India has launched an ambitious program to fit each of its 1.2
billion residents with an Unique identification number (UID).
Each number will be tied into three pieces of biometric data:
fingerprints (all ten digits), iris scans (both eyes), and a
picture of the face. Starting this month, the Unique
Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will begin processing
people in various locations around the country. UIDAI aims to
slowly roll out the program through February of 2011 and to ID
600 million people in the next four years! This is a mammoth
program. While residents are not mandated to get a UID, a
growing list of services including social welfare and even some
bank accounts will soon require the identification number. If
successful, this will be the first biometrically verified
universal ID implemented on a national scale. India is forging
new ground, drawing both fears and hopes of what a national ID
number may bring with it. Ostensibly the UIDAI was formed, and
the idea of UID green-lighted, to help tho