What is the latest status on the UIDAI project?
As we are moving along, we are signing MoUs. We have signed the first MoU with Madhya Pradesh and we are signing with other states. We have E&Y as our consultant, so the right request for proposal (RFP) tender for minimum support price (MSP) is being worked out. Our software tender is out so we should be deciding the partner soon. So we are moving in the right direction and our goal to start issuing numbers before February 2011 is very much on schedule.
You are conducting pilot projects in a few states? What has been the response?
Andhra Pradesh is one of the states for the pilot project. I have experienced a lot from my visits to 25 states in the past few months. I have met all the chief ministers, chief secretaries and all the secretaries and have discussed all the future plans – what does it mean for us and for them. There’s been very good responses from them.
Who all would be benefiting at the first stage of the project?
The whole idea of this project is to provide inclusion to a large number of people, who do not have access to benefits.
For example, poor people who do not have any identity card, birth certificate, ration card or school certificate can have a chance to get better services through UID as there won’t be need for any know-your-customer criterion. We are looking at benefiting people from flagship programmes such as National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and looking at the Public Distribution System (PDS) because both these are meant for the poor and below poverty line (BPL) families.
How are the data centres being worked out for the project? What kind of RFP model is being done for that?
We will have a data centre for the pilot project and we are in the process. Finally, the data centres will be managed by the service providers, whom we appoint. They will have more than one data centre for disaster recovery, backup, replication and others. Tenders are still months away for that. We still need to have a separate RFP for the purpose for the managed service provider to run our database. That will happen later during this year. We are looking at all the best practices. India has a long track record of outsourcing of such projects. For example, passport has been outsourced by the ministry of external affairs and tax-information network has been also been outsourced among others. So, there is enough experience with the government for undertaking such large projects. This indeed is a very large project, but I think we should be able to find a right partner or this.
What are the norms for vendor selection for the project?
These are being formulated. Right now, our team is working with the E&Y team and drafting the norms for that. It would take few months to do so.
What benefits could the Indian IT sector get from this project?
This project is at the leading edge of technology. It is the world’s largest biometric database and it is going to push the envelope on technologies. So clearly, companies who will be associated with this will also contribute and make India a centre for biometrics in the world. So it has lot of benefits for the industry.
The finance minister had announced Rs 1,900 crore for the project for the year 2010-11? How would you spend that amount in each state? Is this amount enough for this year?
At this point of time we still have to detail this out. We have just got the money and we are looking at detailing of budgets state wise.
What kind of hiring is being done for the project?
There will be more hiring. Right now, we have less than 100 people but, at peak, we expect a few more hundreds.
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