issue, that there is a wider political constituency favouring it.

At his press conference on Monday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that a decision on caste census would be taken by the Cabinet after taking note of the opinion expressed during the Parliament debate. The note for the Cabinet states that the caste data collected will be anonymised, i.e. anonymity will be preserved like in the case of AIDs screenings. It has, though, suggested that this job be entrusted to the ministry of social justice and empowerment and the ministry of tribal affairs or be examined by an expert group. The reason, it says, is because neither the Census Commission of India (CCI) nor the Office of the Registrar General (ORG) has the expertise to classify caste returns in such manner.

The MHA note poses two questions for the perusal of Cabinet ministers. One, whether the policy decision of not collecting and publishing data on castes other than SC and ST should be reversed and a question on caste be included in the questionnaire for Census 2011 to be conducted from February 9 to 28. And two, whether the question on caste should be taken up when biometrics—photographs, iris mapping and fingerprinting—is done.

“On balance, if a decision is to canvass question of caste, the best time to do so is during the biometric capture phase of National Population Register as headcount will be completed by then,” the note says. Since everyone who is above 15 years will have to be present at the camps where the biometrics will be taken, taking their caste details would be easier, it says. Details of all those below the age of 15 could be taken from the head of the household....

Think about it....

2010-05-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

Computerized Gods - And the Age of Information

2010-05-18T08:50:00.000-07:00

J. Weizenbaum Ph.D.

One of the most distinguished computer scientists in the world today, Prof. J. Weizenbaum is known for his major contributions to the field of Artificial Intelligence. He authored the famous ELIZA program (fore-runner of DOCTOR and other similar programs) which startlingly demonstrated the possibilities for building 'intelligent effects' into a computer through programming. Weizenbaum is also the author of Computer Power and Human Reasoning from Calculation to Judgement in which he critically examines the far-reaching social implications of research and philosophical assumptions regarding artificial intelligence.

Prof. Weizenbaum obtained his Ph.D. degree from the Wayne State University in Detroit. After a few years in the industry, he entered the Massachussets Institute of Technology where he has held faculty positions since 1955. He is currently a professor in the department of Computer Sciences at MIT. His current research interests include Artificial Intelligence and social implications of computing and cybernetics.

As many have observed, modern science has become a religion, at least for Western man. Like other religions, it has a priesthood, roughly organized on hierarchical lines. It has temples, shrines, and rituals and it has a body of canons. And. like other religions, it has its own mythology. One myth in particular states that if, say, by experiment a scientific theory is confronted in reality with a single contradiction, one piece of discontinuing evidence, then that theory is automatically set aside and a new theory that takes the contradiction into account is adopted. This is not the way science actually works.

In fact, some people have the same type of very deep faith in modern science that others do in their respective religions. This faith in science, grounded in its own dogma, leads to a defense of scientific theories far beyond the time any disconfirming evidence is unearthed. Moreover, disconfirming evidence is generally not incorporated into the body of science in an open-minded way but by an elaboration of the already existing edifice (as, for example, by adding epicycles) and generally in a way in which the resulting structure of science and its procedures excludes the possibility of putting the enterprise itself in jeopardy. In other words, modem science has made itself immune to falsification in any terms the true believer will admit into argument.

Perhaps modern science's most devastating effect is that it leads its believers to think it to be the only legitimate source of knowledge about the world. Being a high priest, if not a bishop, in the cathedral of modern science— my university, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology —I can testify that a great many of what we sometimes like to call "the MIT family," faculty and students, believe that there is indeed no legitimate source of knowledge about the world other than modern science. This is as mistaken a belief as the belief that one cannot gain legitimate knowledge from anything other than religion. Both are equally false.

Until recently, modern science, seen as a religion, lacked a deity suitable as an object of worship. The machine, which is generally pictured as something that has gears, moving parts, and so on, has existed for a long time now. To modern man the machine certainly represents power, control, mastery over nature-in other words, attributes a worshipable deity should have. But the machine lacks mystery. In fact, it often demystifies in the sense that people believe that most anything can be transformed, metaphorically at least, into the form of a machine and then understood as such. The machine has become an almost universally applicable metaphor that demystifies both itself and the thing to which it refers. This thinking holds true for both intellectuals of all persuasions as well as for ordinary people. Perhaps most people today think a thing is not understood until it has been reduced to a mechanical process.

