Nilekani, bankers discuss ways to achieve financial inclusion

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/nilekani-bankers-discuss-ways-to-achieve-financial-inclusion/369265.html

Nilekani, bankers discuss ways to achieve financial inclusion
PTI | 10:10 PM,Oct 01,2010
Mumbai, Oct 1 (PTI)Unique Identity Authority of India will rope in banks to further financial inclusion in the country, bankers said today after a meeting with UIDAI Chairman and ex-Infosys Chief, Nandan Nilekani, here today. Nilekani made a presentation to the bankers about his project which showed how synergies with banks can help achieve financial inclusion. Bank chiefs from across the spectrum like State Bank of India Chairman O P Bhatt, ICICI CEO Chanda Kochhar, HDFC Bank MD Aditya Puri and Standard Chartered’s Neeraj Swaroop, among others, were present, besides senior RBI officials and Union Secretary for Financial Services, R Gopalan. HDFC Bank Managing Director Aditya Puri said details regarding forging partnerships between UID and banks to further financial inclusion were among the points discussed at the meeting held at the RBI headquarters here. “UID will make it easier (for banks) to go into the interiors and a timeline for it will be worked out mutually,” Puri said. “Nandan Nilekani made a presentation to us…we discussed along with serving the excluded people, how can we make good business,” Indian Overseas Bank Chairman and Managing Director, S A Bhat, said. Under the UID, every resident of the country will be given an identity and experts feel it will help people in the rural areas as they will get a unique number for authentication purpose and help bring them into the system. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in a budget speech had set banks a target of taking financial services to 60,000 villages with a population of over 2,000 people.

UIDAI places $24.5-mn orders with L-1 Solutions

http://sify.com/finance/uidai-places-24-5-mn-orders-with-l-1-solutions-news-news-kj4bPfheieb.html

UIDAI places $24.5-mn orders with L-1 Solutions

BS Reporter | 2010-09-30 01:51:00

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has placed orders worth $24.5 million (Rs 110 crore) with L-1 Identity Solutions for finger and iris biometric capture devices for the initial phase of the UID programme. The orders include both Agile TP fingerprint slap devices and Mobile-Eyes iris cameras, both of which have been certified by the Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification Directorate of the Department of Information Technology (DIT).

Some units have already been shipped and the remainder is expected to ship now through March 2011.

The authority had selected three consortia to offer biometrics solutions to it to capture the fingerprints and iris scans of the 1.2 billion population of the country. The three consortia are being individually led by Accenture, Mahindra Satyam and L-1 Identity Solutions that will have algorithm and system integration providers in them.

The biometrics will be provided at the cost of Rs 2.75 per person, almost 70 per cent less than what the UIDAI had expected (Rs 9). Each biometric service provider (BSP) will receive Rs 2.75 per de-duplicated identity.

High FSI may curtail artificial realty price hike

http://www.hindustantimes.com/High-FSI-may-curtail-artificial-realty-price-hike/Article1-597910.aspx

High FSI may curtail artificial realty price hike
HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Mumbai, September 09, 2010

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will launch the national unique identity (UID) programme in tribal-dominated Nandurbar and Mumbai suburban district later this month. Chief Secretary, J.P. Dange said that the dates of the prime minister’s tour were not finalised. “It is a matter of great hour for
Maharashtra because the PM has selected our state to launch the national programme,” Dange said.
The biometric card will have 13 mandatory identification proofs, such as the impression of your eyes and fingerprints, all the information about your family.

The state government, which has teamed up with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), plans on collecting the information from November 1, and hopes to finish early next year. This programme will be called “ADHAR”.

Conceived by the Union Planning Commission, the UID will be given to each resident across the country. It will be used primarily as the basis for the efficient delivery of state welfare services.

The UID will also act as a tool for effective monitoring of state programmes and schemes. The Centre will give the state government a grant of Rs 50 each for the first 10 crore registrations. The remaining expenditure will be borne by the state government. The state government will give Rs 100 each for registering more than four crore people below poverty line.

Sonia nod for unique ID in PDS

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Sonia-nod-for-unique-ID-in-PDS/Article1-585379.aspx

Sonia nod for unique ID in PDS
Liz Mathew & Surabhi Agarwal, Hindustan Times

New Delhi, August 11, 2010First Published: 23:25 IST(11/8/2010)
Last Updated: 23:31 IST(11/8/2010)

The idea of using the unique identity (UID) programme to reform the public distribution system (PDS) appears to be gathering steam with Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi signalling her support for it. A Congress official said Gandhi had directed the government to initiate
discussions with the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) in this context. Officials from the agriculture ministry, including minister of state K.V. Thomas, met UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani in the latter’s office on Wednesday.
The government’s effort to involve UID — also known as Aadhaar — in PDS comes after the Supreme Court suggested so last month.

Aadhaar aims to provide every resident with a unique identification number that can serve as proof of identity for everything from opening a bank account to receiving government subsidy to getting grains and other products from ration shops, the last link in PDS.

An official in the agriculture ministry confirmed a meeting on Nilekani’s proposal took place on Wednesday. An UIDAI official declined comment.

The government has created a committee to prepare a road-map for the computerisation of PDS and to link it to the Food Corporation of India India (FCI) and UIDAI. Integration with the UID will be a major thrust of the panel, said an official in the department of information technology. FCI’s warehouses are the first link of PDS.

Mint reported the 27-July court order where the bench, while dealing with a report submitted by the justice D.P. Wadhwa committee on PDS, said: “The Union of India may consider computerisation in consultation with the agencies like the UIDAI or other agencies.”

The government was given two weeks to respond to the recommendations of the apex court which also includes exclusion of people living above the poverty line (APL) from the purview of PDS. The SC is scheduled to hear the matter on Thursday. . The report also pointed out that the court’s order had come ahead of a 30 August meeting of the National Advisory Council, or NAC, to review the role of UID in PDS.

Accenture bags UIDAI contract

http://www.thehindu.com/business/companies/article538593.ece

Accenture bags UIDAI contract

// Special Correspondent

New Delhi, July 28, 2010

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has awarded a contract to consulting firm Accenture to implement the core biometric identification system in support of the ‘Aadhaar’ programme that aims at providing all citizens with a unique identification number.

New system

Under the terms of the initial contract, which will run up to two years or until 20-crore enrolments (whichever comes first), Accenture will build a new system to help manage identity-related de-duplication and verification requests from public and private organisations.

The company will also assist UIDAI in performance benchmarking and management of data quality for continuous improvement of the biometric solution, in addition to operating and maintaining the system. The Accenture team includes Daon, a leading global provider of biometric technologies, and MindTree, a Bangalore-based global IT company that delivers innovative technology solutions.

Govt sanctions funds for unique identity numbers

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/govt-sanctions-funds-for-unique-identity-numbers/102380/on
Govt sanctions funds for unique identity numbers
Press Trust of India / New Delhi July 22, 2010, 14:31 IST

Government today sanctioned funds for the second phase of the ambitious scheme to allocate unique identity numbers to 10 crore of the country’s population.

The Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification Authority of India, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, approved the commencement of Phase II of the scheme at an estimated cost of Rs 3023.01 crore.

“Of this, an amount of Rs. 477.11 crore would be towards recurring establishment expenditure and Rs. 2,545.90 crore would be towards non-recurring project related expenditure,” an official spokesperson said.

The estimated cost includes project components for issue of 10 crore unique identity (UID numbers by March 2011 and recurring establishment costs for the entire project phase of five years ending March 2014.

The first set of 10 crore UID numbers are expected to be issued between August 2010 and March 2011. Thereafter, 600 million UID numbers are expected to be issued within the next three years. The UID project would provide unique numbers to all residents of India.

The UIDAI proposes to collect the demographic and biometric attributes of residents through various agencies of the Central and the State Governments and others who, in normal course of their activities, interact with the residents.

The UID project, established last year, is primarily aimed at ensuring inclusive growth by providing a form of identity to those who do not have any identity. It seeks to provide UID numbers to the marginalised sections of society and thus would strengthen equity, an official release said.

Apart from providing identity, the UID will enable better delivery of services and effective governance.

The Phase 1 of the scheme comprised setting up necessary infrastructure for offices at headquarters and regional headquarters, creating testing facilities for running the pilots and proof of concept (PoC) experiments, initial work of creating standards in various areas of operations.

Setting up of a project management unit and hiring of consultants for preparation of Detailed Project Reports for various components of the project also formed part of the first phase of the project.

The Phase I proposal was approved in November 2009.

The UIDAI has since established its Headquarters at New Delhi and six out of the eight Regional Offices.

Microfin cos want to be a UIDAI registrar

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/banking/finance/finance/Microfin-cos-want-to-be-a-UIDAI-registrar/articleshow/6136740.cms

Microfin cos want to be a UIDAI registrar
7 Jul 2010, 0132 hrs IST,Atmadip Ray,ET Bureau

KOLKATA: Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), which is the umbrella organisation for some 39-odd NBFC-turned microfinance players, has made a pitch before the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to become one of its registrars.

Interestingly, MFIN has direct access to a collective base of 25 million borrowers along with their family members. If the network gets the mandate from UIDAI, they can enable over 100 million people to get the unique identification number, or UID, on fast-track.

“UIDAI is a project of national importance. We would like to be part of this,” said the network’s president, Vijay Mahajan. Unique identification numbers will also help microfinance institutions track borrowers more effectively. “I have spoken to UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani. He even attended one of our meetings,” Mr Mahajan said.

As a registrar, the network will capture the demographic character like the name and address, date of birth and gender. It will also capture biometric attributes like face, all 10 fingerprints and iris scan on behalf of UIDAI.

Bandhan Financial Services managing director Chandra Shekhar Ghosh said: “Once our borrowers get their identification numbers, tracking their loan accounts will become much easier.”

RBI Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty agrees that UID would help in tracking loan customers.

MFIs, in general, have a healthy recovery record. Yet, they have turned cautious and have been exploring every possible avenue to secure their loans even as their business flourishes at jet speeds, which makes a case for tighter regulation and governance. The decision to approach UIDAI is seen as another move to counter possible delinquency at the earliest.

Mr Mahajan said UIDAI may give MFIN the mandate as a registrar in the third phase after involving state governments and financial institutions like banks or LIC in this project.

The UIDAI will verify the information provided by registrars and issue unique identification numbers to people. The first set of UID numbers will be rolled from August this year as announced in this year’s Budget.

The Nandan Nilekani-led project has already roped in at least 22 state governments, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and State Bank of India. Plans are afoot to involve RBI, Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), National Payments Corporation of India, Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology and 10 other public sector banks.

Meanwhile, SBI has signed an agreement with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to work as registrar to UIDAI. SBI has become the country’s first bank to take up the registration of UIDAI. The bank has a network of more than 12,000 branches and 17,000 customer service points through business correspondents.

The move is expected to fast track the implementation of the unique identification number project as SBI has a large customer base of more than 120 million available for enrolment. SBI has covered more than 1 lakh unbanked villages in the last two years through its new branches and aims another 50,000 this year.

Microfin cos want to be a UIDAI registrar

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/banking/finance/finance/Microfin-cos-want-to-be-a-UIDAI-registrar/articleshow/6136740.cms

Microfin cos want to be a UIDAI registrar
7 Jul 2010, 0132 hrs IST,Atmadip Ray,ET Bureau

KOLKATA: Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), which is the umbrella organisation for some 39-odd NBFC-turned microfinance players, has made a pitch before the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to become one of its registrars.

Interestingly, MFIN has direct access to a collective base of 25 million borrowers along with their family members. If the network gets the mandate from UIDAI, they can enable over 100 million people to get the unique identification number, or UID, on fast-track.

“UIDAI is a project of national importance. We would like to be part of this,” said the network’s president, Vijay Mahajan. Unique identification numbers will also help microfinance institutions track borrowers more effectively. “I have spoken to UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani. He even attended one of our meetings,” Mr Mahajan said.

