Nilekani,plan panel discuss progress made in UID project

Keen to settle down in his new assignment as the head of the Unique Identification Authority of India,Nandan Nilekani today began formal deliberations...

Keen to settle down in his new assignment as the head of the Unique Identification Authority of India,Nandan Nilekani today began formal deliberations with the Planning Commission on the contours of the authority.

Nilekani,the corporate face of the commission,held a comprehensive meeting with the top brass of the plan panel,including its deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia,to ascertain the progress made so far and the way forward on the crucial task entrusted to him by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Today,we gave a formal presentation to him (Nilekani) on the progress so far in the UID project. He had queries to which we gave our replies, plan panel secretary Subas Pani said. The former Infosys co-chairman was quite inquisitive during the course of the meeting,trying to ascertain dry details on ways to collate and utilise the available official database BPL card,EC identity card and utilise them under a single platform.

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This is the first of the series of meetings to be held in coming days. He said the project has made progress and the process would be taken forward in due course, Pani added.

The top officials of the commission are understood to favour establishing linkages between the UID project and the National Population Registry (NPR) databases,gathering photographs and fingerprints biometrics with NPR schedule and thereafter incorporating them to make an integrated UID database for various user organisations.

A source in the plan panel said Nilekani was confident of practically implementing the project within the timeframe. Under media glare ever since the announcement of his new assignment,the UID chief refused to comment on what transpired in the meeting. I will not talk to media at least for a month, was all he said. But the source said that he would likely take formal charge next week and would have his office in the commission.

As the UID authority,which still has to take final shape,would not have a field team,it would depend on support of the states to carry out operational activities involved in its implementation.