India is undertaking an ambitious plan to provide identification cards to all its citizens to tackle poverty and fight terrorism. Given India's population, the ID plan will be one of the world's biggest IT projects
The plan, which is being called "humongous" and "mind-boggling" by even those closely involved, aims to give each of India's 1.16 billion people a biometric ID card - this in a country where many rural and poor people have no documentation whatsoever to prove their identities.
But government officials say within three years, Indian citizens will each carry a plastic card with a computer chip containing personal data and proof of identity, such as a fingerprint or iris scan.
Others say four or more years is more realistic, but most agree that the ID could improve the lives of many, especially India's disadvantaged, by cutting down on the fraud that often steers cash meant for the poor and rural communities into the pockets of corrupt officials.
"Then every individual, like in any developed country, becomes part of a national registry and the data is available to authorities whether he goes to apply for a job or apply for subsidized food assistance," said Naimur Rahman, director of One World, a Delhi-based NGO that works on rural and poverty issues.
The issue of identification in India is a tangled one. There are some 20 forms of ID, ranging from food ration cards to birth certificates to tax documents, and not every ID is accepted by every office or agency.
To untangle it all, the new ID would be accepted everywhere.