I think that this phenomenon has contributed to science's inability to provide an idol which the faithful can worship as truly representative of their common faith. Now recently, within my lifetime, the computer has appeared, and it seems to me that the computer fills that need. Modern man has seen that machines which physically destroy and reconstruct his environment — the steam-shovel, for example — are made in his own image. The steam-shovel has an arm and a hand, and it digs into the ground, picks up objects and so forth. Clearly, it is a kind of imitation of a certain aspect of man. But the computer takes things a step farther. When instructing a computer to think (if I may use that term for a moment) in imitation of human thought, we cross a subtle line. Artificial Intelligence top

Generally speaking, before writing a computer program, one believes that one knows how to solve the presenting problem and how to instruct the computer in such a way as to cause it to do what one has in mind. This is not always an easy task. Programs often don't work properly and have to be debugged. That is, errors have to be removed — usually a long process. It's a process of writing, and while writing, one learns. One sits down, believing one knows just what it is one wants to write, just how to program the computer, and in the act of attempting to give instructions, one discovers that one lacks understanding. In this way, one's knowledge may be improved just by the attempt to program a computer. In any case, once the computer is properly instructed, there is certainly a feeling — and I think it has some solidity — that the computer behaves in the image of man in the sense that one has taught it "to think" (again I use that word) like a human being and to do what a human being would do to solve that particular problem.

But, as I said, this leads to the crossing of a very subtle line, and after running over that line during programming, the first impression many people get is that the person is inferior to the computer — that the programmer is in some way a defective imitation. And in certain ways the computer is better than human beings. This is what gives rise to the feeling, not that the computer is made in the imitation of man, but, quite the other way around, that in a certain sense man is made in the image of the computer. So we may start out by thinking that the computer is modeled after the brain or human thought, but then we turn around and say instead that the brain itself is a kind of computer. For example, yesterday someone pointed to his head and said, "the computer up here." Perhaps it was intended as an amusing gesture, but at the same time, it was an almost universally recognized comment, one which is, I think, quite serious and, under the circumstances, dangerous.

Artificial intelligence is the sub-discipline of computer science that has grown up in the United States. At this stage, and I would say even mainly at my institution, it is seen as a purer form of intelligence than that within this human embodiment. The computer is considered less likely to be misled by mere judgments and other matters arising from the biological constitution of the human being. I am thinking here of some of my colleagues' views. For example. Forester, of great model-making fame, said in print that mental models are always defective, that we can think better and more reliably through a computer.

Obviously, then, the conclusion we must come to is that while sentimental people argue that God is love, the tough modern man, or at least the tough modern Western man, knows that God is really intelligence. I hope it is very clear that I totally disagree with this position. It is, however, the dogma of a for-the-moment-victorious "religion" that worships intelligence and its embodiment in the computer. This "religion" pronounces an apocalyptic prophecy. According to this prophecy — which certainly has a basis in reality — the earth's people will one day destroy themselves and their gene pool.

Of course the whole human race is in an extremely dangerous situation. The likelihood that we will in fact destroy ourselves is much too large to ignore. It is very, very real. Some of us —I hope most of us — who have struggled against it certainly don't believe that it is an inevitable or desirable end to the human story. But when one accepts, as many of my colleagues do, that intelligence is in some sense the purpose of the universe, that God is intelligence, not love, that, to put it another way, the purpose (if one may use that term at all) of organic evolution is not the perfection and adaption of living organisms to their changing environment but rather the perfection and growth of intelligence in the universe, then the extinction of the human race also becomes an acceptable end.

Strange as it may sound, I emphasize again that this view is very widely held among scientists and intellectuals in the United States. Accepting the thesis means that one accepts that the destruction of the human gene pool is not a catastrophe at all, provided, of course, that we, the human race, have assured the continuation of intelligence beyond the human level. In fact, according to some of my colleagues, we have already accomplished this. Even if the earth blows up in an atomic holocaust, we have now sent computers into space which will continue to orbit, to make their computations and so on. Soon, according to this apocalyptic vision, these computers will be able to reproduce themselves, and when they do, the human race will have accomplished its purpose.

