India to issue 1.2 billion new biometric ID cards

Raw Story
Wednesday, July 15, 2009

India is preparing to issue biometric identification cards to every one of its 1.2 billion citizens in what is being called “the biggest Big Brother project yet conceived,” according to a published report.

This fresh piece of reporting just in from the Times Online:

It is surely the biggest Big Brother project yet conceived. India is to issue each of its 1.2 billion citizens, millions of whom live in remote villages and possess no documentary proof of existence, with cyber-age biometric identity cards.

The Government in Delhi recently created the Unique Identification Authority, a new state department charged with the task of assigning every living Indian an exclusive number. It will also be responsible for gathering and electronically storing their personal details, at a predicted cost of at least £3 billion.

The task will be led by Nandan Nilekani, the outsourcing sage who coined the phrase “the world is flat”, which became a mantra for supporters of globalisation. “It is a humongous, mind-boggling challenge,” he told The Times. “But we have the opportunity to give every Indian citizen, for the first time, a unique identity. We can transform the country.”

If the cards were piled on top of each other they would be 150 times as high as Mount Everest — 1,200 kilometres.

The card will include a computer chip with either a fingerprint or an iris scan, the report says. The card may even be tied to criminal and credit histories. And last, but certainly not least, with just about 7 percent of Indian society registered to pay income tax, this new database of citizens — potentially the largest ever attempted — will certainly aid in the government’s collection of funds.

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