MUMBAI (Reuters) - As India gears up to build the largest biometric database in the world with the aim of providing most of its 1.2 billion citizens a Unique Identification (UID), perhaps the biggest challenge is smudged fingerprints.
The UID Authority of India will issue the first UIDs linked to a person's demographic and biometric information between August and February, and issue about 600 million such IDs over the next five years to help verify citizens quickly and cheaply. It will be a boon for companies and government agencies alike.
It would give millions of Indians the means to open a bank account, buy a mobile phone, and access welfare services easily, while saving companies and government agencies the expensive and time-consuming process of verifying and establishing identities.
"The UID will hopefully enable better targeting, identification of beneficiaries, and plug leakages. If you can improve targeting by even 5-10 percent, it would be a big deal."
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