As a registrar, the network will capture the demographic character like the name and address, date of birth and gender. It will also capture biometric attributes like face, all 10 fingerprints and iris scan on behalf of UIDAI.

Bandhan Financial Services managing director Chandra Shekhar Ghosh said: “Once our borrowers get their identification numbers, tracking their loan accounts will become much easier.”

RBI Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty agrees that UID would help in tracking loan customers.

MFIs, in general, have a healthy recovery record. Yet, they have turned cautious and have been exploring every possible avenue to secure their loans even as their business flourishes at jet speeds, which makes a case for tighter regulation and governance. The decision to approach UIDAI is seen as another move to counter possible delinquency at the earliest.

Mr Mahajan said UIDAI may give MFIN the mandate as a registrar in the third phase after involving state governments and financial institutions like banks or LIC in this project.

The UIDAI will verify the information provided by registrars and issue unique identification numbers to people. The first set of UID numbers will be rolled from August this year as announced in this year’s Budget.

The Nandan Nilekani-led project has already roped in at least 22 state governments, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and State Bank of India. Plans are afoot to involve RBI, Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), National Payments Corporation of India, Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology and 10 other public sector banks.

Meanwhile, SBI has signed an agreement with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to work as registrar to UIDAI. SBI has become the country’s first bank to take up the registration of UIDAI. The bank has a network of more than 12,000 branches and 17,000 customer service points through business correspondents.

The move is expected to fast track the implementation of the unique identification number project as SBI has a large customer base of more than 120 million available for enrolment. SBI has covered more than 1 lakh unbanked villages in the last two years through its new branches and aims another 50,000 this year.

MFIN offers a helping hand to UIDAI project

http://www.stockwatch.in/mfin-offers-helping-hand-uidai-project-28055

MFIN offers a helping hand to UIDAI project
Submitted by Ketan Sharma on Thu, 07/08/2010 – 15:18

The Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) has expressed its desire to take part in the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) project that is headed by formed corporate icon Nandan Nilekani.

MFIN is a self-regulatory body with 39 MFIs and it represents about 80% of India’s microfinance sector that hands out loans to the tune of Rs24,000 crore. The body has a collective base of 2.5 crore borrowers and their family members that can be accessed by UIDAI.

MFIN President, Vijay Mahajan said, “UIDAI is a project of national importance. We would like to be part of this.”

“I have spoken to UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani. He even attended one of our meetings,” he added. The Unique identification numbers will also be helpful to the Micro finance institutions to find their borrowers more efficiently.

MFIN intends to be one of the registrars in the project. According to Mr Mahajan the body may get registrar license during the third phase of the allotments after the licenses have been given to state governments and banks and LIC.

Meanwhile, Mr Mahajan who also heads the Washington DC-based Consultative Group to Assist Poor (CGAP) has asked the banks in India to lend to microfinance institutions at an interest rate not more than 10% in the new base rate regime.

No cut in budget, says Unique ID Authority

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/no-cut-in-budget-says-unique-id-authority/401039/

No cut in budget, says Unique ID Authority
BS Reporter / New Delhi July 11, 2010, 0:48 IST

Officials rule out reports of an over 50% cut in grant.

Officials at the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) have denied reports of a more than 50 per cent cut in their budget. According to reports, the finance ministry has cut down UIDAI’s budget to Rs 3,000 crore from Rs 7,000 crore.

UIDAI officials said the body had been granted Rs 3,000 crore and it had received an in-principle approval for the rest, Rs 4,000 crore, from the ministry. However, the authority said this was an issue of the finance ministry. An official, on condition of anonymity, told Business Standard the Rs 3,000-crore grant would be used to pay the enrolling agencies.

UIDAI — which intends to issue 600 million Aadhaars, or unique identification (UID) numbers that will identify the 1.2 billion residents of the country on the basis of their biometrics, in the next four-and-a-half years beginning this August — will issue only 100 million unique numbers during this financial year. “We will issue 100 million unique numbers initially just to start the programme. However, the finance ministry’s concern is with the fact that though the Registrar General of India (RGI) is collecting demographic and biometric data, we wanted to collect these data from places where RGI can’t reach. Moreover, we can’t only rely on RGI. The ministry says that we shouldn’t be collecting this data as it will lead to duplication,” the official said.

RGI will submit a report to the government and the first Aadhaar is expected to be issued only in 2011. UIDAI intends to issue the first set of 16-digit unique numbers between August 2010 and February 2011.

Another point of contention is the authority’s proposal to pay Rs 100 to every poor person who registers his name with it.

“We want to pay Rs 100 to the poor because we feel that it is his one day’s earnings which will get lost when he comes to get enrolled. We want to compensate such people for their one day’s earnings lost by paying them,” said the official.

MindTree consortium leads race to bag UID biometric contract

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/software/MindTree-consortium-leads-race-to-bag-UID-biometric-contract/articleshow/6165104.cms

MindTree consortium leads race to bag UID biometric contract
14 Jul 2010, 0701 hrs IST,Harsimran Julka,ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: A consortium led by Bangalore’s MindTree Ltd and US-based Accenture has emerged the frontrunner to win a contract from the Unique ID Authority of India to perform biometric verification duties of more than a billion Indians, scoring a stunning upset over a handful of tech powerhouses, including Tata Consultancy Services.

The contract is valued at nearly Rs 200 crore initially as 10 crore Indians are due to get their Unique ID numbers in the first phase, but has the potential to grow substantially as more people are enrolled in the ambitious project.

The MindTree team, which includes biometric providers Daon of Ireland and Lithuania’s Nueurotechnologia, pitched the lowest at Rs 2.75 a biometric authentication, according to details of the financial bids available with ET.

MindTree’s bid is set to help it beat out at least eight companies such as TCS, the country’s largest software services exporter, Hewlett Packard, Mahindra Satyam and Unisys Corp, which were fancying their chances of grabbing UIDAI’s largest contract yet. The earlier one, an applications development contract worth Rs 30 crore, too was awarded to MindTree.

No cut in budget, says Unique ID Authority

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/no-cut-in-budget-says-unique-id-authority/401039/

No cut in budget, says Unique ID Authority
BS Reporter / New Delhi July 11, 2010, 0:48 IST

Officials rule out reports of an over 50% cut in grant.

Officials at the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) have denied reports of a more than 50 per cent cut in their budget. According to reports, the finance ministry has cut down UIDAI’s budget to Rs 3,000 crore from Rs 7,000 crore.

UIDAI officials said the body had been granted Rs 3,000 crore and it had received an in-principle approval for the rest, Rs 4,000 crore, from the ministry. However, the authority said this was an issue of the finance ministry. An official, on condition of anonymity, told Business Standard the Rs 3,000-crore grant would be used to pay the enrolling agencies.

UIDAI — which intends to issue 600 million Aadhaars, or unique identification (UID) numbers that will identify the 1.2 billion residents of the country on the basis of their biometrics, in the next four-and-a-half years beginning this August — will issue only 100 million unique numbers during this financial year. “We will issue 100 million unique numbers initially just to start the programme. However, the finance ministry’s concern is with the fact that though the Registrar General of India (RGI) is collecting demographic and biometric data, we wanted to collect these data from places where RGI can’t reach. Moreover, we can’t only rely on RGI. The ministry says that we shouldn’t be collecting this data as it will lead to duplication,” the official said.

RGI will submit a report to the government and the first Aadhaar is expected to be issued only in 2011. UIDAI intends to issue the first set of 16-digit unique numbers between August 2010 and February 2011.

Another point of contention is the authority’s proposal to pay Rs 100 to every poor person who registers his name with it.

“We want to pay Rs 100 to the poor because we feel that it is his one day’s earnings which will get lost when he comes to get enrolled. We want to compensate such people for their one day’s earnings lost by paying them,” said the official.

IT giants to bid for UIDAI tender for over $208 Million

http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/IT_giants_to_bid_for_UIDAI_tender_for_over_208_Million-nid-68971.html

IT giants to bid for UIDAI tender for over $208 Million

New Delhi: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), headed by Nandan Nilekani, is to invite tenders for over Rs. 1,000 crore aiming upliftment of the world’s largest citizen database with more than 1.2 billion people. As reported by Harsimran Julka for Economic Times, IT giants like IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Wipro, TCS, Accenture and Infosys are to bid for the project.

According to the government, corporations having annual revenue of over Rs. 6,000 crore and net worth of Rs. 4,000 crore are eligible for biding. Moreover, it should also have at least 4,000 technical employees with about 2,000 employees in database administration field. The bidder will be required to possess a pan-India virtual private network for providing network services. The selected managed service provider will be the integrator to all other technology companies providing a Unique ID service to Indian citizens.

All applications will have to be integrated by the managed service provider and it will also have to plan outbound logistics for delivery of the Unique ID number. Apart from looking after the budget, transition (of vendors) and security for the entire project, it will also be responsible for documentation, training and knowledge transfer for the project.

While MindTree and Intelenet are selected for application development and BPO services, the biometric provider is not yet chosen. All de-duplication and verification requests from various agencies are to be handled by the biometric solution firm.

Mindtree shares rose after the company received an application development and maintenance services contract from “Aadhaar”

http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/IT-Newsletter-June-14-to-June-18-2010/4865532287 India Infoline News Service / 11:36 , Jun 21, 2010

The multi-year contract involves designing, developing, testing, maintaining and providing help desk services from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Bangalore technology centre, the company said in a filing with BSE. Financial details were not disclosed.

Top Stories Mindtree bags contract for UID project Mindtree shares rose after the company received an application development and maintenance services contract from “Aadhaar”, previously known as unique identification (UID) project. The multi-year contract involves designing, developing, testing, maintaining and providing help desk services from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Bangalore technology centre, the company said in a filing with BSE. Financial details were not disclosed. “Aadhaar” will authenticate every Indian in terms of his or her identity based on bio-metric verification. With a massive information base of 1.2 billion people and the ongoing collection, validation, issue and constant verification of identity, project “Aadhaar” will require one of the most complex IT architectures ever created and a software implementation that would become a benchmark for years to come. Read below Anil Patwardhan, Vice President, Finance, KPIT Cummins Infosystems Ltd TCS signs outsourcing contract with Telenor Norway Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) signed a multi-year outsourcing contract with Telenor Norway. The contract comprises application maintenance and development services and will involve a modernization of Telenor’s Norway’s application portfolio across its OSS, Fixed, Mobile, Datawarehouse and Accounting system domains. Through this new second generation outsourcing initiative, Telenor Norway will improve its operational efficiency, refresh its IT stack and will become more agile to respond to its customers changing needs. “By implementing this measure we are making the necessary adaptations to provide our customers with improved and more innovative services in relation to capacity, speed and stability, as well as better quality in both voice and data, and to facilitate current demands for accessibility,” said Ragnar Kårhus, CEO of Telenor Norway. The contract reinforces TCS’ leadership position in the Nordic market. Recently, TCS had been ranked as the number one service provider in the Nordic region by an EquaTerra survey in which leading CIOs and CXOs in the Nordic region had rated the company ahead of all other providers in terms of customer satisfaction, quality, flexibility, risk and innovation. Hitachi enters into technology agreement with Wipro In Focus Allied Digital betting big on information security Allied Digital has said that the rules of game have changed in the IT industry after the global financial turmoil and the ensuing economic downturn. The financial crisis happened due to lack of adequate regulations. US banks took large risks but nobody knew the impact of those risks. This represents a big opportunity. Gartner and Forrester have predicted that the information security market will grow multifold. We have set up a state-of-the-art center three years back. We manage the entire information security lifecycle. The company is one of the early movers in this space. A lot of new opportunities are coming, such as virtualization and cloud computing, and we are geared up for the same. The industry is also shifting from capex driven model to an opex driven model that we have taken the lead in implementing with many customers across the globe. Allied Digital order book at Rs4.35bn. Read below Nitin Shah, Managing Director, Allied Digital Services Ltd. Domestic News Genpact signs 3 year contract with Federal-Mogul Corp Genpact Limited, a global leader in business process and technology management, has announced the signing of a three-year contract with Federal-Mogul Corporation, a leading global automotive supplier, to provide IT help desk services and support-related solutions. Under this contract, Genpact will provide a single-point-of-contact help desk, supporting the markets of North America, Europe, South America and Asia for Federal-Mogul. The help desk will operate 24 x 7 and in multiple languages including Japanese, Mandarin, German, French, Italian, Polish and Portuguese. Federal-Mogul Corporation is a US$5.3 bn leading global supplier of powertrain and safety technologies for original equipment and aftermarket applications in the automotive, small engine, heavy-duty, marine, railroad, aerospace and industrial markets. Cognizant acquires Galileo Performance Cognizant, a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services, has acquired Galileo Performance, a Paris-based provider of information technology (IT) testing consulting services. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Read More

Mindtree bags maiden IT deal from Nilekani lead `Aadhaar`

http://www.myiris.com/newsCentre/storyShow.php?fileR=20100617111450707&dir=2010/06/17&secID=livenews

Mindtree bags maiden IT deal from Nilekani lead `Aadhaar`
Source: IRIS (17-JUN-10)

IT solution company, Mindtree today announced that it has secured the application development and maintenance services contract of the Nandan Nilekani headed unique identification (UID) project, renamed as Aadhaar.

