The government has allocated a budget of Rs 100 crore towards introducing multipurpose national identity card (MNIC) for every citizen.
Delivering the valedictory address of the two-day international conference on ‘Security and Identity Management (SIM’09)’ at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Sriprakash Jaiswal, said: “The pilot project for MNIC is already in progress in 13 districts of 12 states and one Union Territory.”
A comprehensive social security database is also being prepared targeting the Census of 2011. Once the MNICs are issued, their scope can be enhanced, incorporating more services in three to five years, he said.
Securing the country
“The unique identity card will help us curb illegal immigration. We have porous borders and there is a huge population from Bangladesh that has migrated into our country. They are the biggest threat, but not the only ones. The unique identification number will help us identify citizens of India and residents of India,” Jaiswal said.
Not only will this ambitious ‘Identification Project’ help counter the menace of illegal migration especially from Bangladesh, but will also come in handy for the purpose of taxation and targeted development.
Under the plan, every Indian citizen will be provided with a Multi-purpose National Identity (Smart) Card (MNIC) with a unique ID.
The minister said the government plans to set up an Identification Authority of India under the aegis of the Planning Commission to deal with matters pertaining to MNIC.
The organisers of SIM’09 announced the formation of a joint ‘UK-India Working Group’ or ‘Knowledge Management Cluster’, which will deliberate on matters relating to cyber terrorism, identity management in cyber social networking, measuring security, IT security in e-governance, socio-economic aspects of mobile banking, and security and privacy in large-scale healthcare systems.
Prof Rajanish Dass of IIM-A, Conference Chair, SIM’09 and India Coordinator, Identity Project said: “A follow-up conference will be held in London in September to discuss the management of cross-border frauds, among other issues.”