This is a satanic vision. In that new Utopia. God will have eliminated the source and power of evil from the universe, and what remains will be a mechanical kingdom in which truth with a capital "T" and righteousness, or pure intelligence, can reign undisturbed forever. This reasoning, which, as I said, is more or less explicitly gaining dominance amongst scientists, technologists and many intellectuals, is a philosophical foundation on the basis of which the destruction of the human species, a very realistic threat, becomes defensible. In a certain sense, It provides a philosophically tilled soil in which the idea of an absolute genocide becomes thinkable. It argues that the purpose of the universe is the evolution of ever higher forms of intelligence. At the moment we happen to be carriers. As perhaps the most highly developed intelligence in the universe, we've now succeeded in creating our truly worthy successors: computers. We have the tools of destruction in our hands, but we've sent computers into timeless, endless space, and thus, having fulfilled our destiny, we have no reason to grieve over the probable death of our species.

At precisely this time, this murderous theology invades the human mind and spirit. Those who propagate this idolatry — and that's what it is, idolatry — and who themselves venerate the machine in the sense that I have described, who themselves can't see what seems to me so perfectly obvious —that there is a difference between humans and machines, and between human thought and machine thought — risk in my view becoming full conspirators in the murder of God.

STOP AADHAR

2010-05-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Crime of the Century

2010-05-12T06:33:00.000-07:00

Barcode of Life: Global Biodiversity Challenge

2010-05-11T17:21:00.001-07:00

Poland Installs Europe's First Biometric Fingerprint-Scanning ATM Machine

2010-05-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

Given the financial situations in Greece, Spain, and Portugal in recent weeks, the Euro Zone has plenty of reason to be down on itself. But Poland is showing a bit of financial-sector flash this week, becoming the first nation in Europe to install biometric ATM machines that read fingerprints rather than magnetic cards.

Poland's BPS SA bank set a European -- and if we're not mistaken, a Western -- milestone by installing the biometric cash machine in Warsaw, where customers can withdraw money with nothing more than their index fingers and their PIN numbers.

The machines work on "finger vein" technology, rather than the topographical signature of a customer's finger. The scanning technology, developed by Japanese tech company Hitachi, records the tiny veins that run through fingertips to create a unique identifier for each customer.

Only one biometric machine is currently operating in Poland, though BPS plans to deploy three or four more of the ATMs in Warsaw before year's end. About 200 more will end up in more than 350 bank branches there in coming years.

Though the Japanese have been using the technology for a little while now, this marks the first major commitment to institute biometric security standards by a large Western bank, as well as the first indicator that such technology may soon wash up on American shores.

Sensitive health records to be stored on national database

2010-05-11T14:58:00.000-07:00

PATIENTS' sensitive health records, including test results and prescriptions, will be stored on a national database accessible over the internet, in a controversial new eHealth scheme that will cost taxpayers $467 million to set up over the next two years.

The federal government is trying to hose down alarm over privacy by rebranding its planned e-Health scheme the "personally controlled electronic health record system", and insisting that patients will be able to control what information is fed into the database, and who can access it.

Patients will be given the choice of opting in to the system, even though all Australians will automatically be given a new identification number that can be linked to their medical records.

The budget papers say patients will be able to access their eHealth records when and where needed.

"Australian consumers and authorised healthcare providers (will be able to) access their personally controlled electronic health records via the internet," the papers state. "It will help reduce avoidable hospital admissions, adverse healthcare incidents relating to medication mismanagement, and the need for duplicate tests and procedures because original results are not available between care settings."

Pharmacists will be paid 15c every time they dispense a prescription downloaded from the database, to encourage a phasing-out of scrawled paper prescriptions -- a measure the budget papers show will cost taxpayers an extra $75m over five years.

But the system depends on co-operation from the states and territories which, the papers say, "will need to continue their planned or expected investments in core health information systems".

The Council of Australian Governments has yet to sign off on this $286m cost over four years.

The ambitious project is still in the planning stages, as the government has yet to consult consumers or the medical profession.

The lower house has passed legislation for mandatory health ID numbers -- known as Healthcare Identifiers -- to be assigned to every Australian next financial year. But patients will be able to decide if they want to activate the ID number, and can choose what information -- if any -- is stored on the electronic database.

