IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

What is Aadhaar?

Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique number which will be issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to all residents of the country. It's a step towards putting India in the club of more than 50 countries around the world that have some form of national identity cards. These include most of continental Europe (not the UK), China, Brazil, Japan, Iran, Israel and Indonesia. The number will be stored in a centralized database and linked to the basic demographics and biometric information photograph, ten fingerprints and iris of each individual. The number will be unique and would be available for online and offline verification and, hence, will rule out the possibility of duplicate and fake identities from government as well as various private databases.

Over 2.5 crore job card holders registered under Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA) could be affected by the rural development ministry’s decision to introduce biometrics to the scheme.

The job cards of beneficiaries in 200 districts across India are set to expire in 2011. The process of job card renewal under the biometric system would take six months to two years. This would deny the registered people 100 days of guaranteed work.

A top level expert group is being established to report to Government within six months under the eGovernment initiative to introduce a standardised framework for a Public Service Card (PSC). The aim is to develop a standard for Public Service Cards that acts as a key for access to services, identifying and authenticating individuals as appropriate and where required.

Use of biometrics has long been touted as the best way to overcome the vulnerabilities associated with password- and token-based authentication. With nonbiometric authentication, as long as people enter the correct combination of user name and password, either memorized or generated, they are granted access, regardless of who they actually are—users are authenticated but not positively identified.

This inherent weakness is forcing companies with valuable information assets to seek better ways to control access. In this report, we examine the benefits and drawbacks of biometrics as a means of authentication, provide a snapshot of available biometric authentication technology and consider what the future may hold when it comes to this intriguing technology.

Als Identitätsdiebstahl erachtet die Behörde dabei vor allem Fälle mit wirtschaftlichen Folgeschäden, etwa Kontenmissbrauch (geschätzt 4,4 Millionen Betroffene) oder Kreditkartenbetrug (6,2 Millionen). 1,8 Millionen Menschen seien sogar mehrmals von solchen illegalen Machenschaften berührt gewesen. Jeder vierte musste finanzielle Einbußen in Kauf nehmen, die sich durchschnittlich auf 1870 US-Dollar beliefen.

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) says the providers will be in charge of issuance, renewal, suspension, reinstating and revocation of the certificates, among other things. This will make online or web-based transactions secure and facilitate signing of email or electronic documents to ensure the integrity of their content.

In contrast with the current 'Personal Identification Documents Law' ('Personu apliecinošu dokumentu likums', in Latvian), the new draft law specifies the eID card types.

The bill states that identity cards will be available to: Latvian citizens and non-citizens, nationals of another European Union country, the European Economic Area or Swiss residing in Latvia; third-country nationals; Foreign Ministry-accredited foreign diplomatic and consular missions; representatives of international organisation; and consular institutions staff and their family members.

The e-Government portal provides several services to the public while providing security to its users. Secure signing-in is done through the electronic key referred to as the e-ID which shows that the users are who they claim to be.

All e-Governance programs must remain citizen-centric as technology itself tends to become alienated to the needs of the people unless the citizens' social fabric is integrated with it.

“Single logons will make life easier for individuals and businesses. The costs of creating and maintaining a separate logon each time a new service is required will disappear. In addition, protection against emerging Internet security threats will be beefed up," said Trevor Mallard, State Services Minister.

The May 27 Budget may provide specific funds to further develop the government’s online authentication scheme.

There could be some cash for the IT industry out of the Budget’s $14.8 million funding for electronic authentication development.

“It is great that a New Zealand company, Datacom, has been selected to provide the infrastructure for this all-of-government authentication solution – a solution that is unique to New Zealand, and one with privacy at its core," Trevor Mallard said.