UNIQUE ID CARDS - WHO WILL BENEFIT? 
More than the project, it is the man behind the project who is making bigger news. And that is very good as it brings the focus onto the project itself, making us all wonder about what really the project is all about; is it so important that it requires one of the top most IT honchos to drive it?
Nanadan Nilekani leaving Infosys to head the ambitious Unique ID project left everyone dazed. After worrying for a mere second about how Infosys would cope without Nilekani, the market looked at the brighter side – the project is so big, meaning so many IT companies would benefit and most of the IT stocks surged upwards. Some investors were naïve enough to think that Infosys, thanks to Nilekani leading the show would benefit the most. Now that is something which will not happen. Infosys would have to bid like the rest of the companies and it is based on the previous track record and credibility that Infosys, like all the others would stand to gain or lose.
The underlying question in everyone’s mind – what exactly is this Rs.1,50,000 crore Unique Identification Card (UID) project? The Govt is proposing something very similar to what the USA has – the social security card. The aim of the project is to get personal data of each and every citizen of India on a smart card. Personal data would not include sordid stories of one’s past but basic info like name, address, marital status, photo, id mark, biometrics. And it is not like any and every person can view this data, this massive data bank to be developed using application called SCOSTA would be accessible to only authorized persons. Like the social security number, this will have a National Identity Number, which will be unique to the individual.
And what is the purpose of this ID card? Right now, for any transaction – from opening a bank account to getting a passport, we need to show either our ration card or voters ID card. So this smart card is expected to replace these proofs of identification. More importantly, it is expected to deter illegal immigration and curb terrorism, That’s a noble thought but a few questions which come to mind – how do you get over one billion people under this scheme?; there are counterfeit PAN cards abound and making phoney ration cards is a racket on its own – so how will the Govt ensure that this does not happen in UID cards? And unless these UID cards are made compulsory, this idea will be a non-starter. Well, the good news on this front is that in Jan 09’, the apex court has 'suggested' that national identity card should be made mandatory for all citizens.
And why do we call it an extremely ambitious project? Apart from the huge cost involved, the kind of work it involves is mind boggling. For the ID card, the first step is itself daunting – making a complete computerized record of all citizens above the age of 18. This means, we need to have a fresh census in place and the Registrar General of India (RGI) which does the census needs to be fully computerized, meaning every record of birth and death in the country would have to appear on the computer.
Now the moot question – which are the companies expected to benefit the most? Undoubtedly, the first preference would be given to PSUs, especially the data handling and card production part of the project. Bharat Electronics had worked on a pilot project under which it collected information from about 12 lakh people, transferred it on to individual chips, and created ID cards for each of those people. So BEL stands a fair chance. The National Securities Depository (NSDL) is expected to get a share of the pie as it has a track record of implementing several government cards like PAN card, the MAPIN and the National Skill which again is based on bio-metrics. Interestingly, NSDL got these cards implemented through TCS which designed the software.
Infact CMC, which is a subsidiary of TCS earns 29% of its revenues from government business. TCS recently bagged the Passport Seva deal from the Govt. Actually, CMC is the one big company which has the relevant experience and expertise of dealing with such huge projects. And its stands a huge chance.
Wipro is also hopeful as in March 09’ it bagged a contract worth Rs 1,182 crore for a period of 6.5 years from the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).
HCL Technologies won a seven-year, Rs 393-crore project from the National Insurance Company to roll out a new IT application.
Infosys has recently bid for a railway project related to creating a Locomotive Management System and ERP implementation, a project to create a billing system for BSNL and for another contract from the defence forces. Compared to the other biggies, it is slightly on a weaker wicket when it comes to implemenation of e-governance projects in India.
Apart from the bigwigs, small and mid cap companies are also attracting some attention. Vakrangee is a well known player in e-governance and has handled manuscriptts of around 75,000 polling booths of Maharashtra and the voters’ database of the village panchayats in Uttar Pradesh.
There is high expectation around Hyderabad based Bartronics. It is a leading provider of smart card-based technology as well as radio frequency identification solutions. It recently bagged an order from the Singapore Govt for supply of radio frequency identification tags.
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