Having accepted the daunting task of heading the UPA governments ambitious Unique Identification Authority (UIDAI) project,its chairperson Nandan Nilekani is keen to begin his new assignment. He is likely to formally begin it on Thursday. Nilekani,a renowned corporate stalwart,has already held formal deliberations with the Planning Commission top brass including its deputy chairman,Montek Singh Ahluwalia,recently to ascertain the progress made so far and the way forward on the crucial task entrusted to him by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. We have given a formal presentation to him (Nilekani) on the progress made so far in the UID project," a senior official of the plan panel said. The commission is understood to have briefed Nilekani on favouring establishing links between UID and the National Population Registry (NPR) databases,gathering photographs and fingerprint biometrics with the NPR schedule and thereafter incorporating them to integrate the UID database for various user organisations. ENS
