IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The threat of terrorist attacks and illegal immigration are pushing the use of electronic identity (e-ID) cards as a means to quickly validate the identity of citizens. In spite of financial constraints governments across Europe are investing in new e-ID management technologies, such as contactless chips, biometric identification, and public-key infrastructure, as they consider e-services a cost-effective way to help mitigate security concerns that affect nations all over the globe. Nonetheless, official e-ID deployment will take a while as the technology is still expensive and the market fragmented.

Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship Minister Ahmad Hanandeh said Saturday that Jordan has gone a long way towards digitized government services, as more than half a million Jordanians have activated their digital ID to easily and quickly access e-services.

In a panel discussion entitled "future services", which was held at the government forum "The Modernization Vision: a year on", Hanandeh said the digital register will give citizens access to all government services, adding that his ministry is working with government institutions to validate their procedures.

Paradip Port is one of the major ports of India, serving both the eastern and central parts of the country. Of the 1,715 fishermen in the area, only 250 have received their unique BFICs at a function held in the village, attended by the Director of Fisheries PK Mohan and Commandant of the Coast Guard, Anil Sharma.  According to the article, as many as 21,695 fishermen of 96 villages in the Jagatsinghpur district as well as approximately 18,000 fishermen of the 109 villages in Kendrapada are going to get the new BFICs.

As BiometricUpdate.com has previously mentioned, Indonesia committed US$600 million to provide a national identity card to all of its 172 million residents. The Asian nation has introduced a new eID credential to replace all existing identity cards. The cards, entitled Kartu Tanda Penduduk Elektronik, or e-KTP for short, will be used for voter registration, passport issuance, tax payments and to verify identity for social assistance.

The announcement was made at the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) Eighth Symposium and Exhibition on MRTDs, Biometrics and Security Standards in Montreal.

The new cards are identified as Smart National Identity Card (SNIC), Smart National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (SNICOP) and Smart Pakistan Origin Card (SPOC).

Designed to curtail insurgency and other criminal challenges, this new objective will ultimately issue unique identity numbers to Nigerians, not unlike the Aadhaar program initiated by the Unique Identity Authority of India, which similarly aims to capture the biometrics of all of India’s 1.2 billion habitants.

“In order to use national eID cards and electronic health cards on the internet, a corresponding software application running on the computer system of each citizen is required,” the company said in an announcement on its website. “Interoperability across borders is achieved by supporting the international standard ISO/IEC 24727.”

Veridos has won a contract with The Republic of Zambia to deliver polycarbonate electronic ID cards to the country.

Based on the German eID card concept, there is a contactless security chip embedded in the new ID card which supports multiple applications for biometric identification, authentication, and digital signature services. International standards including X.509 certificates for secure authentication are applied and biometric information is stored on the card

While the UAE’s national ID process is a precursor and far nearer completion compared to systems in South East Asia, both the Indian and the Bangladesh systems of issuing IDs provide insight into how to manage the process for extremely large populations.

Around the world, governments and businesses are implementing digital identification programs with mixed results and adoption levels. Yet when carefully designed, “good” use of digital ID programs can help people participate more fully in their economy and society. That can create enormous economic value and inclusive growth. According to a new McKinsey Global Institute report, high adoption of digital ID with the right principles can help unlock 3% economic value equivalent of GDP in advanced economies and as much as 6% in emerging economies on average.

“Out of the target to allot unique identities to 600 million people by 2014, around 100 million will be covered in first (fiscal) year,” said an official of the project’s nodal agency Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), requesting anonymity.

The target for the programme, also known as Aadhaar, is possible as the authority is collaborating with national welfare schemes such as the rural job-guarantee programme and the public distribution system, as well as with state governments, to enroll existing beneficiaries in its database, the official said.

"We have to cover 1.2 billion people. In the next 4 years, our target is to enroll 600 million people," he said after an event at the prestigious Doon School here.

Nilekani said only 3 million people have so far been covered since the launch of the project in September 2009.

Under the order, for the next three months the Cabinet Ministers is to prepare and submit to the President the description, specification and sample of the identification card of a citizen of Azerbaijan, to contain an electronic carrier (chip). The President ordered to place the data on the citizen’s domiciliary registration, his family status, fingerprints and other personal biometric indicators in the ID electronic carrier (chip).

In an interview with APA on Wednesday, the Mozambican coordinator of the ID card project, Paul Fobes said the project was part of Mozambique’s e-government strategies to enhance the implementation of other strategies in the electronic world.

After sparring with the home ministry over biometric data collection and national security concerns, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has found itself in a new row, this time with the state-owned postal network. The authority says India Post is delaying the delivery of letters informing residents of the unique identity numbers allotted to them under the government’s Aadhaar project.

The upshot is that the authority, led by Infosys Ltd co-founder Nandan Nilekani, is considering handing the job of delivering the letters to private sector firms.

Experts converging at the VCCircle Insights on The Aadhaar Project, held at the ITC Grand Central, Mumbai, discussed the implications in great details. The event did witness prominent investors, architects and builders behind the initiative meeting on a common platform to discuss its mission, as well as the investable opportunities created by the project.

Starting from October this year Dubai residents will be able to access all government services using their Emirates ID, Dubai eGovernment announced on Monday.

MyID is a new initiative launched by eGovernment in cooperation with the Emirates Identity Authority (Emirates ID). The initiative will cover all government entities in Dubai and will include more than 20 government entities in its first phase.

The Department offers this new service via devices which enable the user to pay outstanding fines and fees, type the registration cards and receive it from the device itself without having to wait for their turn at the customer service counter.

The UN official said that the United Nation Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM) of the e-Government Economic and Social Affairs seeks to work with Emirates ID and to bolster cooperation between the two sides, hoping that the results of those mutual efforts will have positive impacts on developing the UAE smart government initiative.