Doctors and other health professionals, such as pharmacists, would need a patient's permission to log into the eHealth record, although the government has yet to draft legislation setting out how the scheme will work.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon said yesterday 190,000 Australians a year were admitted to hospital due to medication errors, costing the health system $660m. "About 8 per cent of medical errors are because of inadequate patient information," Ms Roxon said.

"Clear, quickly available information will reduce such incidents, avoid unnecessary tests and save scarce health resources."

Ms Roxon said patients would be able to show up at any doctor's surgery in the country and have their medical records available 'at the touch of a button.

"Patients will no longer have to remember every detail of their care history and retell it to every care provider they see," she said.

I don't know if you recall this nugget that I brought up before but this just confirms that it has definately reached the four winds.

http://prophezine.com/PZArticles/AUniqueIdfortheWorldByChristineHobson/tabid/1118/Default.aspx

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259354/Thousands-jobs-axed-Government-plans-public-service-webpage-citizen.html?printingPage=true

http://worlduin.homestead.com/patent.html

You the people.....Are getting a chip.

2010-05-11T14:27:00.000-07:00

From the N.Y Times today-

Everyone calls it a “green card,” but for many years the coveted identification that immigration authorities issue to lawful permanent residents has been variously pink, beige, blue, white — just about anything but green.

Now it will be, though that is the least high-tech feature of a redesign announced Tuesday by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The new card, which will replace those now in circulation as they are lost or renewed, incorporates holographic images, laser engraved fingerprints and radio frequency identification chips that will allow Customs and Border Protection officers at ports of entry to read the card from a distance, immigration officials said.

“Among the benefits of the redesign: Secure optical media will store biometrics for rapid and reliable identification of the card holder,” the agency’s statement said.

Is this a preview of the biometric Social Security card that Senator Charles Schumer has proposed for all citizens who want to work, part of his outline for comprehensive immigration reform? Stay tuned.

How to sell Aadhar

2010-05-05T14:30:00.000-07:00

The UID project has got a new name and logo, but the difficult part starts now

The ambitious Unique Identification (UID) number project has got a new identity and logo – something that brand experts have endorsed wholeheartedly. While the project has been renamed Aadhar, the new logo has the halo of the Sun on the imprint of a thumb.

Experts say this was required as a name like UID just couldn’t be of any appeal to a majority of its target audience – the marginalised people who will get a foolproof identity to claim various social sector scheme incentives.

Kiran Khalap, co-founder, Chlorophyll, who is part of the five-member media advisory for the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), says, “We wanted a complex metrix of all the elements of UID in a simple name. Aadhaar encompasses all — its attribute, benefits and idea.”

Ranjan Bargotra, President, Crayons, agrees. “Aadhaar is so simple and indicative of the utility of the product. The new name will give the authorities a great creative platform to advertise it,” he says

Bargotra cites one of his very successful projects with the Delhi government. A few years ago, under the police-public partnership programme, Crayons was given a project aimed at connecting with the children of schools in slums to educate them about being responsible, fearless citizens and report their neigbourhood crime to the police. The agency executed the programme under the name “Nidar” (fearless). Bargotra says the name prompted a huge response from children. “After all, who doesn’t want to become a nidar?” he asks.

Harish Bijoor, brand-strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, too says, “The one big meaning of Aadhar is the word “depend” and possibly “support”. To that extent, the name packs a lot of punch considering the UID project’s objective.

But now that the rebanding is over, the bigger task is how to sell the concept, considering the diversity challenges in India.

Bijoor says that the brand needs to be led visually and not through script. The brand needs visual mnemonics that are strong and easily identifiable. The current logo with the finger-print and sun holds good potential here. In addition to this, it is important to create a very powerful sound mnemonic for the brand —something that will identify the brand the moment the sound mnemonic is played. Take Doordarshan for instance. The moment the sound mnemonic plays, everyone understands.

A majority of the population in rural India emotes with the visual and the audio much more than written words. It is therefore important to invest in visual and audio mnemonics that are relevant, original and innovative.

Brand experts say allowing a villager – Dhaneshwar Ram – to unveil the brand name and logo was a great marketing innovation. “When Ram talked about the difficulties he faced in establishing his identity in his village in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, even to procure a certificate of residency, there was instant empathy, which a project like this requires” says the head of an advertising agency.

UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani says the project will be marketed through media, advertisements, word of mouth, village posters etc. The UIDAI has studied other mass public change initiatives like polio awareness etc, to understand what has worked, he adds.

Brand experts say the trick also lies in using different branding strategies to appeal to diverse groups of people. The methods that work for young urban professionals, for example, would be lost on the rural poor.

UAE-Card Features and Looks

2010-05-05T12:17:00.000-07:00

Identification Number

The Identity Card is featured for its identification number known as the identity number which sticks with its holder forever. By this number, he may benefit from all the governmental and some of the non-governmental and private entities services, which require the identity evidence. The identity number is featured for its sole and un- repeated number. It includes 15 digitals

Card Features

The e- card has many features from which all the  community individuals may benefit starting from safety and ending with  the easy administrative services in addition to the feeling of  attachment and contribution in building a modern and developed  electronic government. The identity features may be summarized as  follows:

Sense of Belonging: the Identity Card helps creation of sense of belonging and proud among both UAE nationals and residents of the United Arab Emirates, which attempts to avail the best living levels for all the community individuals.
Identity Protection: The Identity Card is a smart card which includes unique vital information for the identity holder such as his biological properties such as his fingerprint and electronic signature, the matter which guarantees protection of the personal identity thus reducing falsification possibilities and makes the identity a valuable instrument which strongly contributes in fighting crimes.
Facilitation: being a unified identification document with all the UAE authorities, the Identity Card guarantees its holder obtaining the governmental and nongovernmental services with ease.
Integrated Card: In the future, the Identity Card will replace the other documents and identification cards such as the labor card, health insurance card, driving license and Passport (for the nationals of U.A.E.) making it a practical and comprehensive card.
Comprehensive Database: All individuals who obtain the Identity Card will be registered in the population registry of the Emirates Identity Authority, hence unifying the personal database of individuals with all the governmental departments through the electronic linking with the Authority, resulting in reduction of data management costs and enhancing the e-Government works, in addition to providing accurate and comprehensive demographic information assisting the State in its strategic planning process.

How the Identity Card looks like?

The Identity Card is not that different form the ordinary cards in volume such as the bank card for instance. It is a plastic card with an electronic chip which contains all the information on its holder and his biological characteristics. As shown in the form above, the identity holder name, his nationality, photograph, fingerprint and Identity Card number, which is consisted of 15 digitals, are appeared on the card front side, while the birth date, gender, signature sample of the card owner, number and the card validity appear on the back side. The other data do not appear on the card face and can not be read without the consent of the identity holder.

Electronic Chip
It includes the personal data to be read automatically in usages that require the holder to provide an identity evidence and authentication. Some of these data are encrypted and only readable/writable/updatable by the authorized authorities in order to protect the privacy of data. This chip may store up to 32 thousand letters of information

Card Utilizations- As of Today Usage
The Identity Card can be used as a unified identification document with all the government, semi-government authorities and private entities. An individual may utilize it to obtain all the administrative services easily and promptly guaranteeing the highest levels of security and privacy
UAE National may utilize the Identity Card as a traveling document to travel among the GCC neighboring countries
The ID card can be used to logon to Computers and Access online services
The ID card can be used for access control, signing electronic forms, and signing documents to protect it from being altered by others
It is agreed with the Ministry of Finance to include the e-Dirham service to the Identity Card
It is agreed with the Ministry of Interior to include the e-Gate service to the Identity Card
The ID Card can be used on Abdu Dhabi e-Gov portal www.Abudhabi.ae to Authenticate your identity and get access to services

Future Usage

Thanks to the systems integration Emirates Identity  Authority envisioning to achieve with various governmental,  semi-governmental, and private sectors, it is expected to extend the  identity utilizations in the future to include other domains especially  after completion of the registration of all national and residents of  the United Arab Emirates. The ID Card maybe utilized in the future to  store other cards information or provide various applications as  follows:

Labor Card.
Health Card and Health Insurance card.
Electronic Portfolio.
Commercial and Banking applications
Driving License.
Passport.
In addition, the ID Card acts as an infrastructure to many applications and services to entities to use such as:
- Public Libraries and rental stores to check out books, movies, games, cars, and others
- Utilized to get access to exhibitions
- Metro, public transportations

Include AP in Aadhar's pilot project: Rosaiah

2010-05-05T09:47:00.000-07:00

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah has requested the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to include the state for the pilot project 'Aadhar' as it was ready with the resident data.

