UID will be just a number, not a card: Nilekani

Despite holding the rank of a union cabinet minister, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani was all business and no politics when he interacted with the students of Chandragupta Institute of Management Patna (CIMP) during his visit to Bihar's capital city yeterday.

Sharing his vision about the unique identification number project, Nilekani said, "It is both a technological and management challenge as we have to provide a unique number to over a billion people. Things are being worked out and we have set the target of delivering the first batch of unique numbers in 18 months time."

Elaborating, Nilekani said, "It is like creating a tank for storing the data, filling it with correct data and ensuring its optimal utilisation. Ensuring that one person does not get more than one number is also a big challenge."

The UIDAI chairman also talked about creating the demand for the UID and said the target was not only to convince people about the importance of UID, so that they could come forward for getting a number, but also to convince other players like central and state governments about its usefulness.

Nilekani also explained the use of biometrics for making the UID tamperproof and said that the goal was to have a system using which on-line authentication of an individual's identity could be ascertained.

One student bowled Nilekani a googly when he asked him to explain the difference he found in the functioning of private and government sectors. But Nilekani handled it with aplomb. "In terms of value proposition, things are almost the same. The only difference is that government functioning is much larger and much diverse compared to a private firm," he said.

Replying to a query whether the introduction of UID would lead to doing away with plethora of cards which one needs these days, Nilekani said, "We are going to issue a number, not a card. This number can be used by different players by mentioning them on the cards they issue to someone."