SBT to launch enrolment process soon

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
17 Dec 2010

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The hopes of the State IT sector to reap the benefits of the enrolment to Unique Identification (UID) project will receive a jolt, as the State Bank of Travancore (SBT) is gearing up to launch the enrolment process soon.
SBT, which has recently inked an agreement with the UID Authority of India, will soon launch the enrolment process for the UID project, whereas the plans of the State IT Department to carry out the enrolment through the Akshaya Centres, IT@School and Keltron is still held up owing to the Free and Open Sources Software (FOSS) policy of the the Left Government in the State.
Though the State IT Department had entered into an agreement with the UID Authority much in advance, it had been caught up in a controversy over the use of propriety software based enrolment application. The State had rejected a Windowsbased enrolment application provided by the UID Authority citing that it was against the Free and Open Sources Software (FOSS) policy of the Left Government in the State. A request of the State IT Department to the UID Authority to provide an enrolment application compatible with FOSS is yet to get any reply.
SBT will, however, be able to launch the project without any hindrance as the FOSS is not applicable to them.
SBT Chief Manager, Financial Inclusion, V Anil Kumar, said that request for quotation would be floated soon to invite bids from the agencies willing to take up the enrolment work. The UID Authority had empanelled around 200 institutions across the country as enrolment agencies.
"Initially we plan to restrict the enrolment process within Kerala. But it may be expanded beyond the State at a later stage. While the enrolment agency will carry out the enrolment process, the bank will give adequate publicity," Anil Kumar told Express.
The State IT Department was hoping to earn a considerable revenue, especially for the Akshaya Centres, from the UID enrolment process as the UID Authority will pay around Rs 50 per person enrolled. The move of SBT to launch the enrolment will shatter these hopes.
The UID project, popularly known as 'Aadhaar,' aims at providing a unique identification number to each citizen of the country. Besides the basic demographic details, the biometric identification marks of fingers and iris of each individual, are also being collected for the UID project.