Nandan Nilekani and National ID Card project

National ID card is a long cherished dream of a developing country like India.  I feel it is time for us to understand that change is the essence of life and the job is being executed by none other than an expert in the field of IT and he knows how to execute it with corporate touch and INFY is his testimony. 

- 'Nothing is going to change Indians' is passe and since development is a continuous process, it is time for all of us Prajas to look at the way forward for an India that can lead its poorest of the poor to the destiny of inclusive development which is the foundation of a democracy. 

- National ID card is only a beginning.

- All the best Nandan - go ahead - deliver and show to the world that India is a power to recognise and has the ability to take care of its masses with the help of IT to make their life that much comfortable by flaunting the ID card.

- Vasanthkumar Mysoremath

 In the interest of full disclosure I voted he wont succeed. Not because I dont want him to but that there are too many rickety systems that need to be changed as well.

It is going to be a federated model. Meaning there have to be local agencies with applications that will issue the number and consolidate centrally in a virtual model. We have to wait for the details. The roadmap has to be studied and the participating agencies capability questioned and evaluated for capability. He will need to put in lot of professionalism in each of these touch points else it will end up like the Bangalore police case with crime scene detection machines.

God speed NN

Looks Interesting....

The Union government's ambitious National ID Card project could be the single biggest event that can change the history of the nation, the country's IT security platform, Micro Secure Think Tank (MSTT) has predicted.

Presenting its findings and projections here today, MSTT said the size and scale would be the largest attempted and would take three-five years for its impact to register on individuals and society.

''Though we are habituated to look for results in a very short time, we would like to appeal to the society and the press to be patient before passing any judgement,'' MSTT president Vijay Mukhi said on the occasion.

The benefits of the ID project would be visible in cases of medical emergencies and election. In case of medical emergencies, vital information regarding the patients blood-group, allergies and medical records stored in the card can be used to save his or her life.

The smart card would also make it easier for people to fulfill their rights and duties as citizens through online voting.

The smart ID card will, however, also come with risks and dangers, said the report. Prominent among the risk is misuse of personal data. ''We cannot prevent our National ID card from being stolen, but we can ensure no personal information is stored on the card. A lot of people believe that if the data is encrypted, it would be protected from misuse. We are yet to see an encryption that cannot be broken using different methods. We must assume an environment where connectivity, especially wireless, will be given. If we store data on the smart card itself, it will be misused,'' the report stated.

The report also suggested that transparency of the funds invested should be the order of the day. Following the US, the report said, ''We must use the xBRL so that no one can accuse the Government of corruption as everything is on the web and transparent using technology.'' It also advocated inviting hackers and crackers to test the security of the ID Card system, and said the government must anticipate this threat when designing the card. ''There is one certainity with smart cards-they will get hacked, cracked and broken into. The government will say they are tamper-proof, but some hackers will break the security surrounding it. The card will find itself in the hands of every government. There is no such thing as 100 per cent security,'' the report warned.

''Security must be an open and not a closed process. We expect the government to actually conduct international hacking conferences and offer a reward of USD one million for the first hacker. Anyone in the world who wants to experiment with the card must be offered one, so that the government would know how strong its security is. Our belief is that the first lot of cards should be broken very easily,'' Mr Mukhi said.