FOR UNIQUE ID, PHOTO NO ALTERNATIVE TO FINGERPRINT
Subrahmanyan Viswanath,
If you are expecting to see your photograph on the Unique Identity card, whenever it is issued to you, forget it. For, the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) committee on biometrics believes fingerprints would better serve as biometrics data than facial recognition systems.
The UIDAI’s perception stems from its belief that while photographs may visually testify who you are, they will not reveal your true identity because, in this day and time of digital morphing, you may not be who you say you are.
The ten-member committee, chaired by Registrar General of India (RGI) C Chandramauli, has observed in its report, accessed by Deccan Herald, that a fingerprints-based biometric system shall be the core of UIDAI’s de-duplication efforts.
Arguing that while face is the most commonly captured biometric and frequently used in manual checking, the committee has noted that stand-alone automatic facial recognition does not provide high levels of accuracy.
Therefore, fingerprinting will be at the core of vetting duplications as UIDAI goes about its task of providing unique IDs to
According to the committee’s submission, despite the agencies involved in the exercise were different and disparate, quality of fingerprint obtained were as good as seen in developed countries providing for 99 percent accuracy in de-duplication. Nearly all images were from rural regions and were collected by different agencies using different capture devices and through different operational processes.
Besides fingerprints, the panel notes that demographic data is also used for improving de-duplication processes.
The committee, which has recommended that ISO 19794 series of biometrics standards for fingerprints, face and iris set by International Standards Organisation as being most suitable, has said that besides photograph, ten fingerprints of the person being enumerated must be obtained for enrolment.
MEET ON E-GOVERNANCE
Jaipur, January 25, 2010
The Hindu
The Rajasthan Government’s Information Technology Department will organise the 13th national e-governance conference in collaboration with the Union Government’s Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances Department here on February 18 and 19.
State Additional Chief Secretary S. Ahmed, addressing a preparatory meeting for the conference here over the week-end, said the two-day event would promote good governance while ensuring a qualitative improvement in the delivery of services to the people at large.
IT Secretary Tanmay Kumar said the conference would provide a useful platform for exchange of views among the policy-makers, academicians, entrepreneurs and industrialists.
According to an official release here, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his Cabinet colleagues and senior officers from the Centre as well as different States would be among the 800 participants expected to turn up in the conference.
SOON, AN E-COURT IN KARKARDOOMA
Abhinav Garg,
The Times of
After the Delhi High Court, Karkardoom court complex in the capital is all set to become the first lower court in the country to get an e-court.
Sources said that Karkardooma courts will be e-court enabled very soon — perhaps as early as next week — with Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Garg likely to become the first judge to preside over a paperless court
The high court has two functioning e-courts, presided by Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice Muralidhar respectively. While the high court’s experience with the facility has been one of trial and error, both for judges as well as for lawyers, it will be interesting to see how succesful the concept of e-court turns out to be in a sessions court, where the foundation of a trial is laid.
According to highly placed sources in the high court, trials are already on to launch the phase-II of the ambitious e-court project, led by the high court. ‘‘Training is already being given to the staff of lower courts, including those of Karkardooma, so that they become adept at handling a paperless environment,’’ said a high court official who is closely associated with the project.
In order to overcome a technical glitch which leads to the e-court server taking a long time to load legal files, the high court administration also has plans to lay down a separate Local Area Network (LAN) line for the lower courts to make processing of files in the computer a lot swifter and smoother.
