N Vittal to head UID demographic data standards panel

On his part, Unique identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman Nandan M Nilekani has been travelling across length and breadth, meeting stakeholders to prepare them for the massive exercise sensitising them on the onerous mission.

The UIDAI, likewise, has also been equally busy under Director General & Mission Director R S Sharma putting in place various panels to meet its  mammoth task.
In pursuit of this ambitious goal, the UIDAI has now formed two committees to ensure the authority meets its mandate within the timeline it has set for itself.

The authority has set up a nine member Biometric Strandards Committee headed by National Informatics Centre Chairman B K Gairola. Likewise, it has also constituted a 16-member Demographic Data Standards & Verification Procedure Committee with former Central Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal as Chairman. The Gairola panel will also have ICICI’s Pravir Vora, Registrar General of India’s C Chandramauli, RBI’s A  M Padagaonkar, among others including IIT Bombay and Kharagpur faculty.

Vittal will spearhead the team comprising ICICI Securities’ Madhavi Puri Buch, Department of Information Technology’s S R Rao, Hyerabad Rural Development Principal Secretary K Raju, and other officials drawn  from New Delhi, Assam, Jharkhand, including IIM Lucknow faculty.

According to Sharma the charter of biometric standards committee is to ensure interoperability of devices, systems and process used by various agencies that use the UID system. The key requirement of UID is to minimise/eliminate duplicate UIDs and improve the efficacy of service delivery.  

Review standards

The committee before framing the standards will review existing standards and modify/enhance them to achieve the goals for de-duplications and authentication.
Similarly, the demographic data standards panel will review existing ones and refine it to meet the purpose of UIDAI. The two panels, in turn, can set up technical committee and working groups for conducting/developing proof of concept studies. Both the panels have been given 90 days time to submit their final report, Sharma said.

Incidentally, from July to November, Nilekani, besides meeting various ministries, has held audiences with Planning Commission, Chief Information Commissioner, Chief Vigilance Commissioner, various State including Karnataka, besides IRDA, RBI, Venture Capitalists, and other financial institutions sharing and gathering inputs.