The multicore project involves services across the application lifecycle – from designing, developing, testing, maintaining and supporting the Aadhaar application to providing help desk services from the UIDAI`s (unique identification authority of India) Bangalore Technology Centre.

“It is not just a matter of business for us; it is an opportunity to serve the nation,“ said Anjan Lahiri, president and chief executive officer (CEO), IT services, Mindtree.

Shares (Q,N,C,F)* of the company gained Rs 31.35, or 5.69%, to trade at Rs 582. The total volume of shares traded was 139,097 at the BSE (11.10 a.m., Thursday).

Mindtree extends gains after bagging order for govt ID project

http://www.bloombergutv.com/stock-market/stocks/commentary/403509/mindtree-extends-gains-after-bagging-order-for-govt-id-project.html

Mindtree extends gains after bagging order for govt ID project
Mindtree rose 0.63% to Rs 573 at 12:26 IST on BSE, after the company received an application development and maintenance services contract from “Aadhaar”, previously known as unique identification project.
Published on 18th June, 2010 12:27:00

The stock had jumped 3.41% to Rs 569.40 on Thursday, 17 June 2010, after the news of the order win hit the market during trading hours that day. The company made the announcement of the order win to the stock exchanges during trading hours today, 18 June 2010.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 9.67 points, or 0.05% to 17,607.02.

On BSE, 25,286 shares were traded in the counter as against an average daily volume of 63,710 shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 583.80 and a low of Rs 570 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 729.90 on 21 December 2009 and a 52-week low of Rs 407.05 on 17 June 2009.

The mid-cap stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 17 June 2010, gaining 0.50% as compared to the Sensex’s 4.64% rise. It had also underperformed the market in the past one quarter, rising 0.50% as compared to the Sensex’s return of 0.72%.

The company’s equity capital is Rs 39.51 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

The multi-year contract involves designing, developing, testing, maintaining and providing help desk services from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Bangalore technology centre, the company said in a filing with BSE. Financial details were not disclosed.

Mindtree’s consolidated net profit rose 1.28% to Rs 54.46 crore on 3.78% increase in net sales to Rs 344.38 crore in Q4 March 2010 over Q3 December 2009.

Intelenet bags UID call centre deal; outbids Wipro, Genpact

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Intelenet-bags-UID-call-centre-deal-outbids-Wipro-Genpact/articleshow/6034730.cms

Intelenet bags UID call centre deal; outbids Wipro, Genpact
11 Jun 2010, 0600 hrs IST,N Shivapriya,ET Bureau

Key facts on India’s IT industry
Top acquisitions in BPO space
MUMBAI: Back office firm Intelenet Global Services has outbid bigger rivals such as Genpact and Wipro BPO to win the tender for providing outsourced call centre services for the prestigious Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) project, according to several people familiar with the decision.

This is the second tender to be awarded by the authority led by former Infosys CEO and co-founder, Nandan Nilekani, in a series of contracts totalling $ 1 billion.

The UID project is being watched globally by governments, service providers and vendors because of the scale and complexity involved in providing a unique, verifiable identity to over a billion Indians.

Vendors, both global and Indian, are vying for different parts of this huge project, the largest undertaken by any government. The first tender for software application development was awarded to Mindtree.

When contacted, an Intelenet spokesperson declined to comment. Trading in shares of Sparsh BPO, the domestic arm of Intelenet Global Services, was frozen after there were only buyers at Rs 57.20, the upper end of the 5% intra-day circuit filter.

In many ways, this could be one of the most challenging assignments in the UID project as it involves directly interfacing with the citizens. “The vendor will be required to provide services in the official languages of all the states, no matter where the centre is located,” said an executive with a BPO firm.

The contract is expected to start small from around 100-150 seats and scale up to around 2000 as volumes pick up.

The potential for revenues to scale up as call volumes grow is just one of the upsides of winning the deal. The prestige of being associated with such a project brings along many intangible benefits, said analysts and outsourcing experts.

“There is tremendous upside for the player who wins the deal. Of course, it’s an open question how much the revenues will scale up but it will be financially viable because there will be volumes. Indians are people who want answers,” said Alok Shende, principal analyst with technology research firm, Ascentius Consulting.

“Globally there are not many nations that have opted for such an identity project. For any company to be part of it is prestigious. It will give them credibility to bid for similar projects abroad and other projects in the government. Even if opportunities overseas are not considered, there is enough opportunity within the government here,” he added.

ET was the first to report that the government had invited tenders from large domestic BPOs with a minimum turnover of Rs 250 crore for the last three years for this project.

The pricing for the contract will be based on number of calls per minute. In its article on May 15, ET had said the BPO winning the contract would have to operate 8 am to 8 pm, six days a week and on all festivals, delivering customer care through calls, e-mails , pull-and-push SMS, fax and traditional means like letters and postcards.

LIC Signs MoU With UIDAI

http://www.rttnews.com/Content/IndianNews.aspx?Id=1330052&SM=1

Indian News
LIC Signs MoU With UIDAI
6/10/2010 1:57 AM ET
TOP MARKET NEWS

(RTTNews) – Life Insurance Corporation of India or LIC said it had signed a memorandum of understanding or MoU with the Unique Identification Authority of India or UIDAI to act as a registrar for the delivery of the unique 12-digit identity numbers to Indian citizens. LIC is the first institution other than State governments to sign the MoU with UIDAI.

UIDAI has envisioned the UID or Unique Identification as a number, which will help Indians to establish their identity easily and interact with various public and private agencies in the country. It will be based on demographic and biometric data, that is, photograph, fingerprints (all ten fingers) and the iris scan of an individual and hence prevents duplication. The UID number has been branded ‘Aadhaar’ (foundation/basis).

LIC Chairman T.S. Vijayan said on Wednesday in Mumbai that his organization would be able to uniquely identify its customers, thereby enhancing its efficiency in service-delivery and achieving a high level of effectiveness. At the end of last year, LIC had over 14 lakh agents, and covered more than six crore persons and selling 3.88 crore policies.

UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani said: “We decided to have multiple registrars to give as many UIDs as soon as possible, and the LIC is appropriate as the first registrar. We are also talking to organizations like the Reserve Bank of India, the Indian Banks’ Association and the Ministry of Finance.”

According to UIDAI Director-General and Mission Director R. S. Sharma, the UID numbers would be rolled out between August this year and February next year, as scheduled. As of now, UID was being provided only for resident Indians. The government might decide to cover non-resident Indians and other categories later, he added.

by RTT Staff Writer

LIC plans Rs2 lakh crore investment this fiscal

http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_lic-plans-rs2-lakh-crore-investment-this-fiscal_1394175

LIC plans Rs2 lakh crore investment this fiscal
Parnika Sokhi / DNA
Thursday, June 10, 2010

Mumbai: India’s largest life insurer, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), will invest at least Rs2 lakh crore in the current financial year across all asset classes. Last year the total investment was Rs1.91 lakh crore.
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* LIC signs MoU with UIDAI to share database

In the current financial year, LIC has already invested Rs26,000 crore across assets as on May 31 — Rs 363 crore has been invested in equity.

The total amount to be invested in equity in the whole financial year will depend on the flow of money. “How the money is invested between equity and other classes will depend upon the flow of premium,” said N Mohan Raj, executive director (investment operations), LIC.

He also said that the investment strategy has not been changed, but LIC may look at new asset classes to invest in. He did not elaborate on the new asset classes.

LIC was not among the 14 companies that were barred by Sebi to sell unit linked insurance plans (ULIPs). As a result, Raj said LIC’s ulip sales have gone up, without giving details.

Funds under management in ulips for LIC were at Rs1,80,491 crore as on March 31, 2010.

The corporation has more than 14 lakh agents across the country who contacted more than 6 crore people last year. “We sold 3.83 crore new individual policies last year,” said T S Vijayan, chairman, LIC at the signing of a deal with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

LIC thus became the first institution other than the state governments to sign the MoU with UIDAI. It will provide basic details like name, gender, address, birthdate and parents’ names from its huge database for the UID project. “LIC will be able to uniquely identify its customers,” said Vijayan.

For the UID project it means speedy processing. “We do not have access to the policy holders’ data with LIC. They will be giving us information from only 3 to 4 fields we need. This is a part of multiple registry strategy that will help in enrolling as many people as we can,” said Nandan Nilekani, chairman, UIDAI.

UIDAI calls for creative pitch for Aadhaar’s pilot phase

http://www.afaqs.com/perl/news/story.html?sid=27063_UIDAI+calls+for+creative+pitch+for+Aadhaars+pilot+phase

UIDAI calls for creative pitch for Aadhaar’s pilot phase

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has called for a creative pitch for Aadhaar, its initiative to provide unique identity numbers to Indian residents. The pitch is for the pilot phase, which commences in August 2010 and will end around February 2011. A total of seven agencies have taken part in the pitch process, namely Rediffusion – Y&R, Dentsu Marcom, Lowe Lintas, Crayons Advertising, Concept Communication, Span Communications and Percept/H.

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A separate media pitch hasn’t been called for. The media duties — particularly for audio-visual media and print — would be handled by Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP). For other media such as BTL or digital, the expertise of the chosen creative agency itself will be leveraged.

According to sources in the UIDAI, marketing spends of Rs 50 crore have been earmarked for the pilot phase. And if the cost of people and infrastructure is included, the entire promotional budget would be about Rs 100 crore for the pilot phase.

According to sources, the selected creative agency will have to work hand in hand with government agencies and infrastructure, to carry out marketing/advertising activities for popularising Aadhaar across India. The synergy between the two sets of agencies is important for the success of Aadhaar, because while the creative agency would generate effective, creative ideas to connect with the masses; the government agencies and infrastructure would be instrumental in providing the scale and bandwidth to reach the interiors of India.

As is known, Aadhaar recently adopted a logo, created after a nationwide contest in February that drew over 2,000 entries. Its logo – a fingerprint encased within the sun – indicates that the promise of Aadhaar stems from uniqueness, while the sun symbolises a promise that shines on all equally.

At the core of Aadhaar’s DNA is creating equal access to opportunity, as the brand hopes to be about entitlement and being recognised as an individual.

For the record, Nandan Nilekani, who was until recently co-chairman of the board of directors of Infosys Technologies, is the chairman of UIDAI. This unique identification project was initially conceived by the Planning Commission, as an initiative that would provide identification for each resident across the country, and would be used primarily as the basis for efficient delivery of welfare services by the government. It would also act as a tool for effective monitoring of various Government programmes and schemes.

© 2010 afaqs!

India Will Grow Above 8.4% In FY11: Finance Minister

http://www.dailymarkets.com/stocks/2010/05/12/india-will-grow-above-84-in-fy11-finance-minister/

India Will Grow Above 8.4% In FY11: Finance Minister

(RTTNews) – Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the country would post a growth higher than the IMF-projected 8.4% in fiscal 2011. He was inaugurating a national conference and annual session of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at New Delhi on Wednesday.

