India issuing biometric IDs to all 1.2 billion citizens
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Jul 16th 2009 1:23PM
posted Jul 16th 2009 1:23PM
While not busy being the destination of Westerners seeking spiritual growth and the birthplace of the beloved Bollywood song and dance flick, apparently India is home to some 1.2 billion people -- many of whom possess no proof of identification whatsoever. According to The Times (UK), less than seven per cent of the population are registered for income tax, and the voting lists are terribly inaccurate. Hoping to bring the nation's census data into the 21st century, India has created the Unique Identification Authority. Under the direction of Nandan Nilekani, one of the founders of Infosys, the plan is to outfit every one of the nation's citizens with a biometric ID card that contains personal data, fingerprint or iris scans, and possibly even criminal records and credit histories. Gathering the data is projected to cost at least $4.9 billion, a figure that's likely to soar once the ball gets rolling. While the Government expects that the first cards will be issued within 18 months, analysts say that project won't likely reach "critical mass" for at least four years.
[Via Switched]
[Via Switched]
Oh no! It's बड़ा भाई!
He said, Oh No It's "Big Brother"
My thoughts exactly! xD
Jai Ho.
In Orwellian India, scanner thanks you. Come again !
Now we know what was really discussed at that G8 meeting recently, they were telling india 'close the escape route that is india or we'll bomb you', using ever so nice terms of course.
finally
tattooing names on their arms would be cheaper
In some places they already brand us like cattle.
Wow ...
that picture is funny, but maybe a bit mean. damn funny though.
"Gathering the data is projected to cost at least $4.9 billion"
Maybe the US could use some stimulus money to make jobs for this kind of project, and it would be only 1/4 the cost.
why would it be 1/4 the cost? haven't you learned anything about the american government's spending habits these past couple centuries?
Sorry, I forgot that we spend a million times more than we have to. I assumed that because the population of India is 4x bigger than the roughly 300,000,000 people here. If North America wishes to tighten up security, this may be a viable* solution.
*but costly
Ya, this has nothing to do with the sign of the beast...
seven per cent = seven hundred per dollar?
+1
The United States is heading in the same direction. It is scary how easily citizens are willing to give up their freedom and privacy.
Why is it scary?
Why do we need privacy? I'm not talking 1984/BNW here, but who gives a crap about privacy?
Its not a conspiracy theory - its efficiency. Stop resisting progress.
The US already has it, it's called the Social Security Database linked with all your financial/health records. India has not had any such database yet.
@William:
I care about privacy.
I think IDs for everyone in the world is double-plus-good. Better to keep track of those pesky proles.
Privacy? Freedom?
What does having an ID card registering who you are and what you've done in society have anything to do with Freedom or Privacy?
You want to be off the grid? Try it, find a section of woods somewhere and don't get any utilities, or pay taxes of any kind. have fun with your freedom.
The rest of the country will try to be civilized and be accountable for the person you are in every day life, part of a society.
This isn't the dark ages anymore. This isn't some fishing village where you know the 30 people who live within 2 miles, and the rest of the world is hidden.
People are popping more and more kids out like its going out of style in the US, more and more people crossing the boarders. It is becoming a cess pool, and anything to help "keep track of wtf is going on" is fine
@Freedom Town
You should really trade in your screen name.
It won't happen here... An ID card for everybody eliminates voter fraud that politians depend on to get elected. :-)
we all want progress, but not at the cost of our freedoms and powers
just imagine if you were an activist, fighting against the regime - all the things they could do to you just by flagging your 'account'.
you know in London, where they have all those CCTV cameras, they also have microphones everywhere. coupled together with their facial recognition software and their image database from licenses and passports, all they have to do is type in your name to get your location with live video and sound.
if you don't work against this, you will deserve to live in the cage you let them build around you.
Well, if you're concerned about privacy, Will, you better:
1) Cut up those credit cards and store cards
2) Remove yourself from facebook and other social networking sites
3) Throw away your cellphone
All of the above give away far more information about you than an ID card.
I care about privacy, but I don't see how this alters privacy.
Right now, we have an ID system. As time progresses, ID systems have to advance to keep them relatively accurate. A biometric system is simply an advancement. It's no more or less "private" than any other ID system.