In a letter to UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani on Wednesday, Rosaiah said the state has been at the forefront in implementing e-governance projects and also has the distinction of being the first in the country in using biometrics for issue of ration cards to all families.

"The state has created a single integrated database covering about 82 million residents. This database can be the foundation for Aadhar as enrolment of all residents can be done right away in accordance with the demographic and biometric standards prescribed by the UIDAI," the Chief Minister noted.

He recalled that the state has already entered into a MoU with UIDAI for implementing the 'Aadhar' project while two districts Medak and Krishna have successfully completed the Proof of Concept under the project.

"Andhra Pradesh is keen to use 'Aadhar' to extend the benefits of various schemes and services to everyone, including people who have long been disadvantaged. I assure you that our government will extend all possible support and co-operation in making the project a grand success," Rosaiah added.

Aadhaar project not to take facial scans at face value

2010-05-04T13:56:00.000-07:00

Facial biometrics, say experts, have a high failure rate (of 1 in 10 people). Recognising this danger, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which has been empowered to issue unique numbers or Aadhaars to the 1.2 billion residents of the country, has decided not to use the facial scan as a de-duplication device or primary biometric verification method.

UIDAI will scan three biometric characteristics of each individual — face, fingerprints and iris (coloured part of the eye). However, facial scans will be used to detect false matches only if the other two biometric scans fail to convince authorities about the identity of a person.

“Along with the demographic details of a person, the face will only find a place in our records,” Ram Sewak Sharma, director general and mission director of UIDAI, told Business Standard.

“The Aadhaar project will use the three big biometrics of face, fingerprints and the iris, but the face will not be used for primary matching or a primary biometric. Only in exceptional cases, where the eyes are obscured or fingerprints unprintable or worn out, will the face be used,” said Mark Crego, Partner (Chief Biometrics Architect), Accenture.

Crego pointed out there could be many similar faces. There is only 30 per cent accuracy in the face as a biometric and one needs manual checking to ensure accuracy. It was because of these problems that UIDAI decided to have another biometric — iris scan. The addition of iris to finger and facial biometrics would help achieve accuracy rates beyond 95 per cent, according to the authority.

UIDAI says collecting and de-duplicating biometrics of children is a challenge because face and finger biometrics are not stable until the age of 16. The lack of de-duplication of a child’s biometrics would require that the child’s unique identification (UID) or Aadhaar be linked to the parents’ UIDs in the database and the child’s ID is not issued on the basis of de-duplication of his/her biometrics.

This however, increases the risk of duplicates and fakes among UIDs for children. Such UIDs would represent a significant proportion of the UIDs issued, since the percentage of population below 15 years of age is 35.3 per cent according to the 2001 census.

The iris presents a potential means to issue the majority of children a unique number linked to their biometrics, since the iris stabilises at a very young age. Unlike fingerprints, iris is said to be fully developed at the time of birth itself.

“If we use iris besides the fingerprints, we would be able to reduce the size of our inaccurate UID sub-set due to the inability to de-duplicate from 35 per cent to 11 per cent, according to the 2001 census. Moreover, adding more biometrics will increase the cost of the project,” added Sharma.

A Aadhaar. Can you see the end in the beginning?

2010-05-02T06:19:00.000-07:00

Some questions to ask yourself.

Just what is the "Mark" of this beast spoken of in Revelation in the Holy Bible? For centuries men have been on a mission to decipher, expound and even prophesy, believers and non alike. What this horrfiic number "666", how will it appear and be used by the False Prophet? How is the Antichrist going to come onto the World Stage and more important, when?

The new power is not money in the hands of the few, but information in the hands of the government.

Coming soon, UID-backed micro ATMs for the poor: Nandan Nilekani

2010-04-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

In the short time that Infosys Technologies’ former CEO and co-founder Nandan Nilekani has been part of the government, he has emerged as UPA’s tech czar. Not only is he spearheading the very ambitious Unique Identity (UID) Card project, Nilekani has been recently appointed the chair of the Technology Advisory Group which has the mandate to fix the framework for large and transformational IT projects of the government.

