UIDAI to issue first set of 100 million unique ID numbers by March 2011

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will issue the first set of 100 million UID numbers from August 2010 till March 2011 with the government clearing funds for the second phase of UIDAI project implementation.

The Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification Authority of India related issues (CC-UIDAI) today approved the Phase II implementation of the scheme, estimated to cost Rs3,023.01 crore. Of this, Rs477.11 crore would be used for meeting recurring establishment costs and the remaining Rs2,545.90 crore for non-recurring project related expenditure.

The estimated cost includes project components for issue of 100 million UID numbers and recurring establishment costs for the entire project phase stretching five years, from 2010 to 2014.

The UIDAI will issue another 600 million UID numbers over the following three years. The project will subsequently provide unique ID numbers to all residents of India.

The UIDAI proposes to collect the demographic and biometric attributes of residents through various agencies of the central and the state governments as also other agents who, in the normal course of their activities, interact with the residents.

These entities, called 'registrars' of the UIDAI, include the departments of rural development (for MNREGA) and public distribution and consumer affairs (for PDS) at the states level and banks, LIC and oil marketing companies at the central level.