Speaking on “Implementing Inclusive Growth and Development”, the minister complimented the CII for its efforts on diverse policy issues, enhancing efficiency and competitiveness as also expanding business opportunities for the industry.

He minister appreciated the CII for providing valuable inputs, and said that the CII’s theme was in line with the core agenda of the Government. The Centre had enacted the Right to Information, Right to Work and Right to Education legislation and was working on guaranteeing foodgrains to members of the poorest sections of society through the Food Security Bill.

He pointed out that the union government, along with the state governments, would plug leakages and theft for administering the Public Distribution System (PDS) better through the use of technology and the data generated by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). He said these steps would reduce expenses and enable effective and efficient allocation of resources.

Mukherjee replied that the draft direct taxes code would be available to the general public for final comments soon before it was tabled in parliament for the latter’s approval. He also said that the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax would ensure a “win-win” relationship for all stakeholders. He sought the support of state Finance Ministers for the new tax dispensation in the interests of the economy.

For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com

Copyright(c) 2010 RTTNews.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

‘Only the rollout of UID will be left to do after this year’

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/%5Conlyrolloutuid-will-be-left-to-do-after-this-year%5C/394703/

‘Only the rollout of UID will be left to do after this year’
Shivani Shinde / Mumbai May 13, 2010, 1:26 IST

SUNIL CHANDIRAMANI, Partner and National Director-Advisory Business Leader-Government Services, Ernst & Young (E&Y), with a team of 15 people is busy with India’s most ambitious programme of providing a unique identification (UID) number to residents of India. E&Y has been selected as a consulting partner by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). With just about three months left for UIDAI to have its systems operational, Chandiramani, in a chat with Shivani Shinde, speaks about the role of his firm besides the challenges and security concerns associated with the rollout of UID number. Edited excerpts:

What is the role of E&Y?
We are technology consultants. Our role is to help UIDAI select and procure technology including procuring the managed services provider. We also have to manage the implementation. This is something we hope to do over the next three years. The work would involve setting up the core — technology and the processes — followed by the rollout. The core work has to be done right and we cannot afford to fail.

So, you have a contract for three years?
No, our contract is for one year and this is the first phase. But even if we don’t get the second year contract, the technology would have been procured by that time, and the project implemented. The only piece that would remain would be the rollout. Of course, we would like to be the part of the rollout as well, as that is the most challenging part. From a rollout perspective, banks, IT department, colleges, insurance firms, schools will be used as registrars. The rollout part is very critical. But before that we have to think of systems that would tackle all the scenarios. Like what happens if someone loses his or her UID number.

Do you think the systems will be ready by August 2010 for the rollout?
I would not yet be ready to comment on the August rollout as yet. We still have to get a few RFPs closed. The crucial among them is the biometric piece. But by the end of May, we need to close all the RFPs.

Which other tenders will come up for bidding?
Some of the request for proposals (RFPs) that have come up are in the application side and biometric segment. We will soon announce RFPs for the managed services provider. The biggest chunk will be the managed services, as the provider will have to manage the entire repository of data. This will mean that the vendor will have to provide a system and be involved in the de-duplication process. That means every time someone sends a biometric print, the systems need to match them and get back to the person and that too in real-time.

What about security concerns surrounding data and access to it, especially since there are plans to have UIDs online too?
People tend to think that online means access to information on the fly. But that does not mean that any individual can access the data. To give an instance, when it comes to commercial use, any commercial vendor — bank, insurance firms etc — who needs to verify an individual’s UID will need to take imprints of fingers and send it to UIDAI asking for authentication. This is online and real-time. However, UIDAI will not send your finger prints or any other detail. It will just confirm the authenticity of the imprints. Hence, the repository is not accessible to anyone. Besides, adequate measures would be built into the tech systems to ensure that the data are being added to the repository according to the set standards.

A security breach can occur nevertheless…
Use of any technology brings challenges but what matters is, if the security is manageable. I think it is manageable. As an extra security measure, UIDAI has added four digits to the 12-digit number. This PIN-based four-digit identification will be masked. So, at anytime this four-digit number gets changed then everything changes. Over a time there is a possibility that these kind of information when it is shared could be tracked. We also think there will be more than enough people who will try to get more than one UID or will at least try to get. We are setting rules that if someone intentionally attempts to defraud then there will be penalties and other measures built in.

What about privacy issues?
The concern that arises of this is, who can access this data and where the data will reside. India will also need to have data privacy policy. I think privacy forums need to be formed and this should happen as we roll out. In some cases, there might be a need for regulatory changes and in some cases, for an outreach programme.

Would UIDAI use the census data or the machinery for the rollout?
No, census data will not be used for the UID project as of now. This is because the census team collects name, address and other details by visiting every house. But for UID, we need to capture facial expressions, finger prints and take iris scans. You cannot move around and get this data. You will have to go to a centre to do it. Over a period of time, the census data might be used. Besides, when the UID gets captured you have to get it right at the first time. The person who will take these details will send the data to UIDAI. The UIDAI team will check the quality of the data sent and then reject or select it. If this is rejected, the individual will be called again at the centre; it’s a long process. Add to this, the centres will need to verify the person and the details they are providing. The census team would not do this detailed work.

How big is the IT opportunity in this project?
I wouldn’t know the value but from an opportunity perspective, it’s huge. Especially, for the hardware segment. Imagine the number of biometric machine required to capture the data of a billion people, along with the PCs and servers to support this data. Solutions will form a smaller part.

UID BPO services to start from July 12

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/ites/UID-BPO-services-to-start-from-July-12/articleshow/5933413.cms

UID BPO services to start from July 12
15 May 2010, 0704 hrs IST,Harsimran Singh,ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: Very soon, a voice in local language could be advising you on the benefits of how to get an Aadhaar ID. The Unique ID Authority of India’s (UIDAI’s ) call centre services may start from July 12 and will act as a front-end for assigning of the unique identity number.

Top IT services firms like Wipro and TCS apart from BPO vendors FirstSource, IBM, Aegis, Intelenet and Spanco are expected to bid for the project.

The government has invited tenders from large domestic BPOs with a minimum turnover of Rs 250 crore for the last three years and a minimum capacity of 2,500 seats. Aegis, FirstSource and IBM already handle the back-office operations of HDFC, ICICI and telcos like Idea Cellular, Airtel and Vodafone. Clearly, the success of the UIDAI will be critically-linked to its backend services, which may become even bigger than the 139 service of the Indian Railways. The BPO will handle all queries from change of name and address to loss of the Aadhaar number . It is also expected to act as an interface between citizens, registrars, enrolling agencies and those needing to authenticate one’s ID when one applying for a loan or a credit card. Operating eight-toeight , six days a weekeven on all festivals—customer care will be delivered through calls, e-mails , pull-and-push SMS, fax and traditional means like letters and postcards . The BPO is expected to handle at least six lakh call minutes in the first three months and so the government may have to add another BPO as soon as enrolments cross 10 crore citizens.

The government plans to pay the BPO for calls per minute. For each minute of inbound call, the government will give a specific amount (say Rs 2-3 /minute). For a SMS push, the government will pay 3% of the perminute call rate. For a grievance resolved through email, the per minute rate will be paid. For handling a grievance through letter or fax, the BPO will be paid thrice the per minute call rate.

Unique ID authority’s approach for data collection finalised

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/software/Unique-ID-authoritys-approach-for-data-collection-finalised/articleshow/5944925.cms

Unique ID authority’s approach for data collection finalised
18 May 2010, 1505 hrs IST,IANS

NEW DELHI: A cabinet panel Tuesday approved the approach to be adopted by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for collecting demographic and biometric data, the authority’s chairman said. ( Watch )

“For the demographic aspect, we will be recording the name, date of birth, sex, address and name of father/mother/guardian. On the biometric side, we will be taking prints of all 10 fingers, a photograph of the face and an image of the iris of every individual,” UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani told.

He was speaking after the first meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification Authority of India chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

He also said the authority was drafting a law governing its functioning and to ensure that the data collected remained confidential.

“This will soon be put in the public domain for discussion before being finalised and tabled in parliament,” Nilekani said.

“In addition, we have suggested an umbrella law to cover the protection of all data collected in any manner.”

The first batch of unique ID numbers will be rolled out between August of this year and February 2011.

“We hope to issue some 600 million unique IDs in four years,” Nilekani said.

Toll collection will jump five-fold to Rs10k crore by 2014: Kamal Nath

http://www.moneylife.in/article/8/5613.html

Toll collection will jump five-fold to Rs10k crore by 2014: Kamal Nath
May 26, 2010 06:13 PM
Moneylife Digital Team

The Centre has constituted a committee under the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani to work out an electronic toll collection system for plugging leakages in the system

The government today said that toll collection on national highways will jump five-fold to Rs10,000 crore in next four years, but leakage is still a concern, for which new policy measures will be put in place, reports PTI.

Toll collection is a key instrument for the government to attract private investment, road transport and highways minister Kamal Nath told PTI.

“We have constituted a committee under Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani to work out an electronic toll collection system for plugging leakages that could be as high as 20%,” he said.

The committee is likely to give its report by next month.

“Our estimated toll collection will be close to Rs10,000 crore per year by the fifth year of United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-II,” he said, adding this was based on bringing an estimated 35,000 km of roads under the Operate, Maintain and Toll (OMT) system for private investors, he added.

“We are looking at overhauling the toll policy. We are in the process of formulating a policy… a new policy as to how to collect the toll by the OMT process,” Mr Nath said.

The OMT aims at bringing the Indian toll collection system at par with the international tolling standards, he said.

He dismissed suggestions that putting the vast network of highways under the toll system could be a burden on the common man. “There is a maintenance cost that is paid from the toll… good roads would help save a huge quantity of petrol and diesel… on the contrary, it would help people,” he said.

Mr Nath, however, was concerned over the tendency of avoiding the toll, saying that leakage for this or other reasons was a matter of concern. “At present, the leakage in some areas is as high as 20%,” he said.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) could only collect about Rs3,500 crore in the last two financial years from 8,500 km of toll highways.

“NHAI collected Rs1,936 crore as toll in 2009-10, while the collection in the previous fiscal stood at Rs1,600 crore,” a senior road ministry official said.

India has over 70,000 km of highways and proposes to significantly enhance the network by constructing 20 km of roads every day in the next five years.

At present, the process of crossing toll plazas is time-consuming, as one is required to pay several times to complete a journey on a highway stretch. Besides, different collection systems, including manual systems, lead to revenue leakage.

The Planning Commission and prime minister-headed Committee on Infrastructure have been expressing concern over toll leakages estimated at over Rs1,500 crore.

TCS, Wipro, TechM, IBM, NEC shortlisted for UID project

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/tcs-wipro-techm-ibm-nec-shortlisted-for-uid-project/396315/

TCS, Wipro, TechM, IBM, NEC shortlisted for UID project
Shivani Shinde / Mumbai May 28, 2010, 1:00 IST

Domestic information technology (IT) services majors Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro Technologies and Tech Mahindra and global players like IBM and Japan-based NEC are among the 10 shortlisted companies for the Nandan Nilekani-headed Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) biometrics job.

“This is the second stage of shortlisting. These firms are now qualified for a request for proposal (RFP). In the next five-six weeks, the final bidder will be announced,” said a source close to the development. The size of the contract could not be confirmed.

Meanwhile, the UIDAI has also started issuing RFPs for the data centre management work of the project. Bidders will be shortlisted over the next four-six weeks.

Biometrics will be the second IT contract from UIDAI. The first was for application development services, worth Rs 19 crore, bagged by Bangalore-based IT services provider MindTree. The first UID contract to become a consulting partner for UIDAI, of the size of Rs 7.05 crore, was bagged by Consultancy firm Ernst & Young.

