UIDAI: And One ID for All

As we navigate through the dusty roads of India's Silicon Valley-Bengaluru-we hit the rather inhospitable stretch, the outer ring road that connects to Marathahalli-Sarjapur, which takes a whopping 2 hours drive during the morning peak hours. Despite being in the city fringes, a drive on this road will ultimately stress the patience of even the most seasoned drivers, due to extreme bad traffic and also the road conditions.

But that does not deter the global IT giants which have captives across the stretch doing cutting edge IT outsourcing. And as we pass one unmarked white building, which might be mistaken for any commercial complex, but as we step inside the gate it becomes clear that it's a High Security Zone (HSZ). It is in this very building that a revolution of sorts is happening under the able leadership of Nandan Nilekani, chairman, UIDAI. This nondescript building is the UIDAI technology center that processes thousands of UID applications on any given day and a data center, not far away, houses all the confidential data of the UID holders; no wonder this is called the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

What has made the impossible possible is the creation of technology framework and the architecture needed to capture about 121 crore data of the citizens and issuance of one common ID card. But it is the innovative and the judicious blend of technology that is enabling this mammoth exercise. Also, UIDAI typifies a shining example of how government can adopt technology in such a professional and seamless manner and all through its evolution, so far, it has created outstanding benchmarks for the world to follow. The technology center of UIDAI runs the world's largest biometric authentication project. The Network Operations Center (NOC) which processes in real time all the UID registration, is the brain or the nerve center of the whole UID exercise alongside the state-of-the-art data center.

UIDAI Technology Center

This center plays a pivotal role in enabling the whole delivery of UID cards because the basic idea behind Aadhaar is to create an universal, unique, national digital online identity, not tied to a specific scheme or department, that can be used by several agencies at the center, state, and local levels for service delivery. This requires a clean database in a structured format with certain mandatory fields filled out. In order to ensure uniqueness, biometrics is needed so that no person can get 2 identity numbers, no matter where in the country they reside.

 

Reflecting on this Dr Ashok Dalwai, deputy director general, technology center, UIDAI says,"Inclusion and over inclusion are big problems in this part of the world. Some have identities and others do not have. When we talk about UID, it is not for the exclusive, it is for every Indian. The ultimate aim is to extend it to 121 crore people of India."

The need for UID is that the existing IDs do not prove the uniqueness nor are they universal. Conventional IDs like the passport (less than 10% of India's population have access to passports), voter ID, etc, have their limitations in terms of coverage and eligibility, and hence UID is the vital element in providing universal ID for every citizen irrespective of his social and economical stature.

UIDAI's approach is to solve the problem of unique identification and to go digital and online. UIDAI's IT solution was designed after studying the world's best national identity systems and other large-scale computing projects, while innovating and adapting for India's specific context and requirements," says Dalwai.

Nandan Nilekani, chairman, UIDAI quips, "This is the first ID that travels across India and this national mobility and portability makes it indeed a unique one. Our idea with UID is to open the gateway for services and it will act as Know Your Customer (KYC) for many services, from insurance to mobile phone connections, by enabling a one-stop ID proof."

The 2 key technology pillars from the infrastructure side are data center and NOC. In the recent hand-holding exercise with media, the NOC was showcased and the kind of mission critical role it plays. The NOC has been built by using commodity x86 blade servers that enable easier scaling up of computing power as the enrolments grow. The NOC keeps the tab of enrolments in real time and does the complicated task of screening the applications by weeding out fake and duplicate registrations.

The solution for Aadhaar is the adoption of an open scale-out design for technology along with an ecosystem based approach to the field operations while collecting multi-modal biometrics. Sources say that the solution balances speed, scale, quality, and cost while adhering to the country's democratic principles, constitutional framework, and government's process. The solution which involved several innovations and adaptations to suit India's context is now proven with 18+ crore enrolments across 32+ states and UTs. Dalwai says, "The technology is now being acknowledged as among the largest and the best identification system in the world."

Biometrics

One of the hallmarks of the UIDAI technology backbone is the extensive use of biometrics. Probably, this is the world's biggest deployment and usage of biometrics involving 121 crore people, once the entire population comes in the ambit of the UIDAI. The UIDAI biometric system architects have studied the best global practices and adapted them to the Indian context and requirements. In designing the biometric system, UIDAI reviewed the existing state-of-the-art, consulted with the world's top biometric experts, conducted a PoC study across the states, and built a biometric system that is currently considered to be the world's best.

The uniqueness of the UIDAI's biometric system is its multi-modal approach. The UID biometric committee chose fingerprint, iris, and face photograph as it is necessary to de-duplicate 121 crore residents. Since the large portion of the rural population in India works on agriculture or other manual labor, it becomes important not to rely on fingerprints (which may have worn out ridges) but to also capture the 2 iris images.

According to the government sources, the UID project is the latest among the sequence of progressive transformative technologies that India has executed in the last 3 decades. And once the entire screening process of all the citizens gets completed, it will create new benchmarks in IT management using a combination of best practices.