Whose ID is it anyway? Chidu's or Nilekani's? And RBI says no

It seems as if Nandan Nilekani’s grandiose Aadhaar Unique ID project will not be all that it is cracked up to be: a simple 12-digit number that will serve as both identity and authentication for all 1.2 billion-and-odd resident Indians.

Many players are planning to throw a spanner in the works.

The Reserve Bank says Aadhaar is not good enough to open a bank account - for its address proof rigours are skimpier than what the central bank has mandated in its know-your-customer (KYC) rules . Even without Aadhaar, KYC rules are giving nightmares to customers anyway.

The home ministry says the data collected by the Unique ID project is not good enough for its own National Population Register (NPR) - a project to provide citizens with identity cards. A Business Standard report says the home ministry wants to collect its own data since it finds the Unique ID Authority of India’s (UIDAI’s) data unreliable. It also thinks iris scanning is a waste of money.

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The newspaper quotes a top NPR source as saying: “We can collect the data for the whole country by 2014 and at half the cost.” Not unthinkable, since the home ministry uses free census workers at the state level to gather its NPR data, while UIDAI pays Rs 50 per person to registrars involved in biometric data collection.

The finance ministry, eager to trim expenses where it can, is now planning to take a pair of scissors to Nilekani’s budget saying the same work is being duplicated.

[caption id=“attachment_96628” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Chidambaram and Nilekani are planning to spend real money to do essentially the same thing. AFP”]  [/caption]

While the home ministry’s NPR-cum-national identity cards project is budgeted to cost Rs 13,438 crore, UIDAI’s project for collecting biometric information from every resident India is to cost Rs 17,864 crore.

That’s a total cost of Rs 31,302 crore for two ID projects that are essentially gathering the same data from the same people.

The Planning Commission is planning to stick a knife in by saying UIDAI’s finances must be subject to proper oversight. It is suggesting a full-time financial advisor to look at Nilekani’s books.

Dr Manmohan Singh, here’s a scam you can take credit for nipping in the bud.

You and Sonia_ji_ have just made Pranab Mukherjee and P Chidambaram shake hands over the 25 March 2G note. Mukherjee and Chidambaran - whatever their private quarrel - are your right and left hands.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia of the Planning Commission is your pal. And Nandan Nilekani was hand-picked by you to create the Unique ID architecture and issue 12-digit numbers to all residents of this country.

Dr D Subbarao, Reserve Bank Governor, is also a good man doing a job you did earlier. So you know his sensitivities, too.

But if each one of them is doing his own thing, we may end up with two ID projects at double the cost. And, at the end of it all, if we get a UID number that the Reserve Bank won’t accept, why pour so much money down the drain?

Your government is saying 2G did not result in any loss as it was a policy decision to give spectrum to all comers in 2008 at 2001 prices.

But Chidambaram and Nilekani are planning to spend real money to do essentially the same thing.

Surely, this is one thing you can stop before it becomes a full-blown scam? All you need to do is get these five gentlemen in one room to sort things out.