Nilekani parries the ‘czar’ tag as he talks to TOI about his mission to give each and every Indian a unique number — an identity which should be particularly helpful for the poor in terms of financial inclusion. In his mission to evangelise the project, Nilekani has hit the road with a vengeance, meeting everybody — from chief ministers and senior government officials to community and club members. He took time off from one such meeting to speak to Asha Rai. Excerpts from the interview.

Where exactly are you at this point with your project?

Well, it's been about eight months now. We are on target. The finance minister, in his budget speech of July 2009, had announced that we would start giving out the numbers in 12-18 months. This means essentially between August of 2010 and February of 2011. We had a meeting of the prime minister's council on UID which has now become the cabinet committee on UID. We are on target to get there. We have opened offices in Delhi and Bangalore. While Delhi is the headquarters, Bangalore is the technology centre. We have eight regional offices in cities like Chandigarh, Ranchi, and Hyderabad. Out of the eight, five have staff.

We have appointed Ernst & Young to work on the request for proposal (RFP) to appoint our managed service provider which will run our data centre. In January, we launched the RFP for our technology partners. That should be decided in the next few weeks. We are doing a proof-of-concept in three states where we are testing things like biometric enrolment, capturing iris, capturing finger prints, etc...stuff like how much time does it take, what's the quality of the finger prints, the documents required, etc. Basically, we are testing out different aspects.

What's the buy-in for this initiative?

We have been on a massive evangelization drive. I have visited all the states, met most of the chief ministers, told them what's in it for them and what's positive for them. The buy-in is huge. The very fact that I went to meet them, that itself makes them feel good about it. Then I met all the central government bodies, all regulators like sebi, Irda, Trai, etc. So basically everybody's been covered. Now everybody knows what's coming down the road. This year is the year of execution. Before the end of this year, we will be issuing numbers.

The other important thing is that the Census has started. As part of it, they are compiling the National population register. We have an agreement with them that they will collect the biometrics according to UIDAI standards. They will also be a very important registrar for us. We have all these registrars and through many of them we will start issuing cards. We have signed an MOU with Madhya Pradesh and in the next three months will sign MOUs with all the other states.

MicroATMs will soon take banking to poor

2010-04-30T22:03:00.000-07:00

In an effort to assist business correspondents (BCs) towards delivering banking services to unbanked poor as part of national financial inclusion mission, the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI), spearheading the initiative, has mooted using microATM devices for the purpose.

The authority, stating that microATM devices be used by BCs to deliver basic banking services at the last mile, said a committee consisting of itself, Indian Banks’ Association, RBI besides various banks went into specifications and uses of the device.

microATM is a first step towards providing online, interoperable, low-cost payments platform to everyone in the country, the authority said. The device, would take its design and system architecture from debit/credit card processing on point-of-service (POS) terminals and combined with authentication services UIDAI will provide.

The microATM deployed by banks either directly or through service providers (individual BCs/ sub-agents of corporate BCs), will be based on bank-led model for financial inclusion providing basic transactions such as deposit, withdrawal, funds transfer, balance enquiry and mini-statement.

The objectives, it said, are to bring down transaction costs, security and transparency of transactions, uniform customer experience and reduce agent training needs. The device can be also deployed by service providers to provide variety of other financial and value-added services, it noted, adding these services will generate increased cash-flows for microATM agents.

Presenting scenarios of last mile collection problems such as interest payments for micro-finance loans, premiums for micro-insurance policies, contributions to micropensions accounts, investments in micro-mutual funds, it said these could be be solved with microATMs.

The device will allow customers to perform basic financial transactions using their UID number and their fingerprint as identity proof (along with Bank Identification Number for inter-bank transactions). Unlike ATMs, cash-in/ cash-out functions, of microATMs will be performed by the operator, bringing down cost of device and cost of servicing the customer.

The goal is to leverage UIDAI’s online fingerprint authentication for banking transactions, without requiring major change to existing banking infrastructure, the authority said adding the microATM functionality has been restricted to small set of transactions, so that it can be robust and simple, but scaled for ubiquitous nationwide deployment.

2010-04-29T13:06:00.001-07:00