What they do with the ID system may be another story.
Yes, biometric is less private than the other stuff.
Any day you want to, you can deceide you just born again, you have another name, another address, another identity. If you do a good work running far away, they will never find you.
With biometric, however, you're busted for the rest of your life, no matter where you go. You can't change your biometric fingerprints.
And yes, it IS wrong that the government has all your information. It already happened in Mexico: The drug lords have access to databases stolen from the government, and it IS happening right now that if you dare do something against any of them, they will kill all your family and burn down your business.
Don't tell me such things don't happen, because it already happened and it's going on as I write this.
It only gets worse as other delinquents get access to that database, which is also happening (ie. kidnappers). Mexico right now is not all that far from a revolution.
It has happened in the USA too, even at the FBI level: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO
Anyone who supports actions like this is dooming their children, no matter how low ranked I get...
@Canis: Indeed, I don't have a cellphone. Neither do I use social networking or any of that crap.
@William
"Why is it scary?
Why do we need privacy? I'm not talking 1984/BNW here, but who gives a crap about privacy?"
Okay, fine-- post pictures of your genitals and your parents' and siblings' genitals on engadget; well-lit and high-resolution. Also, upload for us video recordings of you having sex with your significant other.
The addresses will all change when India runs out of water and that 1.2 billion have a mass exodus.
Think happy thoughts!
It's too late for that.
Can you imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth if anybody even thought about doing this in the US? It was OK that Bush and cronies electronically spied on common citizens but heaven forbid we try to implement a national identification system!
Is that some kind of joke? because the US did already.
He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security.
-Benjamin Franklin
I'm pretty sure there's a fairly big line between the government knowing you exist vs. taking away your freedom.
Negative, Mark. Read the article again. This goes far beyond simple identification.
It still doesn't prevent anyone from doing anything, thus not taking away liberty. Privacy? Yes. Liberty? No.
and benjamin franklin would have never guessed tht someone like BUSH would be the commander in chief of US.....so yeah.
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Franklin
One of our civil liberties IS our right to privacy....
1.2 billion. When will they stop having so many kids? The world can barely support our current population. It doesn't help that most of those 1.2 billion are in extreme poverty. I feel some sympathy for them, but reproducing like rabbits only makes things worse.
If India were to spend a little bit of money teaching their people about family planning the number of ID's necessary and overall cost would go down. Just a thought.
maybe you could have written to the Bush administration five years ago and asked them not to tie family planning aid to poor countries to abstinence-only education. but of course, it was just easier to post your half-gathered thoughts on Engadget instead.
massive_98 - "The world can barely support our current population"
The world can definitely support the current population. The problem is the amount of resources that people consume. Did you know we in the US contribute for about 25% of global warming? If you are so concerned about the world, better change your consumer oriented lifestyle and be more responsible, not criticize others.
HK hit it right on If you think that our world cannot support our population or even a bigger one, you should get a slight dosage of some decent education
HK:
Lets actually prove global warming A) exists and B) is caused by people before we start assigning percentages of blame to different nations for it. I'm pretty sure it was just 52F here in Philadelphia 3 nights ago (June 13th), and that was a RECORD LOW.
@massive_98
Well, before you ask your racially charged "they" to stop having kids because the world cannot support them, consider this. The US consumes ~30% of the world's resources, but has less than 5% of the population. As others have pointed out, the number of people is not the problem, it's the lifestyle.
25%? It seems easily like 43% to me.
For the record, I'm not American. One thing to remember to is that the USA has a much larger slice of resources than India. India is growing more and more dependent on other countries to fuel its growth.
My point is with unsustainable population growth and growing desires to industrialize there will disastrous consequences.
You can have one or the other. If India continues industrializing and educating its people, the traditional affect has been a decrease in population growth. But by the time this happens, there could be well over 2 billion Indian people all striving for the american dream.
That's an extremely stupid observation. People have been advocating and having smaller families since a few decades now. I know almost 0 single Indian families with > 2 kids in almost 30 years. Basically the country was large to start with (1947), and life expectancies have shot up tremendously.
It's a very ignorant comment to say "you should do that and this". If they can feed themselves and not have to depend on you, their family is their business and you might mind your own business.
