National Identity Card

We need national identity card to ease all other services. These should be different for different purposes, but it should be possible to apply for all of them together. The identities are needed for following:

• photo
• signature
• birthdate
• address
  

This card should provide every resident (citizen or not) with a identity number and associate it with a biometric ID stored in central database. This does not contain address because address is not permanent. It is valid proof of address if it is updated once in a quarter. This is also required for non-residents so that their whereabouts are known when they come for study/work in india. This should be 'guest' card. It will help national security.

Getting and maintaining this card should be very easy. There should be a machine just like ATM to do this which can be installed in some government office etc. It should have a fingerprint reader and a photo scanner. People just go there, enter address-signature, put hand on scanner, face in front of camera and just click. It should generate an identity card with those details and also send the data to the server.

Address is valid only when validated every quarter. Updating should be as simple as when postman comes to deliver letter, he can attest it. The addresses should be geographical and mapped to a unique address on map. Also, the geo information system of the govt should store address as latitute and longitude.

This id can be used as entry point for other ids. It can be associated with a PAN card, SSN, bank account, etc. So with one card, govt knows if the person is paying taxes on time, his DL, his credit history, voter-id etc.

People will see benefit in this card and come for it. It can help people in many ways.

People can get phone/mobile connections immeditately. Also, other utility connections like e;ectricity, cable, gas will be faster.

Bank interaction will become faster. Accounts can be opened immediately. Credit history will enable users in getting faster loans.

Further govt services and benefits can be channeled thru it. Because of its simplicity, it will become hit. thought needs to be put so that malicious people cannot exploit the system.

Though govt has linked several information, access to that information like biometric id, bank balance and credit history should be accessible only when allowed by the person.

This will allow other govt interactions to be faster. like passport, PAN, gas, electricity and electoral id card can become easy to get.

Govt can also have schemes like giving benefits to people who have paid their taxes. For example free telephone. Many govt schemes are impeded just because it is difficult to track where the funds are going.