UID verification via Mobile
When we last wrote about the UID, we mentioned how the growing mobile phone network could help verifying the identities of individuals and provide an initial databank. Today, the mobile user network is tending towards a whopping 500 million. And by the next 4 years, close to half the mobile users will be able to use their mobile phone to verify their identities.
Now, a recent news story announces mobile phones will verify the credentials of an individual. The scope for utility is endless. Few months back, we wrote about the expansion of the mobile into rural regions. Another related post spoke about the rural job market and the potential for expansion. If mobile phones become the verifying agent, easy verification will help the job market as well.
As stated by Nilekani earlier, the UID is not a card, it is merely a number. He formally announced this by saying “Our project will provide a unique identification (UID) number not a card. The authentication will be made by using mobile phones.”
The process as explained by the former Infosys MD goes as follows. Once the numbers are issued, authentication will be done online. For example, if applying for a job via the NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), the authorities will send the number to designated points via mobila. A message confirming your identity will be returned. Authorities may also use the resident’s fingerprint, send it via mobile to cross-check with the database (this from another news report which failed to mention how exactly the finger-print will be sent – MMS? E-mail?)
While delivering the Foundation Day lecture of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), he said that the scheme will not require many details to be divulged. It is especially beneficial to those seeking employment from the government as it will enable moving from state and state.
The UID will enable verification across several places from banks, to mobile service providers, to LPG gas connection counters.
He reiterated the idea we expressed earlier. The mobile phone database is updated, and more importantly widespread. Since it is new and growing at the rate of around 15 million users a month, the data is already digital and can be sorted and utilised effectively. Once the UIDs come out, the mobile number can easily be compared with the UID of the individual.
Few questions that arose in my mind from the news articles on the same. Will your mobile number matter? So, what if it gets stolen. How important a role will it play? If it’s the number that matters so much, then MNP coming in is probably a godsend.
His team is expected to roll out the first batch of UIDs in the next 12-18 months. An estimated 600 million UIDs should be out in the next five years.
How various organisations will choose to use the UID might vary, but from what can be estimated frrom his talk, the focus is very clearly on empowering the rural man. Of course, the mobile phone database might only be the beginning. And though the mobile is one of the ways your identity can be verified, it need not be the only one. What other ways can the UID help? Only time will tell.
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