$4.9 billion? Riiiiight. Cause it's really only going to cost about $4 per person to gather all this crap. Hell, I'd call it a miracle if they can even find half of that 1.2 billion people.
For anyone wondering if I meant to put stress on the "find" or the "half" in that sentence: the answer is both.
@Mark, Welcome to India, I shall personally take to meet those people. You can meet half the people in just 5 days I guess... :)
Dear Engadget editors
.........Salman Khan????
seriously????
lol ... at a glance i thought it was Akshay Kumar :D rofl .....
Well ... Bollywood represents India. LOL !
do you really think the engadget photoshop dept's research for these things go anywhere beyond typing in 'bollywood dance' into google images?
expecting any more maturity from Engadget is like expecting BUSH administration not exploiting Iraq.
Lol... How many Indians here agree with me that the politicians will launder away half the money... After all doesnt it happen in any big project in India.
Btw , forget about 4 yrs... it'll be an achievement if they can finish it in 40....
off topic// It takes them 4yrs to build one small over-pass.... who r they kidding by saying that they can achieve this in 4 yrs........
This money can be much better spent..... Tax-payers money is going to be wasted , well actually its going in the politicians + contractors pocket....
Dhruv
(A pissed off Indian)
miracles happen
It's in the politicians' best interests to get this sorted out, if it increases their ability to collect on income taxes.
Nandan nilkeni is a highly efficient and influential personality.
And no, i dont think half the money will be laundered away in corruption.
If at all what you say is right India wouldn't be the 2nd fastest growing country in the world.
It would be equal to Pakistan or Somalia in terms of growth rate.
The resources being spent for a bridge and this is going to be proportional, so i think they can do it in the time period given.
BTW did u know that your name stands for the highly successful project of light helicopters in India?
I am afraid what you are saying is pretty correct, too much bribery and corruption with the opportunity for money will pollute minds. And I wish Indian politicians were that smart CtrlBurn, but they simply look to the short-term gains. Trust me, once you experience it, you will understand. And Shyam, you do realize Pakistan's economic growth is substantially good, right?
They can't keep unbuilt bridges up(anyone following the Delhi story?) , whats the chance all the massive red tape and corruption will let this project succeed?
How will this system reach the masses any more than Voter ID cards/ration cards have?
@shyam
"If at all what you say is right India wouldn't be the 2nd fastest growing country in the world."
India is the 2nd fastest growing country(Economy) in the world NOT because of the government, but INSPITE of the government.
one of those 1.2 billion ppl stole my wallet.
I am hoping we will be able to find him now
is your country full of saints?
I have a wallet.
You have to show me your ID if you want it.
@ Shyam
Yes i do buddy ;)
And regarding the project,,, Lets wait and watch... :D
One step closer:
“No one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.” Revelation 13:17,18
What the F are you talking about. Slap a random biblical quote in a blog and pass it off as some deep meaningful post.
Yes Yes, the world is one step close to Revelations because India wants to get some sort of control over its over-crowded heap of a society. :\
Wow, did I strike a nerve or what? :-(
It actually isn't random - the Bible speaks about the end times and how a mark will be necessary to buy and sell. I don't see it as much of a leap to now place this data India is collecting into a small implantable chip.
I find it interesting and exciting that we're watching all of the dominoes falling in place for what is outlined in the Bible.
Seriousely, you should go with F Town.
Does it also say that your comments appear on engadget ?
They better not try to compress my face.
Wait infocom is doing ID's now, what is this going to be the Zork version of ID's
you see a tired person behind a grungy desk in a low lit office
I hand my id.
you can't do anything to the ID
I hand my ID to the person
I do not understand your post.
Mentions of the bible or any religious overtones should be stricken from gadget sites. Don't people have their own boards for those sorts of things? There's no need for it.
egzagtly
Why do they need to issue a physical card? I carry my biometric info with me wherever I go.
Cards can be lost, stolen or damaged and are expensive.
I think the better investment is a wireless computing infrastructure with portable verification devices.
u really think the Indian administration can pull that off ???