Biometrics (which includes fingerprint, facial and iris scans) and computing power hold the keys to Nilekani’s UID project, which is estimated to offer a Rs 15,000-20,000 crore opportunity to computing, database, smartcard and storage vendors, besides systems integrators. For every rupee of IT spend on the UID project, industry experts estimate around 60 per cent of the spending will go to hardware vendors.

According to biometrics tender details, the bidder shall have at least 2,500 agents employed in delivering in-bound contact centre services and have at least 500 physical in-bound contact centre seats operational at a single location in India as on March 31. The firms shall have demonstrated capability of serving customers in Hindi, English, and at least one of the required languages in each of the regions mentioned herewith — South (Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam), West (Gujarati, Marathi), East (Bengali, Oriya, Assamese).

The bidder shall also have proven experience in implementing and ongoing management of large in-bound contact centre solutions. The bidder shall have handled at least 5 million in-bound calls a month for every month in FY ’09 –10 or an equivalent average.

The first set of UIDs will be issued between August 2010 and February 2011. Nilekani plans to issue 600 million UIDs over the next five years.

Nilekani had earlier told this newspaper that no single IT contract is likely to cross Rs 30 crore. “It is true UIDAI is looking for best-of-the-breed service providers. In principle, we desire to build a system to prevent vendor lock-in and this is likely to bring down the cost of procurement for IT systems and software,” said Nilekani.

(Additional reporting by Bibhu Ranjan Mishra from Bangalore)

IT and UIDAI agree ‘in-principle’ to roll out PAN cards

http://businesstoday.intoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&issueid=78&id=14831&Itemid=99999999&sectionid=4

IT and UIDAI agree ‘in-principle’ to roll out PAN cards
PTI
New Delhi, April 27, 2010

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IT and UIDAI agree ‘in-principle’ to roll out PAN cards
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New Delhi, April 27, 2010
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The Income Tax department and the Unique Identification Authority of India have agreed “in-principle” to come together for rolling out PAN cards with unique 16 digit Aadhaar number.

Official sources said both the UIDAI headed by Nandan Nilekani and the Finance Ministry has held series of meetings on the subject and are now in the process of working out the modalities.

The Aadhaar, earlier known as Unique Identification Number, will be issued after collection of prints of all ten fingers, iris and face.

This collaboration might pave the way for the delayed biometric PAN cards, an initiative proposed by the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram in 2006 to counter the problem of duplicate PAN cards which were uncovered during IT searches and raids by police and other enforcement agencies.

It could also, however, cap the plan as the UID number itself will cut out the duplicates.

“Yes, the IT department has in principle agreed for UID based PAN cards,” Nilekani told PTI when asked.

Incidentally, sources said the Income Tax department had put on hold the proposal to issue biometric PAN cards to avoid duplication with the UID numbers.

The proposed biometric PAN cards would have carried the income tax assesses’ fingerprints (two from each hand) and the face.

Such a card, it was hoped, would be difficult to duplicate or manipulate. But after the UIDAI was set up last year, the IT department’s plan has been put on hold.

A senior Finance Ministry official said, “the biometric PAN card project of the department has been kept in abeyance till the UID is rolled out.

In the meantime, the suspension will allow the IT department to understand and analyse whether after a biometric UID, a PAN with similar features would be necessary or not.”

The Aadhaar number is expected to roll out by February, 2011. Officials are hopeful that if the UID is made mandatory for issuing PAN cards in the future, the present cases of certain people having more than one PAN card would be curbed.

India Post to deliver unique identity numbers

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/software/India-Post-to-deliver-unique-identity-numbers/articleshow/5907952.cms

India Post to deliver unique identity numbers

8 May 2010, 2157 hrs IST,IANS

NEW DELHI: The Department of Posts and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) have entered into a two-year agreement under which India Post will deliver the unique identity numbers and related communication to citizens.

The memorandum of understanding on this was signed April 30, an official statement said here Saturday.

The department, with a vast network of 155,015 post offices of which around 90 percent are in the rural area, would use its flagship product, Speed Post, for the purpose.

“The department is also successfully implementing the work of distribution of nearly 10,000 tonnes of census material from 15 printing presses to nearly 12,000 municipal level locations across the country,” the statement said.

It will also undertake the reverse logistics for collection of filled up census forms from these locations and delivery them to the respective directorates of census operations and scanning centres.

Whenever and wherever it is required by the authority, the department will also do biometric authentication of each letter delivered, the statement added.

Unique ID: A Dozen Milestones

http://dqindia.ciol.com/content/top_stories/2010/110042601.asp

Unique ID: A Dozen Milestones
Shyamanuja Das
Monday, April 26, 2010

On Monday, Nandan Nilekani, the chairman of the Unique ID Authority of India, unveiled a new name and logo for the Unique ID project. The project would now be called AADHAAR.

“UID itself is very confusing. Some people call it DUI, somebody calls it IUD and so forth. So it was getting a little difficult to explain all this various permutations, combinations of this acronym,” Nilekani said.

“Therefore, we wanted a name that could effectively communicate its transformational potential and its promise to residents. Something that had a national appeal that could be recognised across the country, could resonate in different languages and easy to remember and speak,” he said.

Here we present some milestones in the journey of the concept and then the project

#1 August 21, 2003: A Parliamentary Committee under the Chairmanship of then Deputy Prime Minister, LK Advani approves creation of a Multipurpose National Identity Card with a note that there should be compulsory registration of citizens and non-citizens living in India

#2 December 4, 2006: The Prime Minister appoints an empowered group of Ministers (EGoM) to collate two schemes: the National Population Register under the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the Unique Identification Number project of the Department of Information Technology.

#3 December 11, 2007: In the Dataquest Annual Award Night, Nandan Nilekani, then co-chairman of Infosys and the chairman of the Dataquest Jury, in his address passionately talks of an urgent need to create a national identity system in India. Most part of his speech was dedicated to this topic.

#4 November 4, 2008: The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM) headed by the external affairs minister, Pranab Mukherji, with ministers of home, IT & communications, Law and Panchayatiraj as members, approves the establishment of a Unique Identity Authority, under the Planning Commission.

#5 January 28, 2009: Planning Commission constitutes and notifies formation of the Unique ID Authority of India

#6 February 16, 2009: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his interm budget 2009-10 speech allocates Rs 100 crore to UID project

#7 March 14, 2009: The Bharatiya Janata Party releases its IT vision document,which talks of a Multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC), with national security being the key driving factor behind it, to be rolled out in three years. It said it would amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to combine the offices of the Registrar General of the Census of India and that of the UIAI to set up a Citizenship Regulatory Authority of India (CRAI).

#8 June 25, 2009: Nandan Nilekani appointed Chairman of UIDAI, with the rank of a cabinet minister

#9 July 23, 2009: Nilekani formally takes over as the Chairman of UIDAI

#10 August 12, 2009: The first meeting of Prime Ministers Council of UID Authority that deliberated on the broad direction and powers of UIDAI

#11 January 6, 2010: In a meeting with Nilekeani, banks and telecom companies agree to jointly work on a revenue share model to roll out mobile banking.

#12 April 26, 2010: Nilekani unveils the brand strategy for UID and announces the new name AADHAAR

Check out the latest buzz in Indian IT sector

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/5879605.cms

Check out the latest buzz in Indian IT sector

HCL Technologies Ltd has signed an agreement with Melbourne IT to support the latter’s integrated web services (IWS) business transformation project.

MindTree outbid larger rivals Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro apart from top multinational firms, to win Rs 30-crore contract from India’s Unique Identification Authority (UIDAI).

TCS chief Natarajan Chandrasekaran has made the cut as best CEO in the country while rival Infosys’ Kris Gopalakrishnan has been ranked the second best.

UIDAI Plans to Put Rs 600 Crore in Technology for UID Project

http://www.itvarnews.net/news/10712/UIDAI-Plans-to-Put-Rs-600-Crore-in-Technology-for-UID-Project.html

UIDAI Plans to Put Rs 600 Crore in Technology for UID Project
Posted Saturday, May 01, 2010 ITVARNews Network

AADHAAR is the brand name of Indias ambitious Unique Identification (UID) project. The announcement was made after consultation between the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and the National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) along with other stakeholders. Dhaneshwar, a farmer from Azamgarh, U.P, unveiled the brand name and its logo.

UIDAI is expected to invest Rs.1900 crore in the first phase of the project. Out of the total investment Rs 600 crore will be spend on technology.

By mid-July the UIDAI plans to absolute field testing on biometric processes. The first series of UIDs is expected to be issued between August 2010 and February 2011. With the help of various registrar agencies the Authority plans to subject 600 million UIDs over four years from the issue of the first number.

Sanjiv Mital, CEO, NISG said, The reach and impact of the UID project transcends our traditional approach to identity verification in India. The identity infrastructure in India today is a patchwork of multiple documents that are used as proofs of identity, and which include voter cards, PAN numbers, and driving licenses. The discussion today provided insights on the UID infrastructure and its potential applications, as well as various aspects of the UID ecosystem, and the steps needed to implement UID infrastructure across industry and government.

AADHAAR will help to build identity based services to benefit residents, based on public-private sector collaboration. Ram Sewak Sharma, the Director General and Mission Director – UIDAI noted, The UID infrastructure will be a foundation over which multiple applications in finance, insurance, health, labour, welfare services and others can be built, which can be used to deliver services effectively to the poor.

At present UIDAI is working on Proof of Concepts (PoCs) in three states including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Bihar. These PoCs are expected to help certain systems to be tested before the project is scaled up.

UIDAI project will make India centre of biometrics in world

http://www.mydigitalfc.com/news/uidai-project-will-make-india-centre-biometrics-world-748

UIDAI project will make India centre of biometrics in world

Apr 13 2010 , S Ronendra Singh

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) under the hairmanship of Nandan Nilekani will offer unique identity numbers from August 2010 and the first phase will be covered before February 2011. Nilekani unveils the UIDAI agenda to S Ronendra Singh of Financial Chronicle in an exclusive interview. Excerpts:

What is the latest status on the UIDAI project?

As we are moving along, we are signing MoUs. We have signed the first MoU with Madhya Pradesh and we are signing with other states. We have E&Y as our consultant, so the right request for proposal (RFP) tender for minimum support price (MSP) is being worked out. Our software tender is out so we should be deciding the partner soon. So we are moving in the right direction and our goal to start issuing numbers before February 2011 is very much on schedule.

You are conducting pilot projects in a few states? What has been the response?

Andhra Pradesh is one of the states for the pilot project. I have experienced a lot from my visits to 25 states in the past few months. I have met all the chief ministers, chief secretaries and all the secretaries and have discussed all the future plans – what does it mean for us and for them. There’s been very good responses from them.

Who all would be benefiting at the first stage of the project?

The whole idea of this project is to provide inclusion to a large number of people, who do not have access to benefits.

For example, poor people who do not have any identity card, birth certificate, ration card or school certificate can have a chance to get better services through UID as there won’t be need for any know-your-customer criterion. We are looking at benefiting people from flagship programmes such as National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and looking at the Public Distribution System (PDS) because both these are meant for the poor and below poverty line (BPL) families.

How are the data centres being worked out for the project? What kind of RFP model is being done for that?

We will have a data centre for the pilot project and we are in the process. Finally, the data centres will be managed by the service providers, whom we appoint. They will have more than one data centre for disaster recovery, backup, replication and others. Tenders are still months away for that. We still need to have a separate RFP for the purpose for the managed service provider to run our database. That will happen later during this year. We are looking at all the best practices. India has a long track record of outsourcing of such projects. For example, passport has been outsourced by the ministry of external affairs and tax-information network has been also been outsourced among others. So, there is enough experience with the government for undertaking such large projects. This indeed is a very large project, but I think we should be able to find a right partner or this.

What are the norms for vendor selection for the project?

These are being formulated. Right now, our team is working with the E&Y team and drafting the norms for that. It would take few months to do so.

What benefits could the Indian IT sector get from this project?

