Planning Commission readies unique e-tags to ensure welfare schemes
March 17, 2007, Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee and Joji Thomas Philip, The Economic Times
India may soon have a unique identification number (UIN) similar to the American social security number system. Below-poverty-line (BPL) individuals would be the first to be given the UIN for the administration of government welfare schemes. The IT and communications ministry will be co-ordinating a nationwide initiative and the technological aspects of such a mechanism. This make take the form of a number, a photocard or a biometric card, which would also facilitiate e-governance programmes. Work is also underway to build a database to generate the UIN. The department of telecommunications (DoT) demands that all telephone subscribers be verified, and the telecom sector has approached the government for the creation of a UIN.