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| SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY |
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Providing
unique ID to India
Prof Yash
Pal This Universe Trends |
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Providing unique ID to India THE unique identification project was initially envisioned by the Planning Commission with a vision of facilitating the growing needs of India and ensuring that development penetrates till the bottom of all sections of our country. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is an initiative that would provide identification to each resident of India and would be used primarily as the basis for efficient delivery and monitoring of various social welfare services. UIDAI is issuing a 12-digit unique identification number known as “Aadhaar”, a nationally valid proof of identification for all residents that will enable them to get access to host of social welfare benefits and services. It would also act as a tool for effective monitoring of various programmes and schemes administered by the government. The Aadhaar number will be easily verifiable in an online and cost-effective way and will identify individuals uniquely on the basis of their demographic and biometric information. Aadhaar will especially empower the poor and underprivileged residents to easily avail various services. Despite of introduction of various economic and social welfare programmes by the government, access to such programmes has remained scarce in rural India, and for the poorest residents in the country because of lack of identification proof. For instance, in spite of effective reach of various new and innovative financial services, the proportion of rural residents who lack access to bank accounts still remains at 40 per cent, merely because of lack of a proper proof of identity. By providing a clear proof of identity, Aadhaar will empower poor and underprivileged residents in accessing services such as social development schemes and the formal banking system and give them the opportunity to easily avail various other services provided by the government and the private sector. Aadhaar number will identify individuals uniquely on the basis of their demographic information and biometrics and give them the means to clearly establish their identity to public and private agencies across the country. The verification process to get an Aadhaar number is simple and not prone to harassment and at the same time, credible. As the main purpose of the Aadhaar is inclusion, especially of the poor, the verification process is formulated in such a manner that it does not compromise the credibility of the inputs and also not result in exclusion of the poor. Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India, has been entrusted with the task of issuing identity numbers. With headquarter in Delhi and regional offices in Bangalore, Chandigarh, Delhi, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Lucknow, Mumbai and Ranchi, UIDAI has partnered with various Registrars across the country to enrol residents for the number. Such Registrars include state governments, state Public Sector Units (PSUs), banks, telecom companies, etc. These Registrars may in turn partner with enrolling agencies to enrol residents in Aadhaar. Since the launch of Aadhaar in August 2009, UIDAI has issued Aadhaar numbers to roughly 10 million residents and aims to issue 600 million over the next five years. The Aadhaar team, comprising Registrars in the form of various state governments, public sector undertakings and other civil agencies, are constantly working towards achieving the target. UIDAI in conjunction with its partners has already initiated the enrolment process in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tripura, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Orissa. Currently, about 1-2 lakh enrolments are done every day and will reach 1 million per day by October this year. The enrolment process has recently picked up its pace in Himachal Pradesh after the official launch in January 2011. The process has been actively started in Kangra, Una, Mandi, Kulu, Chamba and Hamirpur districts generating around 1.80 lakh Aadhaar numbers till now. UIDAI in partnership with the Himachal Pradesh government is aiming to accomplish the enrolment target of 68 lakh by December 2011. Aadhaar’s roll-out is further scheduled to begin in Shimla, Kinnaur, Bilaspur, Solan and Sirmour districts by June 2011. Haryana is also geared up to launch Aadhaar in four blocks. In the forthcoming three months, the state is planning to enrol around 10 lakh residents. Meanwhile, introducers’ enrolment has already been started across the four developmental blocks of Ambala, Sonepat, Karnal and Sirsa. Punjab is also scheduled to soon roll out Aadhaar in all the 22 districts in one go and targeted to achieve the enrolment goal by the year 2012. Since the launch of Aadhaar in Delhi in October 2010, around 1 lakh Aadhaar numbers have been generated in Delhi. UIDAI has partnered with government and non-government agencies such as Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), Mission Convergence, State Bank of India, India Post, etc., to cover the marginalised segment of people in Delhi. The government of Delhi aims to sweep the entire population by October 2011. The writer is Director-General and Mission Director, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Planning Commission, New Delhi
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This Universe Is it true that without earthquakes, there would be no rain, no vegetation and no life on earth? I do believe that without earthquakes, the earth would be a very different planet. But the reason is somewhat convoluted. Let us go through a reasoning process by first asking why do we have earthquakes. The general understanding is that they are due to movement of plates of continents that float on the melted material inside the earth. When these plates collide they cause havoc. The material comes out mostly in volcanoes very often in the middle of oceans. It keeps on forming the plates which slowly spread out the ocean floor. When these spreading plates come in contact with the continental plates they cause earthquakes and sometimes new volcanoes. The earthquakes are the result of the movements of these plates which are driven by the convection of the melted rocks and material. These collisions lead to formation of mountains and new continents. For example the Himalayas were formed when the Indian Ocean plate collided with the Asian plate about a hundred million years ago. This must have resulted in lot of earthquake activity and rising of Himalayas. This collision is still in progress and the Indian land mass is moving under China at a rate of a few centimeters a year. It is because of this collision that we have frequent earthquakes in the Himalayan range. The big earthquakes in Japan and Indonesia are also the result of such tectonic activity. Without going into further details in this regard, one can say that our plant may not have had any mountains, or continents, if this massive below earth activity was not proceeding unabated. This activity was necessarily accompanied by earthquakes, small and large, accompanied by disastrous happenings like tsunamis. If the solid continents had not emerged, the oceans would have covered the earth all around to a depth of more than a kilometer. So, how could we think of our life with plants and trees and mountains and valleys? Thus, earthquakes are a necessary component of the formation of our planet and us.
Readers wanting to ask Prof Yash Pal a question can e-mail him at palyash.pal@gmail.com
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Trends CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida:
Space shuttle Atlantis, carrying a crew of four and food and other supplies critical for the International Space Station, is set to vault into orbit on Friday on the final flight in the 30-year US shuttle programme. The lift-off is expected to draw as many as 750,000 tourists to sites near Atlantis' seaside launch pad, as they jostle for a final glimpse of NASA's workhorse spacecraft rising atop its trademark tower of smoke and flames. Meanwhile, After the US space shuttle programme ends this month, NASA will rely on Russia and its Soyuz craft to deliver Americans to the International Space Station-at a cost of more than $50 million a seat. That could change relatively soon as three companies develop commercial space taxis to launch from the US- Boeing Co., Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX, and Sierra Nevada Corp.
Asia pollution blamed for halt in warming LONDON: Smoke belching from Asia's rapidly growing economies is largely responsible for a halt in global warming in the decade after 1998 because of sulfur's cooling effect, even though greenhouse gas emissions soared, according to a US study. The paper raised the prospect of more rapid, pent-up climate change when emerging economies eventually crack down on pollution.
Huge rare earth deposits found in Pacific TOKYO: Vast deposits of rare earth minerals, crucial in making high-tech electronics products, have been found on the floor of the Pacific Ocean and can be readily extracted, Japanese scientists said. “The deposits have a heavy concentration of rare earths. Just one square kilometer (0.4 square mile) of deposits will be able to provide one-fifth of the current global annual consumption," said Yasuhiro Kato, an associate professor of earth science at the University of Tokyo.
— Reuters
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THE
unique identification project was initially envisioned by the Planning
Commission with a vision of facilitating the growing needs of India
and ensuring that development penetrates till the bottom of all
sections of our country. The Unique Identification Authority of India
(UIDAI) is an initiative that would provide identification to each
resident of India and would be used primarily as the basis for
efficient delivery and monitoring of various social welfare services.
