Friday, February 1, 2013

UID vs NPR!

As a common man I'm puzzled while registering for these ventures:-

     (a) UID(Unique Identity Number) or the 'Aadhaar' card which is a project executed by Nandan Nilekani,
          co-opted by the government of India, in pursuit to having a comprehensive data bank of every citizen
          of this country. In other words, it's essentially a number that provides a link to the database,    
          to establish identity in which biometrics play a key role to prevent mischief of any sort.

     (b) NPR(National Population Registry) which is a project outlined on the same lines as that of the UID
          but the basic difference is that it's executed under the auspices of the Home Ministry of the
          government of India. This was based on the perception of the then Home Minister that such a data
          bank should come under the sole purview of his ministry and he'd cited 'security considerations'!

And collection of data has been going on for both the projects. Wonder why there's so much confusion and the doubt that arises is that, isn't there a duplication? It's evident that with the database in place, the government and its institutions would be keeping tabs on every individual - like accumulation of money in different bank accounts, carrying out financial transactions and even buying/selling property, to name just a few.

Hopefully, fraud, illegal transactions and tax evasions will be things of the past!


Tailpiece.

(a) The way the two projects are being pursued simultaneously, makes one wonder as to whether there's a concerted effort to dilute the efforts so that frauds and foul play can continue unabated, despite the good intentions of the government.

(b) The way the developed countries maintain the data bank of their citizens and provide them their share of the welfare pie is something that we need to emulate.

(c) A clear, unambiguous statement on the subject by the government would remove the confusion!

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