The biometric stuff is to make sure cards aren't faked, although in the west they handily used the opportunity to gather a facial shot they can feed into facial recognition systems that can be linked to CCTV cameras everywhere, and fingerprints they can lift, but that is supposedly not the purpose of biometric stuff, it's to prevent forgery is the story.
hmm, too many comments.
hope your sinuses are clear
Nope, can't be done.
Too many things to do.
I will do the ID work and you do all of the above
Motorolla spent billions of dollars to get a chip running on heated blood. Turns out it only works in the forehead and right hand.
Every Law that comes out you Ignorant americans have less freedom. Slowly in time you will be doing anything the goverment tells you to do. Brainwashing you and forcing you through the police. If they can watch us, Listen to us, and prosecute us what makes you think they can't come out with a law that involves killing you ? I laugh about these ignorant americans who give up their freedom to a bunch of lies and some security. I rather die before the goverment puts any chip inside of me. They can go F**K themselfs.
Hurray for India.
Now when will America get off it's "cutting edge technology" ass and issue a national ID?
Also, for all you private/big brother twits: Having your name and photo in a file does not make you any more or less easy to round up, jackasses. If you were honestly concerned about being tracked and detained by 'big brother' you should've marched on washington and repealed the patriot act expansions which allowed them to hold you indefinitely without any evidence by slapping 'enemy combatant' on your forehead.
Good golly gosh. If we had a national biometric ID, we might actually cut down on ID theft and crime might go down because it'd be easier to identify criminals.
tl;dr version: Only criminals should fear being identified.
Amen. I only hope the Indian government doesn't corrupt this plan. And I think that, for efficiency's sake, this is a good idea, and I wonder why America hasn't done it yet.
Oh yeah. Privacy.
I don't see what the big deal about privacy is, because as long as you aren't committing murder or something, you have nothing to be worried about. People so concerned with privacy should never EVER use the Internet or a cell phone, then, because those could relay such important data as "I'm going to the grocery store today" or "my middle name is Susan". It's not like Big Brother is really watching (or even caring about) you or anything.
"Only criminals should fear being identified."
mmmmm, complacency. best served with an overzealous government
The issue of privacy is dead. It doesn't exist anymore. We all are forced to sign a social contract, whether we want to or not, if we wish to take part in a modern society. The issue now is how do we control the data that is recorded about us? If we have no say about how our personal information is disseminated, then we have truly lost a great deal of freedom. The complacency exhibited by the previous two posters, and everyone else that believes that "if you dont do anything wrong, you have nothing to fear", are going to lead us, as a society, down a path we certainly do not want to go.
America already did, all ID's issued have to comply to a federal standard now and be in a central database the federal guys can access, you should read your government's sites/announcements more often.
There was an exemption for people over 50 or something, but even that was only a few years as I recall, was a while ago that I read it.
Also you need a passport or equivalent to get into the US if you visited mexico or canada, in case you missed that info too.
Dude, despite the shockingly obvious problems India still works.
That's the bottom line.
I don't like the privacy threat that this presents. If this would go forward (in any country) I'd imagine there should be a federal level agency to regulate how the data is used, what is permissiable to look at, etc. That agency, call it "Citizen Data Regulatory Watchdog Agency" for now, would look out for citizens rights being abused - something akin to the ACLU or EFF in the USA.
Regarding use of biometric data - remember that India is a country where there is MASS ILLITERACY. I mean, voting is conducted with both use of text AND associated symbol for those who are illiterate. So, you can't really rely on a signature. And there may not be enough political will to propose and implement an ID card with a photo either.
I do wonder who will get the contract for all those little plastic "smart cards"...
--S
and what if I live there and I don't want one?
A fine I guess, and the same trick they use in europe, you need an ID to get a job, to have one when job inspection comes around while working, to have a bank account, to use any service from the government, to get medical treatment, to walk on the street, to get power, to get natural gas to rent a house to travel over a distance longer than 50 miles, and if you don't they hold you for a day and try to fine you, people soon comply.
"Paint to paint stripes on the roads"? Maybe they should build proper roads first. Hell, even the main highway in West Bengal is filled with potholes if I remember correctly.
Although the US does not have a "national" ID, it has many forms of IDs linked through your SS#. This national ID system probably has the same info as that found on a US driver's license. But get a copy of your credit report and you'll be astounded that private information does not seem to be so private in the Land of the Free.