NIC RAISES CONCERN OVER PRIVACY OF UIDAI DATABASE
New
Business Standard
The National Informatics Centre has raised concerns over privacy and security of proposed database of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), headed by Infosys founder Nandan Nilekani.
The newly established UIDAI would be hosting information of all residents of the country on a private data centre, which NIC believes raises concern about privacy and security, official sources said.
In a letter dated November 6, accessed by PTI, NIC writes, “It has been proposed to hire the data centre services for PoC (proof-of-concept) and prototype on rental basis. It is presumed that the data related to UID will be hosted in a government Data Centre. If not, the issues related to privacy and security with respect to UID data may require to be taken into consideration.”
UIDAI replied that hosting the data on a private network “does not necessarily lead to violation of privacy and security”.
“There will be appropriate SLAs (Service Legal Agreements — both legal and technological) to ensure that the data is protected. It is to be mentioned that a number of sensitive database (Income Tax and PFRDA, to name two of them,) which ensure security and privacy, though they are not necessarily housed in the ‘government’ Data Centre,” the Authority replied.
It said UIDAI approach envisaged 24 Technical posts (Director Technical, Principal Systems Analyst and Senior Systems Analyst). “This will ensure adequate technical capacity to ensure both security and privacy concerns,” it said.
GOVT READIES FOR KNOWLEDGE NETWORK ROLL-OUT
Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee,
The Hindu Business Line
The Ministry of Communications and IT has circulated a Cabinet note for the final phase of the National Knowledge Network, which seeks to connect research and academic institutions in the country over a high-speed multi gigabit network.
The outlay proposed for the final phase of the mega-project – expected to encourage collaborative research among institutions – is estimated at Rs 6,000 crore over 10 years.
The pilot phase of the National Knowledge Network was inaugurated by the President, Pratibha Patil, in April. In the initial phase, it will connect around 45 institutions.
UID NUMBER TO BE ISSUED ON VOLUNTARY BASIS
Ajith Athrady,
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will allot the much-awaited unique identity number to citizens on a voluntary basis.
The citizen who seeks the number should register with the local registrars. Subsequently, it will be allotted to others to ensure every citizen of the country gets the number.
The UIDAI, headed by IT czar Nandan Nilekani, is taking all efforts to avoid duplication in allotting the numbers, sources in the authority said.
To avoid duplication of numbers, registrars will send the applicants’ data to the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) for de-duplication. The CIDR will perform a search on biometrics for each new enrolment.
The UIDAI has set up two committees named “data standards and verification committee” and “biometric committee”. The first will look into issues such as demographic details, which will be collected at the time of enrolment, and the process of verification in order to ensure the correctness of data. The other committee will look into the type and specifications of the biometric details of the resident, which will be collected at the time of enrolment so as to ensure uniqueness.
Meanwhile, the UIDAI is planning to rope in volunteers, including NGOs, to ensure that the poor and deprived people get priority under the project. The NGOs will be helping the authority in areas such as technology development, awareness creation and enrolment. As the unique number can be accessed and verified online from anywhere in the country, the authority will also frame a code of conduct that the volunteers need to follow, which include no conflict of interest, sources said.
RAJASTHAN TO SPEND RS 2000-CR UNDER R-APDRP
Jaipur, December 14, 2009
The Economic Times
Rajasthan government is set to roll out centre-funded Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (R-APDRP) in 87 cities across the state under the 11th Five-Year Plan.
Under this scheme, Rs 2000 crore would be spent over three years for facilitating reduction of AT&C losses to a never-before level of 15 per cent through strengthening and up-gradation of Sub-Transmission and Distribution network.
The government-run power companies - Jaipur Discom, Ajmer Discom and Jodhpur Discom – has already appointed Infosys as their consultant for speedy implementation of the programme. The chairman of national committee on R-APDRP and Jaipur Discom CMD R G Gupta told ET that the IT consultant would have to handhold and guide the power utilities from concept-to-commissioning for facilitating this programme.
“IT work will involve setting up data centres, disaster recovery back-ups, GIS mapping, and entail applications for reading meters, billing and collection, energy accounting and auditing and consumer grievance redressal,” he said.
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