This project is at the leading edge of technology. It is the world’s largest biometric database and it is going to push the envelope on technologies. So clearly, companies who will be associated with this will also contribute and make India a centre for biometrics in the world. So it has lot of benefits for the industry.

The finance minister had announced Rs 1,900 crore for the project for the year 2010-11? How would you spend that amount in each state? Is this amount enough for this year?

At this point of time we still have to detail this out. We have just got the money and we are looking at detailing of budgets state wise.

What kind of hiring is being done for the project?

There will be more hiring. Right now, we have less than 100 people but, at peak, we expect a few more hundreds.

First set of UID numbers to be issued in February next

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article395573.ece

//

First set of UID numbers to be issued in February next

Special Correspondent

The first set of identity numbers as per the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will be issued in February 2011.

Extensive consultations with various stake holders-Union& State governments,public sector units, industry and civil society organisations- have already been held. Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Union territory of Andaman and Nicobar have been signed and more states have expressed their interest in having similarMoUs.“ The pilot projects will begin by August this year and first issue of the identity numbers may happen before February next year”, said Deputy Director of UIDAI B.B Nanawati here on Monday.He was speaking at a Unique Identity workshop, organised by the French Embassy along with Smart Card Forum of India(SCAFI), and prominent French companies in the smart card industry.

Mr. Nanawati said that the residents from any part of the country can be the first beneficiaries of the project. “We have identified all the components of the project. Some are in their advanced stages. The different tracks in the field of application, data centre, hardware and registrar has to be converged together,” he said. On the question of aspects of national security, Mr Nanawati said that high level authentication at various levels might be linked with the security requirements. He rejected the fears of data misuse by saying that the authority will not share its collected data with any agency. Sharing the country’s expectations from the project, he said that non-identity of the poor was the highest barrier which prevents them from accessing benefits and services provided by the government.

No smart cards from UIDAI

Mr. Nanawati also made it clear that the identification authority as of now has no plans to issue any sort of smart cards or magnetic cards to the citizens.

Deputy Director of UIDAI, K.Ganga said that the feedback received from the civil society was the basis for setting the standards of UIDAI. “We spoke to people who are homeless, those below poverty line, migrant workers and their representatives. We will take their views and make sure that awareness is created at the grassroot level,” she said.

French Ambassador to India Jerome Bonnafont said that the link between unique identification and social inclusion was well established. Terming it as a challenge to cover 1.15 billion of Indian population under the project, Mr.Bonnafont said that there should be firewalls to protect the right of privacy of citizens.

Unique ID’s biometric deal draws IT cos, vendors

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/04/15/stories/2010041550830300.htm

Unique ID’s biometric deal draws IT cos, vendors

New Delhi, April 14

After the first IT tender for application development services, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has set the ball rolling for another contract.

The Authority has invited Expressions of Interest (EoIs) for implementing, as part of the first phase, biometric solutions — functions related to de-duplication and biometric verification of 20 crore records.

Under the Government’s Unique Identification project, the identification numbers will be assigned based on the unique biometrics of an individual. Accordingly, it is proposed to capture fingerprint and iris-related biometrics of each resident for the purpose of identification and verification.

Simply put, capturing such biometric details will enable the Centre correctly establish the identity of an individual by linking the Unique Identification number to his/her demographic and biometric information. It will ensure the same individual is not allocated more than one identity (unique ID number).

Hence, the biometric solutions provider will not only design, develop and install a multi-modal solution, but also assist UIDAI in performance benchmarking of biometric solutions and in monitoring the data quality associated with enrolment. The service provider will also help in analysing de-duplication performance and results. The EoI is a precursor to the invitation of a Request for Proposal (RFP).

The EoI – which has a deadline of April 19 – is generating interest among blue-chip Indian IT companies such as TCS and Wipro as well as niche biometric solution providers such as the Hyderabad-based 4G Identity Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

“We will definitely be participating in the contract for biometric solutions. We earlier bagged the mandate for a Proof of Concept exercise by UIDAI in Andhra Pradesh, where the objective was to establish a definitive baseline for biometric data quality under Indian conditions,” Dr Sreeni Tripuraneni, CEO, 4G Identity Solutions Pvt Ltd, told Business Line.

Actual value

Industry watchers point out that the actual value of the latest contract will become clear only at the ensuing RFP round when UIDAI reveals further details. The current pre-qualification specifications require the prime respondent or consortium members combined to have a minimum annual turnover of Rs 150 crore (generated from the implementation of biometrics-based identity resolution/automated biometric identification subsystem) for previous two financial years. The criteria also stipulates a minimum of two existing commercial installations pertaining to de-duplication or biometric identification covering a database size of one crore records.

The UIDAI programme, clearly one of India’s most ambitious projects, is being seen as an effective platform for financial inclusion and targeted subsidy payments. In his Budget speech, the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, had said that the authority would be able to meet its commitment for issuing the first set of UID numbers in the coming year.

With UIDAI now getting into operational mode, the Union Budget has proposed to allocate Rs 1,900 crore to the authority for 2010-11(Rs 120 crore was allocated for 2009- 10).

moumita@thehindu.co.in

UIDAI in talks with oil firms to become part of UID project

http://beta.profit.ndtv.com/news/show/uidai-in-talks-with-oil-firms-to-become-part-of-uid-project-35162

UIDAI in talks with oil firms to become part of UID project

Bianca Ghose, April 16, 2010 (New Delhi)

Market Focus Budget 2010 Hits & Misses

http://www.crn.in/Budget-2010-Hits-Misses-Market-Focus-015Mar010.aspx

Market Focus

Budget 2010 Hits & Misses

“There is a need for resource allocation for extensive broadband roll out and undertaking e-governance projects”
The budget for 2010-11 is significantly focused on inclusive growth and development, and this is likely to resonate well with most sections of society. The increased emphasis on infrastructure development, both urban and rural, as well as social welfare is commendable.
Setting up of the National Clean Energy Fund to encourage research and technology projects in the clean energy space, and the increased outlay for renewable energy are good first steps towards exploring solutions to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
The tax reforms on in-house R&D expenses, and also on contributions made towards scientific research to associations, colleges, universities and other institutions is a leg-up for research and development.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has taken a lead among national e-governance initiatives, and the setting up of a TAGUP under this umbrella indicates the government’s commitment to IT projects.
Nevertheless, there is a need to allocate resources for extensive broadband roll out and to undertake e-governance projects for citizen services (public utilities).
The lack of extension of tax benefits for Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) units and increase in minimum alternate tax (MAT), though nominal, is somewhat of a disappointment, and likely to impact the small and medium companies the most. However, the importance given to SEZs will help drive employment and exports in the country.
While the reduction in the personal Income Tax will influence consumption patterns and indirectly benefit the economy, corporate tax reforms are yet to get their due.

Govt plans to give a name to unique ID project

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/Govt-plans-to-give-a-name-to-unique-ID-project/articleshow/5775912.cms

Govt plans to give a name to unique ID project

9 Apr 2010, 0037 hrs IST,Harsimran Julka,ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: Will it be Asmita, Aadhar or Abhigyan? The Union government is mulling over a brand name for its unique identity project initiative.

The government is planning to give the programme an identity, which can be readily identified by the people.

Five names — three of them being Abhigyan, Aadhar and Asmita — have been shortlisted to give the programme a brand identity. A huge advertising campaign will be floated, involving over 1.2 billion people. Tenders for the advertising campaign, for the initial stage, is expected to be issued next month.

The authority has also set aside Rs 50 crore for advertising and publicity and enrolled heads of Future Brands and Chlorophyll as consultants on a media and awareness committee. About 20 logos have already been shortlisted by the Unique Identity Authority (UIDAI) with the final ones expected to be announced around April 26.

“Next month, the tenders for the initial ad campaign will be floated. We have already started three pilots for collecting fingerprints and iris (eye) information of citizens in Karnataka and AP. The Authority is confident of rolling out the first set of numbers between August 2010 and February 2011,” a government official said.

The technology data centres for data repository will be based in Bangalore and Delhi, while the disaster recovery centres will be based elsewhere in the country. UIDAI plans to evolve the unique ID into an attractive brand to spread social awareness. “UID itself is a three-syllable word which may not be easily recognised by masses. We are looking for a name which can instantly click with Indian citizens even in remote villages,” he added.

The UIDAI has formed a media awareness and communication council that will assist UIDAI to spread awareness about the chosen UID brand name among masses. The six member media awareness council will submit its report in 90 days.

The appointed agencies will be involved in designing communication around concept awareness and creative design around UID. The authority may subsequently hire a public relation consultant as well.

Meanwhile, the government may also deliberate on a celebrity endorsement for promoting the brand. It’s interesting to note that Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s association with the Pulse Polio campaign did give it a huge boost. However, considering the recent controversies around the association of Mr Bachchan with Amar Singh, the government might chose some other personality.

Future Brands CEO Santosh Desai, Procter & Gamble’s India marketing head Sumeet Vohra, Pidilite’s president for marketing and sales, Praveen Tripathi, and brand consultancy Chlorophyll’s MD Kiran Khalap are advising the government on its brand strategy for the UID project.

Cabinet to Take Up Fund for National Population Register

http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?677169

Cabinet to Take Up Fund for National Population Register
New Delhi | Mar 18, 2010

The Union Cabinet is likely to take up tomorrow the demand for release of nearly Rs 2000 crore for a proposal of Union Home Ministry’s prestigious National Population Register under which citizens of the country will be provided with smart cards.

The proposal will be placed before the Cabinet and if the money is granted, citizens of the country will be handed over the smart cards by 2012, official sources said.

National Population Register (NPR) is a first-ever attempt to create a comprehensive identity database in the country under which the cards, the making of each one of which will cost the government Rs 28, would be handed over to people.

The cards will carry finger print and would be handed over to the Unique Identification Authority of India for issuing a Unique Identification Number.

Children below the age of 15 years would be added to the parents card, the sources said.

The enumeration exercise, involving 2.5 million government employees, will cover all 35 states and Union Territories and the country’s 1.2 billion citizens living in 7,742 towns, 6,08,786 villages and 24 crore households.

Under NPR, government will have comprehensive data of all residents aged 15 years and above. There will be no caste-based enumeration in the census.

Home Minister P Chidambaram had recently asked district magistrates posted along Indo-Bangladesh border to guard against people from across the border trying to enroll their names in NPR.

The creation of a national population register might usher in the era of register-based census in the country and would help have the estimates of population on a real time basis by combining it with the system of registration of births and deaths in the country.
Filed At: Mar 18, 2010 22:30 IST , Edited At: Mar

Banks can use UINs to open rural a/cs

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/banking/finance/banking/Banks-can-use-UINs-to-open-rural-a/cs/articleshow/5704270.cms

Banks can use UINs to open rural a/cs
20 Mar 2010, 0337 hrs IST, ET Bureau

MUMBAI: Banks can use unique identification numbers (UINs) for opening bank accounts in rural India, RBI deputy governor Usha Thorat said on
Friday.

Banks were directed to put in place “know your customer (KYC)” guidelines, which involve a vetting of customer details before lenders
can open accounts for them, in the wake of the US terror attack in 2001. The KYC guidelines require prospective customers to provide, among other things, proof of identity, residence, PAN card, voting card or ration card.

The government set up Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI) last year with the mandate to issue UIDs to all the citizens in the country. The decision to facilitate account opening with UIDs in rural India is in line with RBI’s drive to ensure banking services at affordable costs to the weaker sections of society or the unbanked segment which does not have any access to the formal banking system.

Ms Thorat spoke to the media after concluding a meeting with financial services secretary, R Gopalan, UIAI chairman Nandan Nilekani and CEOs of select banks.

“Linking UID to bank accounts itself can be taken as KYC for rural India,” she said. During the meeting, banks proposed an instalation of micro ATMs in rural India, which would undertake the basic ATM function and thus could be installed at cheaper cost than the general ATM at urban centres.

Mr Gopalan said the government was aware of the costs these initiatives entailed and would decide on how it could assist in meeting them. The government has set aside Rs 10 crore for a financial inclusion technology fund in the Budget.

