New Delhi:
Establishing the identity of any person would be a cellphone call away once the ambitious Unique Identity Project (UIP) becomes operational, perhaps making it the first such initiative across the world.
The UIP, which aims to build a database on details of every Indian resident, will provide authorities to cross-check identities of persons they are dealing with using a cellphone, Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman Nandan Nilekani said in New Delhi on Sunday.
"If anybody wants to confirm the identity of a person, all he has to do is to take the thumbprint or fingerprint of the person on a cellphone and send it across to the central database and receive authentication within seconds," he said delivering the CSIR Foundation Day Lecture in New Delhi.
He said the UIDAI was in the process of designing and developing systems that will make such navigation possible.
Nilekani said that UIDAI would perhaps be the first body in the world to make available online authentication where agencies can compare demographic and biometric information of the resident with the record stored in the central database.
However, the online authentication would be done only through a 'Yes or No' response and the UIDAI will not share resident data with the authorities, he said.