Aadhar elicits global attention

Aadhar — India’s Unique Identification Number project — is creating ripples across the world. Domestic debate and criticism notwithstanding, queries have been pouring in from across the world about how a project of such huge enormity is being executed by India.

Accordingly, a presentation  for foreign diplomats detailing on the project would be soon held. And the person fielding all the queries may be UIDAI chief, Nandan Nilekani, who is expected to make a presentation before a gathering of foreign diplomats in New Delhi.

“We have been getting requests for such an event from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Growing interest in UIDAI has been felt at various diplomatic levels,” government sources familiar with the developments told DNA.

“Details of the programme and the presentation are being worked out in consultation with the MEA,” a senior UIDAI official told DNA.

Sources said interest in knowing more about UIDAI and its implementation has been expressed by a number of foreign diplomats, including those from the United States and other European and Western nations.

“UIDAI is the single largest IT project of its kind to have ever been executed by any country. This fact itself raises innumerable questions, the biggest being how we were handling it,” a senior UIDAI official, said.

Currently, the world’s largest biometric database is with the US-Visit programme, which has data of about 100 million people. US-Visit is short for United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology.

It is a security, immigration and border management system. UIDAI’s targeted database of 1.2 billion people is far ahead of any such project. So far, UIDAI has already issued nearly 30 million numbers.

A UIDAI official said it’s important to also convey to the world that Aadhar is a “social-developmental initiative” for the benefit of the people of India, and is not related to our “internal security concerns” as a number of queries have sought to know.

The ministry of external affairs has already dispatched invitations to all foreign missions in India. The event is scheduled for October 19th at the auditorium in Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti Bhavan.