“There will be cost incurred by banks on financial inclusion and at some point of time we will have to pass on the cost to our customers,” said JM Garg, chairman and managing director of Corporation Bank. Mr Gopalan also said the government would infuse Rs 9,000 crore by March and April 2010 in government-owned banks.

Nitie College triumphs in CNBC’s Lessons in Marketing Excellence initiative

http://www.indiantelevision.com/release/y2k10/mar/marrel45.php

Nitie College triumphs in CNBC’s Lessons in Marketing Excellence initiative

MUMBAI: City based college National Institute of Industrial Engineering (Nitie) from Mumbai beat out the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad to win the Lessons in Marketing Excellence initiative organised by CNBC TV18 and HUL. The initiative which took place over several months gave the opportunity to B Schools to deal with real world issues.

The final challenge was to create a campaign for Unique Identification (UID) that is being spearheaded by Nandan Nilekhani of the Unique Identification Authority of India. Each Indian under the initiative will have a unique number and the two teams had to create a marketing campaign that would reach out to every Indian. Nitie noted that a community based social marketing imitative was the way forward. The thing to bear in mind is that different age groups have their limitations. Adults for instance do not like thumb impressions. So behavioral changing communication is key. Kids can be targeted using posters, stickers and cartoon strips.

For women the message would be that a UID would empower them. They would no longer just be influencers. To reach tribals the students advocated tying up with NGOs and health workers. Slum communication needs to involve the municipal corporations and a top down approach. It is also key to track word of mouth in general to dispel any rumours. The overarching theme of the campaign would be Mera Pehchaan Mera Vimaan. This time won on the basis of several parameters including clarity of thought and measurability of solution.

The judges were Hindustan Unilever executive firector, HPC Opal Vittal, HUL executive director, foods Shrijeet Mishra, . Rama Bijapurkar, an Author and thought leader on Market Strategy and Consumer Issues in India, Ad filmmaker turned director of Paa and Cheeni Kum, R. Balki and CNBC Awaaz editor Sanjay Pugalia.

The theme of the campaign that IIM Ahmedabad proposed was Pehchaan Ek Fayda Anekh. They noted that in rural areas child benefit is high on the list of parents’ priorities. This could be used to push UID. In urban areas one could do several things like celebrity campaigns, celebrity UID days. They also advocated an Each One Preach One initiative. This would involve having a rich person talk to somebody who is poor like a rickshaw driver and inform him of UID and its benefits. Interestingly the team also said that of they just had Rs. 100 to spend they would start with pamphlets.

Nilekhani expressed his appreciation of the effort that went in by both the teams. “We can use these suggestions. The UID will allow for better delivery of services and cerate equal opportunities.” Another expert noted that there was a disconnect between the campaigns presented and the actual reality of those living below the poverty line. Ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar felt that the programmes need to be more proactive. Television and posters may be enough to reach those who are below the poverty line which is around 240 million. Sam Balsara noted the enormity of the task that lies before Nilekhani. Many people are media dark. “It will be a task to reach people not exposed to media. Also the brand name is a key communication point. So UID needs to be re-branded as another name.” It was also suggested that mobile phones could be used as a marketing tool. So one cannot buy a mobile phone or a Sim card unless one has UID.

Microfinance data come handy for UID

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/88306/Business/Microfinance+data+come+handy+for+UID.html

Microfinance data come handy for UID
Mail Today Bureau
Mumbai, March 15, 2010

According to Vijay Mahajan, president, Micro Finance Institutions Network (MFIN), an umbrella organisation of microfinance institutions in India, the network has a database of more than 2.5 crore customers. “We have the records of all the family members also (of their customers). So, with at least four members per family, we have a database of nearly 100 million (10 crore) customers and their family members,” he said.

MFIN has had two meetings with Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Development Authority of India (UIDAI) in Bangalore. “Nilekani had approached us on his own, and we were quite encouraged with the response we got from him,” he said.

Technically, once complete, UIDAI is expected to have a database of 1.2 billion (120 crore) people – equivalent to the population of India. It would include each individual’s name, date of birth, address, family details and finger prints. The project, which will also cover children, is aimed at establishing citizenship, reducing identity-related frauds, addressing security issues and preventing leakages from different government schemes.

In the Union budget for 2010-11, the government has allotted Rs 1,900 crore for the UID project. A number of information technology (IT) firms, both Indian and multinational, including Microsoft, have evinced interest in the project.

Nilekani had recently said the UIDAI would identify target groups for various flagship programmes of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, including the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, National Rural Health Mission and Bharat Nirman for the database.

Meanwhile, the micro finance sector, which has already touched two crore households in India, plans to adopt a selfregulatory code of conduct, which includes fair practices in relation to borrowers, promoting transparency, fixing overall lending limits at the client level and data sharing, among others, Mahajan said.

“MFIN arm Alpha Micro Finance Consultants P Ltd (Alpha) that was set up recently has invested Rs 2 crore to set up a credit bureau to improve credit risk management within the sector. It would keep a strict vigil, prevent multiple borrowing and check excess indebtedness,” he said.

Mahajan added that MFIN will work closely with the government credit bureau CIBIL and High Mark, an institution that provides data on borrowers’ credit history, enabling all members of MFIN to contribute data to these credit bureaux.

“MFIN would also have an enforcement committee, which would investigate and take action against the erring MFIs.

An ombudsman has also been appointed for any appeal against the enforcement committee decision,” he said.

UIDAI will tackle security issues

UIDAI is likely to have a database of 120 crore people. It would have each person’s name, date of birth, address, family details & fingerprints. It is aimed at establishing citizenship, reducing identity-related frauds, tackling security issues & preventing leakages from govt schemes.

We have the records of all the family members also (of their customers). So, with at least four members per family, we have a database of nearly 100 million (10 crore) customers and their family members.

UIDAI gets over 3,000 logo designs, decision by April

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/uidai-gets-over-3000-logo-designs-decision-by-april/88486/on

UIDAI gets over 3,000 logo designs, decision by April
Press Trust of India / New Delhi March 15, 2010, 15:14 IST

The UIDAI, which aims to provide a unique 16-digit number to all residents of the country by next year, has received over 3000 entries from across the country for its logo competition.

Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani-headed Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will select a logo from the lot which will become face of the ambitious project by April.

The logo competition carries a reward of Rs 1 lakh besides Rs 10,000 as consolation prizes.

“It is our constant endeavour to involve as much public as possible in this endeavour. The selection of the logo will take place by April,” a UIDAI official who did not wish to be identified said.

He said the selection of the logo would be based on criteria like whether or not a particular selected work would capture the essence of the mission and purpose of the UIDAI.

The official said it is important that the powerful idea behind the project gets communicated to its recipients in a way that is motivating.

He said the logo will act as a visual shortcut that communicates what the brand stands for.

As part of its public partnership, the UID has also opened up a number of jobs for the general public who wish to be part of the project.

The government has proposed Rs 1,900 crore in budgetary allocation, nearly a 16-fold increase, to the Authority for the period 2010-11.

10 cos shortlisted for Unique ID project

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/03/20/stories/2010032054040100.htm

10 cos shortlisted for Unique ID project

Technical evaluation to follow.

Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee

New Delhi, March 19

Top IT vendors, including Wipro, Infosys, TCS, IBM and Accenture, are among 10 companies that have made it to the initial shortlist of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI’s) software application development project.

Others who have made it in the first cut are Mastek, MindTree, Logica, Siemens and Mahindra Satyam, sources said.

This is the pre-qualification stage and would be followed by technical evaluation, detailed presentations by shortlisted parties in the next few days, and evaluation of the submitted financial bids thereafter.

UID SOFTWARE TENDER

In January, the UIDAI had invited bids and floated the Request for Proposal (RFP) for design, development, testing, integration, support and maintenance of UID application software; the date for the submission of bids was initially fixed for February 24, but was later extended to March 2.

The authority received 19 bids for the applications development project, of which 10 players have now been shortlisted, sources pointed out.

The application software RFP assumes significance not so much in terms of its size – upcoming contracts involving selection of managed service provider, setting up of data centre and disaster recovery sites etc., would be far bigger in the context of India’s Rs 66,200 crore domestic IT market.

FIRST STEP

But, the software tender represents the first concrete step towards creation of IT infrastructure for rolling out the UID project, under which the Centre plans to hand out a unique identification number to every Indian resident over the coming years.

The UID programme, clearly one of India’s most ambitious projects, is being seen as an effective platform for financial inclusion and targeted subsidy payments.

In his Budget speech, the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, said that the authority would be able to meet its commitment for issuing the first set of UID numbers in the coming year.

With the UIDAI now getting into the operational mode, the Union Budget has proposed to allocate Rs 1,900 crore to the authority for year 2010-11. This is against the Rs 120 crore allocated in 2009- 10.Already, significant work has begun.

Last month, the authority selected Ernst & Young as consultant to develop the technological roadmap for the UID project.

In addition, the bids for a manpower services tender floated by the Authority have seen interest from top staffing firms such as Ma Foi, Teamlease and Datacore.

NIIE edges out IIM-A to bag HUL – CNBC-TV18 marketing award news

http://www.domain-b.com/organisation/iim/20100320_marketing_award.html

NIIE edges out IIM-A to bag HUL – CNBC-TV18 marketing award news
20 March 2010

The National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NIIE), Mumbai, won the ‘Lessons in Marketing Excellence’ (LIME) award conducted by Hindustan Unilever and CNBC-TV18 held in Mumbai today, edging out the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

LIME was organised with the objective of providing the nation’s finest management students with a unique platform to try their hands at ‘real’ and ‘live’ marketing problems faced by organisations spanning across different sectors in India.

A group of 12 premier B-Schools across the country attended the meet.

After putting their knowledge and skills on various industry related scenarios, the two finalist teams were given a challenge by the Unique Identification Authority of India, of making India’s unique Identity project a social moment.

The winners were selected by a panel consisting of Gopal Vittal, executive director-HPC, Hindustan Unilever Ltd; Shrijeet Mishra, executive director, Foods, Hindustan Unilever Ltd., Rama Bijapurkar, an author and a thought leader on market strategy and consumer issues in India, R Balki, director of Paa and Cheeni Kum fame, and Sanjay Pugalia, editor, CNBC-AWAAZ.

Speaking at the occasion Anuradha Sengupta, features editor, CNBC-TV18 said, ”the series witnessed the participation of organisations from thirteen industry sectors, ranging from infrastructure, telecom, healthcare, not-for-profit sector and fast moving consumer goods and culminated with Unique Identity Project, making it one of the biggest B-school related initiatives in India.”

The presentations were followed by a high level panel discussion consisting of Nandan Nilekani, chairman, UIDAI, Nitin Paranjpe, CEO, Hindustan Unilever, Kishore Biyani, founder & CEO, Future Group, and Martin Pieters, CEO, Vodafone.

UIDAI gets over 3,000 logo designs, decision by April

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/uidai-gets-over-3000-logo-designs-decision-by-april/88486/on

UIDAI gets over 3,000 logo designs, decision by April
Press Trust of India / New Delhi March 15, 2010, 15:14 IST

The UIDAI, which aims to provide a unique 16-digit number to all residents of the country by next year, has received over 3000 entries from across the country for its logo competition.

Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani-headed Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will select a logo from the lot which will become face of the ambitious project by April.

The logo competition carries a reward of Rs 1 lakh besides Rs 10,000 as consolation prizes.

“It is our constant endeavour to involve as much public as possible in this endeavour. The selection of the logo will take place by April,” a UIDAI official who did not wish to be identified said.

He said the selection of the logo would be based on criteria like whether or not a particular selected work would capture the essence of the mission and purpose of the UIDAI.

The official said it is important that the powerful idea behind the project gets communicated to its recipients in a way that is motivating.

He said the logo will act as a visual shortcut that communicates what the brand stands for.

As part of its public partnership, the UID has also opened up a number of jobs for the general public who wish to be part of the project.

The government has proposed Rs 1,900 crore in budgetary allocation, nearly a 16-fold increase, to the Authority for the period 2010-11.

Sandisk eyes opportunity in UID project

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/software/Sandisk-eyes-opportunity-in-UID-project/articleshow/5678453.cms

Sandisk eyes opportunity in UID project
13 Mar 2010, 0427 hrs IST, Harsimran Julka, ET Bureau

Dr Eli Harari , founder-chairman and CEO of Sandisk, the world’s largest manufacturer of flash memory cards
, becomes a little guarded
UID
What’s the unique ID card? |
Nilekani Album |
Nilekani: Zero wealth to billionaire
when he talks about technologies like cloud computing, which are a threat to storage devices. In a freewheeling chat with ET , Harari talks about the opportunities in India’s Unique ID project , the threat from cloud computing, and the bounce back in the global flash memory business. Excerpts:

Will cloud computing and high-speed broadband disrupt your business model?

There is no way we can find ubiquitous high speed 3G connectivity in any country. And in India, 3G is still in a nascent stage. In our assessment, improved and greater connectivity implies people are going to store more files on their mobile PCs or phones. But I can’t trust a Yahoo or Microsoft with all my data and so, users will prefer to carry their data with them.

Cloud computing does have a disruptive potential. But we feel that Sandisk has an opportunity there. We may provide memory cards that can behave like a ‘cloudlet in your pocket’. The cards can point to all your data residing in a cloud when connected with a wireless service provider.

Cloudlets in a pocket, that’s an interesting concept…

Yes, it is. For instance, we have recently started providing SDC (service delivery cards) in the US. These cards can store links to all your favourite music. When inserted in a phone, they can directly connect with a network and play these songs through a wireless network. The only difference is that you can’t make calls with these cards.

Does that mean Sandisk has a huge capability to disrupt the mobile SIM card market?

We did develop a product in our labs called the Mega SIM. These were essentially SIM cards with huge memory. But we discontinued the research and did not launch them commercially. We did not want to disturb our partners’ (mobile network operators’) ecosystem, who also store their applications
on the mobile SIM card.

What’s Sandisk’s strategy on the unique ID project? Have you talked to the government?

We haven’t. But we have all the technology ready, if India wants to roll out cards along with UID numbers. With a high memory SDC card, one could possibly store all his medical records and personal data. A doctor sitting in some other location can access a person’s medical history wirelessly, in case of an emergency.

What are Sandisk’s India plans in 2010?

We are going to manage all of our IT implementation out of India from this year. We have sub contracted some of the work to Wipro, Satyam and HCL Technologies. We are also doubling up our India R&D headcount from 50 to 100, this year.

Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) To Ensure Responsible Lending

http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/financial-services/2010030945269.htm

Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) To Ensure Responsible Lending

In a proactive move that will go a long way in enhancing responsible lending and institutionalising the process of credit information sharing, 31 NBFC – Microfinance Institutions (NBFC-MFIs), including all the top 10, have come together to set up Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), a self-regulatory organization of NBFC MFIs that aims to work with regulators to promote microfinance to achieve larger financial inclusion goals.

New Delhi, Delhi, March 10, 2010 /India PRwire/ — In a proactive move that will go a long way in enhancing responsible lending and institutionalising the process of credit information sharing, 31 NBFC – Microfinance Institutions (NBFC-MFIs), including all the top 10, have come together to set up Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), a self-regulatory organization of NBFC MFIs that aims to work with regulators to promote microfinance to achieve larger financial inclusion goals.

MFIN members have invested in Alpha Micro Finance Consultants P Ltd (Alpha), which in turn has invested Rs. 2 Crore in setting up a credit bureau which will help improve credit risk management within the sector and ensure multiple borrowing and over indebtedness is checked. Often MFIs have to extend credit to customers with inadequate information on their history of indebtedness. Working with CIBIL and High Mark and enabling all members of MFIN to contribute data to these CBs would allow MFIN members to have a good idea of overall indebtedness of clients and ensure they have repayment capability before extending credit to them.

MFIN has also defined a Code of Conduct which focuses on fair practices with borrowers including promoting transparency, fixing overall lending limits at client level, data sharing, recruitment practices, whistle blowing and enforcement mechanisms. Members have committed to communicate interest rates on reducing balance method and other charges clearly to members while following fair recovery mechanisms. A whistle blower policy allows violation of Code by any member to be reported to the Enforcement Committee which would investigate and take action against the erring MFI. An Ombudsman is also being appointed for any appeal against the Enforcement Committee decisions and the final action in case of continued violation of the code would be cessation of membership of MFIN for such erring member

Alpha would seek to be appointed as one of the Registrars by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and the members would help complete 100 million registrations under the Government of India programme through identification of its clients and their family members.

Speaking on the occasion, Vijay Mahajan, President, MFIN and Chairman of Basix said “MFIN is the response of NBFC MFIs in the country to concerns of over borrowing by clients and unregulated credit practices in microfinance sector. This level of unity and commitment to client protection is unique and has not been seen in any other sector in India. MFIN members now collectively represent almost 80% of the entire microfinance sector in the country. We are confident that a co-ordinated and united approach from the members of MFIN would enable us to support the Government’s initiative of taking forward on a significant manner the process of financial inclusion to the masses in a transparent and sustainable basis.”

MFIN is supported by Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. Omidyar Network is funding the project to support MFIN in its above efforts. IFC is providing advisory services and technical consultancy to Alpha in its effort to get the credit bureau services being made available to the MFI sector.

The Board of MFIN consists of Vijay Mahajan (Chairman, Basix) as Chairman, along with Suresh Gurumani (CEO, SKS Microfinance), Chandrasekar Ghosh (CEO, Bandhan), Rekam Jayasurya (CEO, Asmitha), Shubhankar Sen Gupta (CEO, Arohan) , Ajay Verma (MD & CEO , Sahayata Microfinance), H P Singh (CMD, Satin Creditcare Network), Samit Ghosh (CEO, Ujjivan) and P.N.Vasudevan (MD, Equitas Microfinance) as Directors.

4G ID to provide biometric devices to UIDAI

http://www.cxotoday.com/News/Government/Business_Applications/4G_ID_to_provide_biometric_devices_to_UIDAI/551-109816-20920.html

4G ID to provide biometric devices to UIDAI

# By CXOtoday Staff, Mar 10, 2010 1713 hrs IST
# Tags : UIDAI, 4G ID, 4G, Biometrics,

4G Identity Solutions (4G ID) has won two bids to provide both fingerprint and iris recognition devices to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as it undertakes building the world’s largest national registry. These devices will be used in the Proof of Concept (PoC) tests and the data collected in the PoC will be used in the UIDAI’s biometrics Center of Competence.

A key requirement of the Unique ID system is to eliminate duplicate identities in order to improve the efficacy of service delivery under numerous federal and state programs. UIDAI has chosen to capture iris, fingerprint and facial biometric features as the primary mechanisms for ensuring uniqueness.

Dr. Sreeni Tripuraneni, CEO, 4G ID, said “The size, diversity and nature of India’s population, and adverse field conditions each add unique challenges to achieving uniqueness through biometric features. We at 4G ID know this because of our substantial experience in large-scale biometrics in India. 4G ID is pleased to be able to offer the expertise it has gained in building the world’s largest biometric ID databases in India.

India cannot leverage other countries’ experiences in designing the UIDAI’s biometrics systems and processes. Those experiences simply do not exist in terms of scale, diversity, and environmental conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to test devices and enrolment processes in various Indian environments.

Select home loan provider with care

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/personal-finance/loan-centre/home-loans/analysis/Select-home-loan-provider-with-care/articleshow/5635276.cms

Select home loan provider with care
3 Mar 2010, 0227 hrs IST, Apurv Gupta and Gayatri Nayak, ET Bureau

Imagine a situation where you have identified a house you like to buy. You walk into a bank, provide some identification and the front-office
executive offers you a special discounted rate based on your credit score
thrown up by the bank’s computer. Not just that, the bank also feeds in details of the property that you wish to buy and tells you whether the seller has a loan outstanding against it or not.

A combination of events are taking place that will propel growth in retail loans to the level of developed markets by reducing bad loans and improved accuracy in pricing. At one end, a host of new credit information companies (CICs) are coming up to provide banks with a comprehensive database of borrowers’ track record.

At the other end, the government is promoting institutions like the Central Mortgage Registry, which will ensure that no two borrowers in the country will be able to raise institutional loans against the same asset. Helping link the borrowers to their credit histories will be the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) with its social security-like number, which has received a government support of Rs 1,900 crore in the recent Budget.

Last week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gave operating licence to Experian Credit Information Company, which plans to roll out its products over the next few months. Experian is the first credit information company to receive operating licence after the Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act was passed in May 2005.

Earlier in 2009 the central bank had given in-principle approvals to two companies — Equifax Credit Information Services and High Mark Credit Information Services. Both are expected to get full-fledged operational licences before the end of FY10.

The competition in this nascent sector is set to hot up as the new entrants enter the fray till now monopolised by Credit Information Bureau of India (Cibil), which came into existence bore the CIC Act was passed.

CICs maintain a centralised database on borrowers and rate their creditworthiness based on the information on their existing liabilities and past repayment record. The scoring is based on the analysis of the information provided by banks, which have already extended credit facilities to the borrowers. If a borrower goes to multiple lenders, then new lenders will benefit from these scores while making a lending decision and pricing the loan appropriately.

The success of the model is based on information sharing between members — NBFCs and banks. While Cibil enjoys a patronage of 200 credit grantors as members and has a database of about 1.5 million credit accounts, Experian has already obtained commitments from 39 lenders, even before starting full operations. Though the CIC Act has similar provisions for telecom and insurance companies, these are yet to take off commercially.

Each player has his own strategy to tackle competition. Cibil, which set shop in 2004, is aware of the challenges that it will face as more companies enter the market. “We welcome competition as it would eventually boost credit penetration in the country and bring financial discipline among individuals. We will continue to make investments in information technology infrastructure and offer innovative risk management products to the banking industry,” says Arun Thukral, managing director of Cibil.

“We have to differentiate our offering from that of Cibil. We understand the market and products better as we are twice the size of our nearest competitor globally,” says Phil Nolan, managing director of Experian Credit Information Company of India. Experian plans to outsource all its data processing work to its data centre in the UK, which it says is cost-effective. This UK-headquartered, $3.9-billion CIC has presence in 69 countries.

The US-headquartered Equifax, which too has a sizeable global presence, is expected to set up shop soon here. “Globally, Equifax has over 800 different products in its bouquet. Over the medium term, we plan to introduce some of the most relevant products in the Indian market,” says Equifax India head Samir Bhatia.

“Our foremost priority will be to offer our clients products such as credit information reports, scores and analytics services. We will also focus on identity and collection management areas. We are also investing to bring in high-end technology to enable our customers superior and easy access,” he adds.

The reason why none of the companies are particularly perturbed by competition is the size of the market. As of now, data is available only for 15 lakh borrowal accounts, that too mainly from large cities. But CICs are talking of covering Tier-I and Tier-II cities. Some, like Experian, are also in talks with micro-finance companies in order to enter the rural market.

As for banks, such reports will help them arrive at a more realistic lending decision which, in turn, will help them in reducing their non-performing assets (NPAs). However, this comfort comes with a cost. Every report obtained from a CIC attracts a fee. For lenders to refer to more than one credit information agency, it is incumbent upon the agencies to reduce their fees for such credit reports.

According to MD Mallya, chairman and managing director of Bank of Baroda, which holds stake in two credit information companies, “Competition will bring down the cost of accessing such reports. It will help us take quicker decisions based on qualitatively better data.”

Eventually, it will be the accuracy of the credit report, besides pricing, based on the information provided by banks that will hold the key. The competition may force CICs to ensure this. Cross-checking the customer’s data from two different bureaus may put more confidence in the minds of the appraising officials about the true state of affairs of the applicants’ current borrowing record.